How do I get hold of a copy of the component?

The release is now available for download in the 'Download' directory.  Registered users can see its usage by following the link 'Hacking and Spamming attempts' on the left hand side menu.

Does it work with Joomla 3.0?

Not currently. We will look into releasing a version for Joomla 3.0 when we have determined the viability and popularity of the component.

Where is the documentation?

The full product documentation is available in PDF format at this web link. It covers all releases.

I have installed and configured the component and modules and can see the map, but none of the IP Address markers are shown?

There are a few possible causes of this, but the most common is that the site is configured to use an .htaccess file which is preventing access to the mapping function, which generates the map markers.  If you are using a '.htaccess' file then you need to add the following to the file:

RewriteRule ^modules\/mod_ipmapping_mapper\/map_data\.php$ - [L]

It is reported (although not verified by us) that a second possible cause is the settings upon the map_data.php file.

Changing the permissions upon the file map_data.php in the directory "modules/mod_ipmapping_mapper/" to 755 is reported to solve the problem.

i.e.

cd modules/mod_ipmapping_mapper

chmod 755 map_data.php

This is not something we specifically recommend doing.

How many maps can I generate on a page.

The component module that generates the maps is written such that each map is generated uniquely. This means that theoretically there is an unlimited number of maps that can be displayed upon a page. In practise however each map does take a certain amount to generate so having a large number of maps on a page will make the page creation a little slow. This may be improved by only generating the maps periodically and implementing caching etc.

How accurate are the determined geographic locations?

The geographic locations are determined from the IPInfoDB itself, so are as accurate as those contained within the database. People are encouraged to update the database by submitting corrections for any inaccuracies that they may find on the IpinfoDB site.

We have seen instances where the IPInfoDB does not return any information for some IP addresses. To try to resolve these we perform a second lookup using the Geobytes service. This service permits up to 20 lookups per hour for non-registered users, hence is only used as a backup. We may implement a registration mechanism for Geobytes if there is a demand.

Synchronising with the Akeeba log table takes a long time?

Depending upon the number of entries in the Akeeba Admin log table, it may take some time for the geolocation data to be populated. It is difficult to be very specific as to how long it will take since it depends upon the load upon the IP Info DB system as to how quickly it can respond. If you do cancel out of the update, you can rerun the sync process later and it will pick up from where it was stopped.

Do the modules use cookies?

The visitors agent module does not use cookies, although it has been considered, so that it would limit the lookups of the geolocation data for the IP address of the visitor. It deemed to be a problem later this may be implemented but there are no current plans to do so.

Are other languages supported?

Currently only the English language is supported, however the plug-in has been written specifically to be able support other languages. We welcome any submitted language translations that users might like to contribute. These would then be made available to the whole community.

end faq