Automation Action – GeoIP Lookup | ThinkAutomation

Automation Action: GeoIP Lookup

Perform a geolocation (GeoIP) lookup for any IP address, URL, domain name or email address. Assign the Country, Region and City information to variables.

This action forms part of ThinkAutomation’s broader workflow automation software, enabling automated workflows to identify the geographic location associated with IP addresses, domains, URLs and email addresses for localisation, validation, risk analysis and location-based processing.The GeoIP lookup automation action can be used to perform a geolocation (geo-ip) lookup for any IP address, domain name, email address or URL. The lookup returns the Country name, Country code, City, Region & Organization name for any IP address. The values returned can then be used further in your automation workflow.

In the Lookup field enter any text or %variable%. If the field contains an IP address then this will be used. If no IP address is found then the first email address will be used. If no email address then the first URL. If an email address/domain name is used then ThinkAutomation will first perform a reverse DNS lookup to find the IP address and then use that to do the Geo IP lookup.

You can then assign the Country, Country Code, Region, City & Organization to variables

The Organization will be the organization that controls the IP address. In most cases this will be an ISP. For larger organizations assigned their own IP range, it will be the actual organization name.

For API received messages the remote host (IP Address) is added to the Message Headers. You can access this using the built-in variable %Msg_FromIP%.

<h5id=”geolocation-lookup-use-cases”>Geolocation Lookup Use Cases

  • Risk analysis – check that the Geo-IP country of a customer email address matches the country the customer specified on an order form.
  • Country analysis – lookup country information for each received email and record in a database for later analysis.
  • Localization – when returning auto-responses to emails, web forms or web chat you can return a different response depending on the location.
  • This Action is also useful when receiving messages via the API – from web forms, web chat, or web requests. It allows you to obtain Geo IP information for the user making the request. You can return a different response depending on the location. The originating IP address will be in the %Msg_FromIP% variable.
This Action uses ThinkAutomation’s own GeoIP database installed locally. This is updated on a regular basis. Geolocation data is supplied by DB-IP.

Geolocation Lookup Use Cases

GeoIP data can be used to make automated workflows more context-aware. For example, ThinkAutomation can compare the country associated with a customer’s IP address against the country supplied on an order form as part of a risk-checking process. Location information from incoming emails can also be recorded in a database for reporting and analysis.

For web forms, web chat and API requests, the originating IP address can be used to identify the user’s approximate location. Automations can then provide different responses, route enquiries to regional teams, apply location-specific business rules or trigger additional validation when required.

For additional location-based processing, the Country Lookup action can retrieve country codes, international dial codes and currency information for use later in the workflow.

This is one action from over 180 actions included with ThinkAutomation. The ThinkAutomation business process automation (BPA) solution is designed to automate on-premises and cloud-based business processes that are triggered from incoming messages. Automate messages received by email, database updates, webhooks, web forms, web chat, SMS messages, Twitter, Teams messages, documents, local files and other messages sources. Create any number of workflow automations using the drag-and-drop low-code designer. Simple fixed pricing, with unlimited message processing reduces overall costs compared to hosted automation solutions.You can also extend ThinkAutomation by creating your own custom automation actions using the built-in designer and C#/VB.net code editor.