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
PseudoCode
User navigates to eMarketBrasil.com
CASES
1- no location data anywhere
2- IP location in database
3- Permanent location Cookies on computer
4- in IP-location database AND has permanent location cookies
CASE-1=no 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=Permanent location Cookies on computer
- 3.1-user logs in
- 3.2-user selects location
CASE-4=in IP-location database AND has permanent location cookies
- 4.1-user logs in
- 4.2-user selects location