Automatic-User-location

User Behavior Assumptions

• User selects LOCATION=STATE,CITY pair when registering

• If UNLOGGED-IN-USER selects LOCATION use this as computer LOCATION and save as PERMANENT-LOCATION-COOKIE

• If a user registers and there are no PERMANENT-LOCATION-COOKIES then set the PERMANENT-LOCATION-COOKIE as what he registered with.

• If the user logs in use the computer PERMANENT-LOCATION-COOKIE as the LOCATION.

HardWare Assumptions

• IP addresses are relatively fixed locations
• Users are mobile but reside in mostly one STATE,CITY,LAT,LONG vector
• Computers/Laptops can change locations: viewing MAC address would be helpful

Proposed-Features

• IP ADDRESS versus geolocation database
• DB-RECORD = [ IP-ADDRESS,USER, STATE , CITY , LATITUDE, LONGITUDE ]

• A GEO-LOCATION database will have a probabalistic distribution. Detection of highest percentile is more complication.
• The metric to use is the one that is most useful to the user.
• This may or may not be exactly where their home town is.

Design Conclusions

• Put a very visible location interface on the front page to engage user participation and usage
• GEOLOCATION database should start of simply with only 1 entry per IP address. This will allow portability of user entered data from one computer to another for instance in a LAN house or home network.
• location cookies should be user_location and computer_location
• SEARCH RADIUS cookie should be permanent: If not set then use 20,000km otherwise use persistant setting

PseudoCode - With IP Address GeoLocation DataBase

User navigates to eMarketBrasil.com

terminology here should be updated to match the simpler case below when ready to implement

CASES
1- no COMPUTER-LOCATION data anywhere
2- IP location in database
3- COMPUTER-LOCATION location Cookies on computer
4- in IP-location database AND has COMPUTER cookies

CASE-1=no COMPUTER-LOCATION data anywhere

• 1.1-user logs in
• 1.2-user selects locations

CASE-2=IP location in database

• 2.1-user logs in
• 2.2-user selects location
• 2.3-location in the database

CASE-3=COMPUTER-LOCATION location Cookies on computer

• 3.1-user logs in
• 3.2-user selects location

CASE-4=in IP-location database AND has COMPUTER cookies

• 4.1-user logs in
• 4.2-user selects location

PseudoCode - No GeoLocation DataBase

User navigates to eMarketBrasil.com

CASES-numbered to match the more complete IP location database method above
1- no COMPUTER-LOCATION data anywhere
3- COMPUTER-LOCATION Cookies on computer

CASE-1=no COMPUTER-LOCATION data anywhere

• 1.1-user logs in : Set the COMPUTER-LOCATION permanent cookies to the same value as the users registration location
• 1.2-user selects locations : Override the COMPUTER-LOCATION cookies with this location setting : Display and use setting for the distance search

CASE-3=COMPUTER-LOCATION Cookies on computer

• 3.1-user logs in : COMPUTER-LOCATION cookies unchanged
• 3.2-user selects location : Override the COMPUTER-LOCATION cookies with this location setting

SUMMARY: If there are COMPUTER-LOCATION cookies on the computer then modify only when the user accesses the location menu. If there are no COMPUTER-LOCATION cookies on the computer then use the user registered location to set the cookies upon first login