With HTML5 you can access the geolocation of the user.

Browser wise Geolocation Support

  • Internet Explorer : 9.0 and above
  • Chrome : 5.0 and above
  • Firefox : 3.5 and above
  • Safari : 5.0 and above
  • Opera : 10.6 and above
  • iPhone : 3.0 and above
  • Android : 2.0 and above
  • Blackberry : 6.0 and above
  • Windows Phone7 : Mango and above[*]

Detecting Geolocation Support

You can use the Modernizr JavaScript library to check if the user’s browser supports geolocation.

if(Modernizr.geolocation) {
	// HTML5 geolocation supported
} else {
	// HTML5 geolocation not supported
}



Using Geolocation with HTML 5


Here is a small sample you can use to get started with geolocation in HTML5.


If you are testing this locally on your machine, then you will need to use a local web server to run this sample.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title>HTML 5 Geolocation Sample Page</title>
	<script src="modernizr-2.5.2.js"></script>
	<script src="jquery-1.6.1.min.js"></script>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		var jQ = jQuery.noConflict();

		function useGeolocation(position) {
			var latitude = position.coords.latitude;
			var longitude = position.coords.longitude;

			jQ("#latitude").html(latitude);
			jQ("#longitude").html(longitude);
		}

		function onGeolocationError(error) {
			alert("Geolocation error - code: "
                        + error.code + " message : " + error.message);
		}

		jQ(document).ready(function(){
			if(Modernizr.geolocation) {
				jQ("#geolocation").html("is supported.");

				navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
  useGeolocation, onGeolocationError);

			} else {
				jQ("#geolocation").html("is not supported.");
			}

		});
	</script>
</head>
<body>

<b>Geolocation</b> : <span id="geolocation"></span> <br />
<b>Latitude</b> : <span id="latitude"></span> <br />
<b>Longitude</b> : <span id="longitude"></span> <br />

</body>
</html>



Screen Shots


Success: User allowed the geolocation access


HTML5 Geolocation Success Example


Error: User denied the geolocation access


HTML5 Geolocation Error Example


Example Source Code


You can download the HTML5 Gelolocation Example source code from here.