UK States/Provinces how to set up

wesleythorne

Hi all, have been getting one of our stores into bigcommerce but have hit a wall with the default list of states/provinces

the checkout 'select state/province" is not very friendly for UK users by default, everything else about it is very good!

What does evryone use on there sites for enetering the correct address format.

I also noticed Bristol and Avon are not listed.

This is the only thing which is holding me back, i just feel the whole selecting address/post code/state/province checkout is very poor from a UK user point of view.

i would love to get it to work soon!
Wes

wesleythorne

having spoken to interspire on their UK phone number they have told me that they have no plans to release a UK version or address the staes/province issue in the checkout, let alone add Bristol or Avon to the list of counties.
Not what I was expecting.

Have looked at Bigcommerce as well but they told me that was not suitable for the UK and again no plans for a UK version.

At least Actinic is UK based and well supported.
Wesley

Ruralweb

This has been covered before together with a method to add the counties to the database.

wesleythorne

hi, i have found the method you mentioned for adding but it is still a requirement to have to choose a sate/province.
I would ideally not even have state/province showing for UK customers

The hack to add the correct list of counties is unsupported by interspire, I am just surprised they have not updated their code to include it. I am a little concerned about amending code that is unsupported and how it will affect future updates.

wes

Ruralweb

The state should be changable in design view by clicking on the text and changing it. It's not really a code change as such so I don't see a problem - I'm adding postcode lookup to a site today so will have a play.

Ruralweb

r code to include it. I am a little concerned about amending code that is unsupported and how it will affect future updates

.Exactly the same as actinics terms and conditions - it's the same in every cart software

wesleythorne

Ruralweb said:
The state should be changable in design view by clicking on the text and changing it. It's not really a code change as such so I don't see a problem - I'm adding postcode lookup to a site today so will have a play.

it does not look like this is editable in design mode

Ruralweb

Tty it in the layout code. There will be a global setting for it

GrantG

The hack is provided here: Interspire: Add Shipping States

GrantG

Looking in to this further, as I am also quite wary of customers not finding their state and abandoning the cart, the shipping states can be found in the isc_country_states table of the database, to create or remove UK states, add an entry (phpMyAdmin) makes this very easy, give the state a Unique number (stateid) and ensure the 'statecountry' field is set to 225 - you can also easily remove states very easily through phpMyAdmin too.

Anyone got any idea where I might find an 'up to date' list of all UK counties? I'll get the UK state table correct and post as an attachment asap :)

wesleythorne

i think actinic has a full list !
wes

Ruralweb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_of_the_United_Kingdom

GrantG

Lol - missed the obvious one there.

Though do people expect official counties, or 'postal' counties. It appears Avon is not Ceremonial, but not Postal. Bristol is Ceremonial, but not postal. Or should I just put them all in....decisions, decisions.

Ruralweb

i think it all goes on postcode these days anyway - you can almost put what you want in for an address as long as the postcode is correct it almost always gets there.

GrantG

OK, found a much easier way if you're installing for the first time, or upgrading from 4.0.7 or below to the current 5.0.6.

Place the attached php file into admin>includes>upgrades

I say 4.0.7 or below as this was the version Interspire added UK states to the software, this will populate the database with the up-to-date list (from Wiki, cheers mal) of UK counties - this will also be good for new installations of the software, including 5.0.6 and beyond.

That should be it - if you don't want to try this route, then hold tight for some SQL to do the job for you :)

wesleythorne

hi this look good, just the thing, unfortunately it cant be used with bigcommerce as you dont have access to the code.
I have requested that they update it though for bigcommerce.

wesleythorne

Ruralweb said:
Tty it in the layout code. There will be a global setting for it

have managed to change it in bigcommerce
text for postcode/zip/state is located in tools/form fields/address fields

wes

GrantG

Hmm, BigCommerce is obviously using ISC, but does not display the Information page under Tools, so not sure specifically which version, presumably 5.0.6 with some tweaks for Big Commerce.

It appears Interspire are now using BigCommerce as their flagship product, if they ain't going to update the counties list for BigCommerce, I doubt it'll be happening anytime soon for ISC.

GrantG

wesleythorne said:
have managed to change it in bigcommerce
text for postcode/zip/state is located in tools/form fields/address fields

wes

Good point - I've just found it in ISC under the same path, one path I haven't yet explored but will do now.

Merci :)

wesleythorne

the reply i got from bigcommerce support after letting them know the list is out of date.

"I will add it to the bug report. I can't guarantee it will make them move any faster, but it's certainly possible."

wes

Ruralweb

text for postcode/zip/state is located in tools/form fields/address fields

Much simpler than my method - thats the problem with isc there is always a simple way of doing it:rolleyes:

While you are in the postcode text tab go to advanced and change the css for the text box to 100 as the current box width is a bit small for UK postcodes

wesleythorne

good idea!

Ruralweb

Having gotten all those counties in the drop down I'm now considering replacing the dropdown with a simple text box - this would then allow postcode anywhere to populate the field.

GrantG

Ruralweb said:
Having gotten all those counties in the drop down I'm now considering replacing the dropdown with a simple text box - this would then allow postcode anywhere to populate the field.

Good idea mal - but will this only work in the UK? I presume it does, as PA offer UK and International services and the field is obviously not populated in Actinic as the country field is already there. Out of interest, does PA populate the country as UK and Ireland, or Scotland, England, Wales, N. Ireland, Ireland?

Ruralweb

I've not tried it yet but my thought is that if pa does not populate it or pa is not available for a country then the shopper will just type it on as they would on any other site.

I don't know if pa populated the country tbh - I only had the thought today when I realised how easy it is to change the address fields about.

It's just the pa field mapping that's a pain but once you have the numbers it's easy to play with.

Ruralweb

Pa will not populate the country field as it's a drop down so again if your going to use pa for that it would need changing to a text box BUT then you will run into problems with the shipping data so I'll leave that as a dropdown

GrantG

For anyone interested in adding extra States/Counties to a country:

Open your database, locate the 'country states' table, browse the table to identify the country 'statecountry' (UK is 225) - then create a unique value for stateid, 400+ will do, as 5.0.6 only has 399 state entries.

Run this SQL, change database_name as appropriate:

INSERT INTO `database_name`.`country_states` (`stateid`, `statename`, `statecountry`, `stateabbrv`) VALUES ('401', 'Bristol', '225', '')

You can now create shipping methods to these counties and select the counties in the checkout :)

wesleythorne

all good news!

wesleythorne

GrantG said:
OK, found a much easier way if you're installing for the first time, or upgrading from 4.0.7 or below to the current 5.0.6.

Place the attached php file into admin>includes>upgrades

I say 4.0.7 or below as this was the version Interspire added UK states to the software, this will populate the database with the up-to-date list (from Wiki, cheers mal) of UK counties - this will also be good for new installations of the software, including 5.0.6 and beyond.

That should be it - if you don't want to try this route, then hold tight for some SQL to do the job for you :)

hi, I cant get this to work in 5.5.2
the database just shows the original counties list and not the added ones

anyone else had this problem or is it just me
wes

wesleythorne

i think the file has been changed to 4007 in 5.5.2

GrantG

Hi Wes

If you have already installed the software, then you will need to go down the route of my last post.

If installing from scratch isn't a problem, Interspire haven't declared any new data fields in 5.5.2 from 5.5.1, therefore the last 'upgrades' file is marked 5501. Use this file, 5502.txt when installing/upgrading from 5.5.1 or below (eg. 5.0.6 or earlier).

I have re-created the upgrade file, appending the changes I made in the 5006.txt to 5501.txt, adding the function to the array, so the correct UK regions are added to the database.

:thumbsup:

In case anyone is wondering, this file should be unzipped in: /shoppingcart/admin/includes/upgrades/5502.txt :)

wesleythorne

hi, am about to do a new install so will give it a whirl
many thanks
wes

wesleythorne

Anyone know of a way to make the UK show at the top of the list in the checkout. At the moment you have to scroll though lots of country's to find it.
Thanks for code below works a treat.
Kind Regards
Wesley

GrantG said:
For anyone interested in adding extra States/Counties to a country:

Open your database, locate the 'country states' table, browse the table to identify the country 'statecountry' (UK is 225) - then create a unique value for stateid, 400+ will do, as 5.0.6 only has 399 state entries.

Run this SQL, change database_name as appropriate:

[code]INSERT INTO `database_name`.`country_states` (`stateid`, `statename`, `statecountry`, `stateabbrv`) VALUES ('401', 'Bristol', '225', '')[/code]
You can now create shipping methods to these counties and select the counties in the checkout :)

Gabriel Crowe

To create the order you are looking for, you'd have to add a new column to that table, use integers to determine your display order then find the sql that calls it and order by the new column.

Where are these things? No idea.

Another way to do it woud be to put numbers in front of them. They are sorted alphabetically, i recall.

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