Re: Phone numbers and form fields

[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2005/03/04]

From: Chris Devers
Subject: Re: Phone numbers and form fields
Date: 15:09 on 04 Mar 2005
On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, Philip Newton wrote:

> Why not provide a free-form text field that lets people enter as many
> rows as they need[*], in whatever form the loval post office expects?

Because, as noted, free-form text doesn't fit snugly into predefined 
database fields.

The correct approach, it seems, is two forms: the default (for USian 
businesses) may assume an American style address, but it has to provide 
a prominent link to a free-form form for non-US addresses. (Hell, if 
they were really clever, they could use a radio button and CSS trickery 
to put the two forms in the same spot on the same page, and only display 
the one that's the visitor finds appropriate...)

But seeing as most US businesses assume that they're only doing business 
in the US (which isn't completely unreasonable, as it is a huge country 
and it doesn't always occur to people that there might be customers 
beyond the mysterious borders), this will probably rarely happen...



-- 
Chris Devers
There's stuff above here

Generated at 05:00 on 02 Apr 2005 by mariachi 0.52