MaxMind Get Lat/Lng from IP address, InvalidDatabaseException Error

Question

My end goal is to obtain the latitude, longitude and country associated with a provided ip address. I am using java and the MaxMind GeoIP2 Java API. My preference is not to use their webapi as I need quick turn around time.

Can anyone tell me why I am getting this error when I call my function that ties in the MaxMind api call (code shown after the error)?

I am not sure what a MaxMind DB metadata marker is. It is complaining about the file that I grabbed off of the MaxMind site. I would assume it's a valid MaxMind DB file.

com.maxmind.db.InvalidDatabaseException: Could not find a MaxMind DB metadata marker in this file (GeoLite2-City-Blocks-IPv6.csv). Is this a valid MaxMind DB file?
at com.maxmind.db.Reader.findMetadataStart(Reader.java:231)
at com.maxmind.db.Reader.<init>(Reader.java:82)
at com.maxmind.db.Reader.<init>(Reader.java:74)
at com.maxmind.geoip2.DatabaseReader.<init>(DatabaseReader.java:41)
at com.maxmind.geoip2.DatabaseReader.<init>(DatabaseReader.java:31)
at com.maxmind.geoip2.DatabaseReader$Builder.build(DatabaseReader.java:126)
at com.tutelatechnologies.tapfortap.server.maxmind.MaxMindLookUp.maxMindLookup(MaxMindLookUp.java:20)
at com.tutelatechnologies.tapfortap.server.cidlaclookup.T4TUtilitiesTest.testMaxMindLookUpTest(T4TUtilitiesTest.java:23)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:47)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:44)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:271)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:70)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:50)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:309)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.run(JUnit4TestReference.java:50)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:459)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:675)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:382)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:192)

I followed the instructions and sample code on the MaxMind site here for the Data Usage section: http://maxmind.github.io/GeoIP2-java/

I have chosen to use a GeoLite2 csv dbs obtained from here: http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/geolite2/

My code:

public class MaxMindLookUp {

public static final void maxMindLookup(final String ipaddress) {
    File db = new File(
            "src/main/java/com/tutelatechnologies/tapfortap/server/maxmind/GeoLite2-City-Blocks-IPv6.csv");
    try {
        DatabaseReader reader = new DatabaseReader.Builder(db).build();
        InetAddress ip = InetAddress.getByName(ipaddress);

        CityResponse response = reader.city(ip);
        Location loc = response.getLocation();

        Double lat = loc.getLatitude();
        Double lng = loc.getLongitude();
        Integer acc = loc.getAccuracyRadius();

        System.out.println("lat=" + lat + "\nlng=" + lng + "\nacc=" + acc);

    } catch (GeoIp2Exception e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();

    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

}

Note: in order to run the code above you need to add a plugin to your Maven Dependencies section.

 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.maxmind.geoip2</groupId>
    <artifactId>geoip2</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.0</version>
</dependency>

I didn't come across much for this exact error on SO. I have stepped through the debugger and the error happens on this line:

DatabaseReader reader = new DatabaseReader.Builder(db).build();

This leads me to believe something is wrong with the db that I downloaded off the site.

The Exceptions heading at the bottom of this page (http://maxmind.github.io/GeoIP2-java/) provides a dead link 'GeoIP2 Precision web service documentation' so that's no help.

There doesn't seem to be anything related to this exception in the Exceptions portion of their Java api: http://maxmind.github.io/GeoIP2-java/doc/v2.1.0/

UPDATE

According to the DatabaseReader.Builder().build() description in the specs here: http://maxmind.github.io/GeoIP2-java/doc/v2.1.0/ I think the issue comes from reading the db. I am not sure yet how to solve this issue.

UPDATE

I was able to get it working using the binary db files (GeoLite2-City.mmdb). I am leaving this question open in case anyone has any more information about why the CSV db files did not work for me.

Answer 1

The library you're using is for reading the binary database files for GeoIP2. The CSV files are for people to load into a database (or any other way they want to use CSV).