Sitecore MaxMind options

Question

Sitecore 6.6 (Update 4).

MaxMind has an option for a Sitecore-specific lookup service that integrates with DMS. MaxMind also has some more generic web services.

Can the 'generic' web services be used in conjunction with Sitecore/DMS or am I limited to using the Sitecore-specific version? If there is no limitation, what reasons should I have for going with the Sitecore-specific version since it is more expensive.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Sitecore DMS uses MaxMind web services by default. There is a MaxMindProvider class in the Sitecore DMS which extends LookupProviderBase class and gathers the information about the visitors in a way which fits well with Sitecore approach.

I assume that MaxMind services for Sitecore are more expensive (I haven't checked it, but this is what you've written in the question) cause they are prepared for the Sitecore specifically and you don't need to do any coding to enable them - there are out of the box with clean Sitecore DMS installation.

Still you can use your own provider for the GeoIP data and implement it in your own way, e.g. using the standard MaxMind services.

Answer 2

You can swap it out if you want: Sitecore GeoIP Country Resolving - Jump to Lightspeed. There is a GeoLite Resolver Module on Marketplace which uses the freely available GeoLite DB from MaxMind.

MaxMind is configured as a provider in Sitecore.Analytics.Config

Answer 3

I don't believe there is a limitation on what you can use. The look up is done via a provider, so if you want to implement your own using other Max Mind services then you are free to do so. Just alter the look up manager provider in your Sitecore.Analytics.config file in the App_Condfig/Include folder:

<lookupManager defaultProvider="default">
  <providers>
    <clear/>
    <add name="default" type="Sitecore.Analytics.Lookups.MaxMindProvider,Sitecore.Analytics"/>
  </providers>
</lookupManager>

As for a reason why to use the default Sitecore one over rolling your own, although the Sitecore version of the MaxMind service may be slightly more expensive, its probably not as expensive as the time cost to write your own. Nothing stopping you tho :)\