GeoIP was a fun little Joomla plugin I put together at RicheyWeb to make my System - EU e-Privacy Directive plugin a bit cleverer. That plugin deals with those EU cookie consent pop-ups nobody likes, and GeoIP’s gig was to spot EU visitors by their IP, so only they’d see the prompt—non-EU users got to skip the nuisance. It was a tidy way to handle EU rules without bugging everyone else. When the IP dataset GeoIP used went away, it was annoying, like losing a favorite screwdriver. System - EU e-Privacy Directive’s latest release couldn’t tell who was in the EU anymore, and that meant dropping a feature I hated to lose—no developer wants to go backward. I’ve been working on a super-wham-o-dyne GeoIP update to fix that, with a new 2.3MB compressed dataset I’ll update daily on Google Drive. The plugin’s not out yet, but I’m thrilled to share a preview of what’s in store.
GeoIP’s Trick
The EU e-Privacy Directive and GDPR say EU users need cookie consent prompts—okay, but why pester folks outside the EU? System - EU e-Privacy Directive managed those pop-ups, and GeoIP made it smart by checking IPs to pick out EU visitors. Only they got the prompt; non-EU users cruised by, no pop-ups, no hassle. It was a fun fix to keep sites compliant and user-friendly. Losing the dataset was a drag—GeoIP stopped working, and System - EU e-Privacy Directive lost its EU-only smarts, which bugged me more than it should’ve.
The Update
I rebuilt GeoIP’s dataset from IANA and other registries, squeezing it into a 2.3MB 1.8MB 1.5MB compressed file—14MB 13MB 8.9MB uncompressed—that I’ll update daily to keep it fresh. I’m not sharing the compiler; if everyone swamped the registries, they could go private, and we’d all be out of luck. I’m probably hosting it on Google Drive, where the 750GB daily limit means something like 600,000 daily downloads before I’d need to worry—if we hit that, I’ll figure out another way to save bandwidth. I've been experimenting with the compiler and I have it very well dialed in now - taking only 25 seconds to run and producing a very small compressed update file - and only producing it when there are changes published by the registries.
The GeoIP plugin’s still cooking—I’m making it run clean, like my System - AdminExile—but it’s nearly done. It’ll plug back into System - EU e-Privacy Directive, bringing back EU visitor detection so only EU users see those cookie prompts. It’ll be free, built to last, and ready to restore the feature I didn’t want to lose.
Why It’s Worth It
I hate cutting features—System - EU e-Privacy Directive was better with GeoIP’s EU-only prompts. This update, with daily 2.3MB datasets, lets your Joomla site stay compliant without annoying non-EU users. It’s a small, satisfying tweak that makes things right, and I’m having a good time putting it together. I'm also looking at integrating it with System - AdminExile for additional black and whitelist options.
Coming Soon
GeoIP’s update is almost here, ready to make System - EU e-Privacy Directive sharp again. Watch RicheyWeb—I’ll let you know when it drops. For now, this is your sneak peek at what’s coming.
What's Coming?
- System Plugin: This carries the API that allows you to interface with other extensions.
- Done
- AJAX Plugin (optional): Allows you to interface with extensions in another way.
- In Progress
- Console Plugin: Provides updates via cron job, and a CLI query method.
- Done
- RicheyWeb Update Files: Automated daily retrieval from registries, compilation, versioning, and validation.
- Done
