International addresses
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I've been chided (and well deserved) both publicly and privately by a great many folks who went to Ask the Attack Chihuahua and found that my account info stuff assumes a US address. In my defense, when I set it up I was thinking in terms of products and services that I'm selling, all of which target the US because that's the turf I know best. It didn't occur to me at the time that other areas where the international community could participate would be constrained by the membership stuff. :doh: While I've spent a fair amount of time romping across the good old US of A, I have no experience in countries beyond my own, so I don't really know where to start in putting together an address form that's workable for all countries. I can populate a country list, but the rest is less clear. In the US, there's the notion of city / state / zip. I suspect regions, postal codes, etc. are quite diverse in other areas. Any suggestions on what the best approach would be for location / address information that essentially allows for city / region / postal code fields that would be suitable for all countries?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
The ISO (International Standards Organization) did some work on this. I can't find my copy in the 8ft piles of crap on my desk, at the moment to give you the number, but I'm sure you will find it if you go to their site ISO[^]. Unfortunately the site was down when I tried.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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I've been chided (and well deserved) both publicly and privately by a great many folks who went to Ask the Attack Chihuahua and found that my account info stuff assumes a US address. In my defense, when I set it up I was thinking in terms of products and services that I'm selling, all of which target the US because that's the turf I know best. It didn't occur to me at the time that other areas where the international community could participate would be constrained by the membership stuff. :doh: While I've spent a fair amount of time romping across the good old US of A, I have no experience in countries beyond my own, so I don't really know where to start in putting together an address form that's workable for all countries. I can populate a country list, but the rest is less clear. In the US, there's the notion of city / state / zip. I suspect regions, postal codes, etc. are quite diverse in other areas. Any suggestions on what the best approach would be for location / address information that essentially allows for city / region / postal code fields that would be suitable for all countries?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Go to a web site that sells in different countries, and look at what they do.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Go to a web site that sells in different countries, and look at what they do.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Voted 5 to see if someone (who seems to be voting 1s) votes 1 and brings the rating count down.
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Voted 5 to see if someone (who seems to be voting 1s) votes 1 and brings the rating count down.
Ya know, I don't know what I did to attract the univoter today. The mind boggles...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
The ISO (International Standards Organization) did some work on this. I can't find my copy in the 8ft piles of crap on my desk, at the moment to give you the number, but I'm sure you will find it if you go to their site ISO[^]. Unfortunately the site was down when I tried.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Henry Minute wrote:
if you go to their site ISO[^].
Well, if you will post a link to an error page... :laugh: The site itself[^] is fine. :-D
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Henry Minute wrote:
if you go to their site ISO[^].
Well, if you will post a link to an error page... :laugh: The site itself[^] is fine. :-D
Good one.
BDF People don't mind being mean; but they never want to be ridiculous. -- Moliere
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I'd go with (as borrowed from Amazon): Address Line 1 Address Line 2 Town/City Region/State/County/Province Post Code Country If it's good enough for Amazon, it's good enough for me :)
print "http://www.codeproject.com".toURL().text Ain't that Groovy?
Hadn't really thought of that, but I suppose it is the most sensible solution.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Go to a web site that sells in different countries, and look at what they do.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001I'm sorry, I'm a programmer. Can you make the answer more complicated for me? :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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I've been chided (and well deserved) both publicly and privately by a great many folks who went to Ask the Attack Chihuahua and found that my account info stuff assumes a US address. In my defense, when I set it up I was thinking in terms of products and services that I'm selling, all of which target the US because that's the turf I know best. It didn't occur to me at the time that other areas where the international community could participate would be constrained by the membership stuff. :doh: While I've spent a fair amount of time romping across the good old US of A, I have no experience in countries beyond my own, so I don't really know where to start in putting together an address form that's workable for all countries. I can populate a country list, but the rest is less clear. In the US, there's the notion of city / state / zip. I suspect regions, postal codes, etc. are quite diverse in other areas. Any suggestions on what the best approach would be for location / address information that essentially allows for city / region / postal code fields that would be suitable for all countries?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Would it not be more simpler to just stick in an Address textbox and let the person fill it in themselves instead of resorting to handling diverse areas around the globe (some countries don't have a zip code for instance)?
#define STOOPID #if STOOPID Console.WriteLine("I'm stoopid!"); #endif
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Henry Minute wrote:
if you go to their site ISO[^].
Well, if you will post a link to an error page... :laugh: The site itself[^] is fine. :-D
Cheers! I was busy, what can I say! :laugh: It wasn't me. It was like that when I get there. :-\
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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I'd go with (as borrowed from Amazon): Address Line 1 Address Line 2 Town/City Region/State/County/Province Post Code Country If it's good enough for Amazon, it's good enough for me :)
print "http://www.codeproject.com".toURL().text Ain't that Groovy?
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Ah, the "as the crow flies" school of giving directions. Perhaps those crazy japs have finally perfected the personal rocket-powered jet-pack? (Although, having said that it handled a trip from a suburb of Tokyo to Akihabara ok, and Nagasaki to Hiroshima followed a road route. Perhaps those are no rocket-powered jet-packs allowed routes?)
print "http://www.codeproject.com".toURL().text Ain't that Groovy?
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I'm sorry, I'm a programmer. Can you make the answer more complicated for me? :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Oh yes, I have made the subject of addresses quite complicated on more than one occasion. One in particular, for a real estate application, had us telling the Surveyor General about new suburbs.
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Would it not be more simpler to just stick in an Address textbox and let the person fill it in themselves instead of resorting to handling diverse areas around the globe (some countries don't have a zip code for instance)?
#define STOOPID #if STOOPID Console.WriteLine("I'm stoopid!"); #endif
Yes. Unless you plan to actually use the address info for anything beyond mail or shipping. Somebody famous, Joel Spolsky or Jeff Atwood, maybe someone else, had a long rant about this a few years ago.
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Ya know, I don't know what I did to attract the univoter today. The mind boggles...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I don't know what I did to attract the univoter today
Breathe? C'mon John, you know perfectly well we elected you as principle univoter target, just because it's so much fun to watch you Uzi them into submission...
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
I've been chided (and well deserved) both publicly and privately by a great many folks who went to Ask the Attack Chihuahua and found that my account info stuff assumes a US address. In my defense, when I set it up I was thinking in terms of products and services that I'm selling, all of which target the US because that's the turf I know best. It didn't occur to me at the time that other areas where the international community could participate would be constrained by the membership stuff. :doh: While I've spent a fair amount of time romping across the good old US of A, I have no experience in countries beyond my own, so I don't really know where to start in putting together an address form that's workable for all countries. I can populate a country list, but the rest is less clear. In the US, there's the notion of city / state / zip. I suspect regions, postal codes, etc. are quite diverse in other areas. Any suggestions on what the best approach would be for location / address information that essentially allows for city / region / postal code fields that would be suitable for all countries?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Any suggestions on what the best approach would be for location / address information that essentially allows for city / region / postal code fields that would be suitable for all countries?
I believe we've spoken about this: the answer is a multiline textbox.
Cheers, Vikram. (Proud to have finally cracked a CCC!)
Recent activities: TV series: Friends, season 10 Books: Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Carpe Diem.
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I'd go with (as borrowed from Amazon): Address Line 1 Address Line 2 Town/City Region/State/County/Province Post Code Country If it's good enough for Amazon, it's good enough for me :)
print "http://www.codeproject.com".toURL().text Ain't that Groovy?
Just make sure that you accept empty "Region/State/County/Province" for countries that don't use such information in mail addresses. Some web shops insist on filling such field, in worst case they don't even accept " " or "-". If that happens I usually look for another shop.