Google Maps API and Geolocation tools

[woolyg]

Hi all,

I'm currently developing a charity website (if anyone would like to lend a hand, please contact me!) and I'd like to work in some functionality as follows:

 

A user expresses gratitude to another person, and sends them a virtual coin. The sender's IP address is saved to the DB. When the recipient picks up the coin from the site, their IP is saved also. Basically we're tracking where on the planet this coin travels, as it passes between users. (Everything prior to this point is fine & working OK).

 

I'd like to set up a google maps thingy where we can visually see a coin's course, from the list of the IP addresses it has been to previously, up to this point - it would add a definite interactivity to the site that we're looking for. Something like What Travelpod does with plotting the location of their users:

 

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broony79/1/1220297280/tpod.html

(this isn't my entry, it's a random one I've picked out )

 

Has anyone here used Google Maps to work out a series of locations from IP addresses? Can anybody point me to any resources?

 

Thanks all,

WoolyG

[xtopolis]

I don't know about using GoogleMaps for IPs, but you could use a GeoLocation database to determine the area yourself, and then supply the location name to google.

 

Some info

http://us.php.net/manual/en/book.geoip.php

 

I don't have much experience with this specifically, but I think I saw another thread on this on this forum.  Try search this forum for more info.