Developers

[Manvendra]

I need to build a feature in my app, where i need to show some content based on zip-code. Is there any way to find user location and ultimately find zip code?

[chaklasiyanikun]

I don't know if there is a inbuilt way. But, you can use external API. you can find zip code by Passing a IP Address. This is not a good way. Currently, Roku not Blocking any External API may be in Future like IOS. I hope this is helpful

[Manvendra]

@chaklasiyanikun Thanks for the reply. This is the same i have tried, but results are not very accurate with ip address.

[chaklasiyanikun]

@Manvendra It depends on API. I tried many API. and Found There is not a single one that gives an accurate result. But, I suggest one API which is better than all other. I'm not sure this is giving accurate result. But better than other API. I hope this is helpful.

[Manvendra]

@chaklasiyanikun Thanks. I will look into it.

[norcaljohnny]

This is very doable but as you and another user said, you need an external api and more importantly, one that is reliable in accuracy.

I can only recommend one api that has been flawless in which I use for weather features on the Roku and web apps.

You can see a demo with the response on page load and get a free api at https://ipstack.com/

Now we add a little bit of. code.

deviceInfo = CreateObject("roDeviceInfo")
ip = deviceInfo.GetExternalIp()
url = "http://api.ipstack.com/" + ip + "?access_key=yourIpStacksApiKey"

m.locationData = createObject("roSGNode", "locationDataReader")
m.locationData.contenturi = url
m.locationData.observeField("content", "locationDataResponse")
m.locationData.control = "RUN"

Create a task

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8" ?>
<component name = "locationDataReader" extends = "Task" >

  <interface>
    <field id = "contenturi" type = "uri" />
    <field id = "content" type = "node" />
  </interface>

  <script type = "text/brightscript" >

    <![CDATA[

     sub init()
       m.top.functionName = "getContent"
     end sub

' **********************************************

    sub getContent()
      apiurl = m.top.url
      m.port = CreateObject ("roMessagePort")
      dataRequest = CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")
      dataRequest.setURL(apiurl)
      dataRequest.EnableEncodings(true)
      https = "https:"
      if LCase(Left(apiurl, Len(https))) = https
        dataRequest.SetCertificatesFile ("common:/certs/ca-bundle.crt")
        'dataRequest.AddHeader ("X-Roku-Reserved-Dev-Id", "")
        dataRequest.InitClientCertificates ()
      end if
      response = dataRequest.getToString()
      'the data will returned as json and you can decide to parse or use regex to get the zipcode
      zipRegex = CreateObject ("roRegex", "zip.:.(\d+).,.latitude", "")
      
      if zipRegex.isMatch(response)
        zipcode = zipRegex.Match(response)
        'if the regex returned data 
        print zipcode
      end if
      'print the whole json response
      print response
    end sub
    ]]>

  </script>

</component>

[Manvendra]

@norcaljohnny Thank you so much. I will try this for sure.