X-Cart forums

[xim]

Hello xcarters from UK!

What is the common list of UK divisions which uses for online checkout? We used this ISO to combine counties: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:GB

Have a look the checkout on our demostore: https://demostore.x-cart.com/?target=checkout

[Triple A Racing]

In the UK, we suggest using 'Counties' as a more understandable / recognisable term than 'Divisions' even though 'UK Counties' can itself, sometimes be confusing within the UK (see ISO page below) Don't confuse County with Country (Counties / Countries) when reading this.....

Way back in XC 5.1.* The UK 'Counties' default list in XC5 was hopelessly inaccurate. We made a point of this on here, especially as all the US States were by default, correct. Thanks to our exciting history in the UK there are quite a few things to factor in when using a list of 'UK Counties' for your own business operations when using XC5 and/or any XC5 plug-in shipping modules etc. In our setup and in every case, users MUST select a County (also referred to as Region or State if not UK) a Country and an Address Type from drop down lists in order to add an address to their address book / order. All other areas of the address entry box are free (i.e. not chosen from any drop down list). Countries that we don't regularly trade with are not enabled within XC5 via Store Setup / Countries...

Back to XC 5.1.* and instead of waiting for future XC5 updates, we re-worked all this section ourselves and built-in our own shipping experiences / business demands gained during previous XC4 days. We created some separate, new Countries (but all have UK in the title - see list) which suits our own setup. We also applied 'County level' enforcement for other Countries for export orders. In all cases we used the NUTS lists (EU) and many other reliable national data sources (Worldwide) as references / verification checks when creating the 'County or Region or State' data tables. Our UK setup is:

UK - Channel Islands (with 7 Counties)

UK - England (with 48 Counties)

UK - Isle Of Man (with (6 Counties)

UK - Northern Ireland (with 6 Counties)

UK - Scotland (with (32 Counties)

UK - Wales (with 22 Counties)

Yes we know they are not all actually 'Counties' e.g. Rushen in the Isle of Man is actually a 'Sheading' not a 'County' but we're using 'County' as a UK Default term - It's just easier that way! The ISO page (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:GB) mentioned in the last post proves that it's quite a complicated setup in the UK. Using an enforced County level drop down box as part of the address entry is maybe a little over-engineered for others, especially if they are not based in the UK, but it works perfectly for us.

XC5 shipping / VAT setups are different again, but both work well with our setup e.g. The Outer Hebrides in Scotland is a lot different than the centre of Glasgow for many reasons, as well as shipping routes / methods etc but this can easily be done by using the Zones function properly i.e. in detail. Zones / Taxation combinations etc can also be used for applying the correct level of VAT (e.g. The Channel Islands has different VAT rules than the rest of the UK).

There is now a specific UK(GB) version of XC5 available for download, which we haven't looked at to be fair, but only because we are very happy with our own setup because it suits our own business.

With XC5 you can either accept all the default data and go from there or, completely re-work this yourself (as we have done) or a mixture of both. It's good to have this choice / freedom and each store owner can customise things as they see fit.

[Triple A Racing]

The above posts were all in advance of XC5.3.3.* Now, sadly, yet another bug with XC-5.3.3.3, this one in connection with the above...
With the amount of bugs raised in the forum on this release (plus those with no forum reference) the list is possibly approaching the length of the Gettysburg Address

WHAT STEPS WILL REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM?

1. Create a new account in XC5.3.3.3
2. Choose "United Kingdom" as the "Country" for your address

WHAT IS THE EXPECTED RESULT?

The Admin prepared list of Counties / Regions SHOULD be provided (as it was and still is, in our XC5.3.2.12 Live Store)

WHAT HAPPENS INSTEAD?

No List of values with the prompt "Select One" is provided. Instead free text may be entered and the value is accepted. IF the free text (or parts of it) matches an entry previously made by Admin, then this is provided as a prompt-ish... BUT the value can be selected and then OVERTYPED anyway

We've tried this on our own Dev Store AND on the X-Cart Demo store. The failure is on both, every single time....

This is a MAJOR step backwards / error. This "change" allows customers to enter ANY VALUE THEY LIKE in the UK County field, including, local dialect names, misspelt names, old county name versions, slang names etc which is unacceptable. It also makes all the store preparation work, carried out by Admin, completely and utterly pointless. If this was an attempt to make the process easier for UK Customers, please think again. This is a flaw and the correct process being invoked by default (as in previous XC5 versions) should be re-applied ASAP please.

Bug raised today https://bt.x-cart.com/view.php?id=48481

[Triple A Racing]

Okay... a nice, helpful and swift response to the bug ticket: https://bt.x-cart.com/view.php?id=48481 which we're going to test shortly

If you want using list of value for the country you need used setting "autocomplete_states_for_countries" in "etc/congfig.php"
Description: All the following countries always uses custom state with autocomplete(if available) possible values - country codes ('GB,US,DE' as example), 'All' or empty ''

Our response;

...If default processes / settings are going to be changed, then surely this MUST be advised as part of the upgrade details? Note that the USA still IS autocomplete_states_for_countries yet.... the UK is NOT after the changes. Who randomly decided that was correct? An American?....

Note that this is default change between XC 5.3.2.* and XC 5.3.3.* thus our feedback

[Triple A Racing]

Not as straightforward as it seems this one...

In our fully up to date, paid business licence release of XC5.3.3.3 (in our Dev Store location) there is NO reference at all to autocomplete_states_for_countries in etc/congfig.php. Nothing. Not a single reference or line of text However.... We've taken a copy of a stock etc/congfig.php file direct from X-Cart (via a download) and we CAN see that the existing reference IS in this, the current stock etc/congfig.php file. No idea why that's missing from our own file, because we haven't removed it (why would we?)***

What's inconsistent, is that any other country that we have added ourselves previously (some of the default XC5 countries are just plain wrong and all this needed "tidying up"...) yes.. they ALREADY work perfectly and display Select One by default PLUS the USA also works this way by default as we've already mentioned...BUT...all of these work perfectly WITHOUT the autocomplete_states_for_countries line needing to be added in etc/congfig.php The UK conspiracy theorists will be having a feel day...

***Is this because as an early adopter, the etc/congfig.php file that we have running is technically much older than the current X-Cart stock file? If so... how has that been missed in all the subsequent upgrades?

[EDIT] We've added some questions to the bug ticket, in order to query some of these items ^^

[EDIT 2] See this post for reference: https://forum.x-cart.com/showpost.php?p=404917&postcount=21

[xim]

Originally Posted by Triple A Racing

This is a MAJOR step backwards / error. This "change" allows customers to enter ANY VALUE THEY LIKE in the UK County field, including, local dialect names, misspelt names, old county name versions, slang names etc which is unacceptable. It also makes all the store preparation work, carried out by Admin, completely and utterly pointless. If this was an attempt to make the process easier for UK Customers, please think again. This is a flaw and the correct process being invoked by default (as in previous XC5 versions) should be re-applied ASAP please.

As I wrote in another thread, everyone in the UK has own view of the standard list of countries. To help merchants fit buyers requests we replaced the select box with combo box. Yes, it is available to enter any county, however, the system uses Zip code for shipping calculation. Also, we recommend using zip code instead counties for zones.

However, to revert the previous behavior there is a special conf setting in the etc/config.php file. Our team will review the upgrade procedure to understand why the file was not updated during the upgrade.

[Triple A Racing]

Originally Posted by xim

As I wrote in another thread, everyone in the UK has own view of the standard list of countries

Yes, they do unfortunately, but giving too much choice, or rather, uncontrolled free input choice (in this instance) isn't the best answer to that problem we think. FWIW This is not the option provided by most online companies trading in the UK. Yes there are 'issues' over preferential choice of county names but a default set of values provided via a select box is surely the best answer? (it works perfectly in lots of other countries...) Especially, when as we said, Admin may edit any default county naming list in XC5, so store owners can apply any list of 'set values' that they like, which then appear in the select box.

Originally Posted by xim

To help merchants fit buyers requests we replaced the select box with combo box. Yes, it is available to enter any county, however, the system uses Zip code for shipping calculation. Also, we recommend using zip code instead counties for zones

To be fair, zip codes or post codes as they are called in the UK and Counties are two different subjects altogether. e.g. Apart from Dublin itself, there are practically zero post codes in Ireland. A country that we (and lots of other UK companies) regularly supply. Northern Ireland does have postcodes (being part of the UK) and is right next to Ireland. However, they both have counties... Have a very close look on Google Maps and then try working that lot out... It will be even more difficult post #Brexit.

We can and occasionally do use postcodes within zones, but that alone isn't the answer either. You can have a valid UK postcode for a authorised PO Box Number. Good luck delivering to that via UPS or Fedex etc

Originally Posted by xim

However, to revert the previous behavior there is a special conf setting in the etc/config.php file. Our team will review the upgrade procedure to understand why the file was not updated during the upgrade.

Thank you. Our own choice, is that we will manually re-apply this via the special conf setting in the etc/config.php file that you mention. In the bug ticket, we did ask the question about why other countries (other than the UK) already provide the select box despite this conf setting in the etc/config.php not currently being in place. After your post, what we're assuming now, is that somewhere (i.e. somewhere else in the existing core code) the choice, between select box or combo box is being applied to country codes. Therefore, in theory in our case, the only countries that must be added into the conf setting in the etc/config.php, are those that have a valid set of counties and 'appear' to be combo box assigned when tested? e.g. The UK. All others don't need any further alterations?

[xim]

Only the UK has such situation with continues. For other countries merchant and buyers use ISO standard.

[Triple A Racing]

Originally Posted by xim

Only the UK has such situation with continues. For other countries merchant and buyers use ISO standard.

That's why we live on an Island We think from this reply, it means that only the UK is currently coded to use combo box as a default in XC5.3.3.3 >> and that's the only country that we would need to correct via conf settings / etc/config.php ? i.e. The compact version of our assumption above. Better for us to be 100% sure before we change things...

[xim]

Correct, we implemented it especially for the UK