How Do I Get User IP Address in Django?

In web development, knowing a user's IP address can be crucial for a variety of reasons, such as logging, analytics, security, and customization. Django, a powerful web framework for Python, provides several ways to access user IP addresses. In this article, we'll walk through creating a small Django project and demonstrate how to get a user's IP address.

How Do I Get User IP Address in Django?

First, let's set up a new Django project. If you don't have Django installed, you can install it using pip:

pip install django

Now, create a new Django project and a new app within it:

django-admin startproject ip_address_project
cd ip_address_project
django-admin startapp ip_app

Configuring the Project

Modify the settings.py file to include the new app:

# ip_address_project/settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'ip_app',
]

Creating the View

In the app directory, create a view to handle incoming requests and retrieve the user's IP address:

In real-world scenarios, your Django application might be behind a proxy or load balancer, which can obscure the client's IP address. In such cases, you can use the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header:

# ip_app/views.py

def get_user_ip(request):
    ip_address = request.META.get('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR')
    if ip_address:
        ip_address = ip_address.split(',')[0]
    else:
        ip_address = request.META.get('REMOTE_ADDR')
    return HttpResponse(f'Your IP address is: {ip_address}')

Configuring URLs

Next, set up the URL routing to map a URL to our new view:

# ip_address_project/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path
from ip_app import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('get_ip/', views.get_user_ip, name='get_user_ip'),
]

Running the Project

To see the result, start the Django development server:

python manage.py runserver

Output

Conclusion

Retrieving the user's IP address in Django is straightforward, thanks to the framework's robust request handling. By accessing the request.META dictionary, you can easily get the necessary information. This can be particularly useful for logging, analytics, or applying custom logic based on the user's location. With the additional handling for proxies and load balancers, you ensure that your application accurately captures the client's IP address in various deployment scenarios.