Partial Fix for MM5 Country Select Bug

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

We have a replacement Country Select component module you can download for free at: http://www.phosphormedia.com/go.mv?ID=CNTRY-SELECT.

This module addresses one of the two bugs in the current Country Select module: Billing Country default.

The replacement module correctly lists a null value "Select One" option for the billing country drop down.

When a non-US customer fills out their "ship to" information, and they select a different country, the Bill To country is already defaulted to US. Upon submitting the information, the customer will get sent back to the customer information screen with an error stating they have to fill out billing info.

The second issue is that upon this error, the Ship To country selection defaults back to US so users may unknowingly submit the wrong country.

This replacement correctly sets the Bill To country to a null "Select One". which should prevent most of these errors. However, if they do error out for other reasons (for example, entering incorrect Billing or shipping information) the system will still default to Ship To Country to the US. (This seems to be occurring in an area of Merchant that we do not have access to.)

[chucklasker]

Nice!!!! Works great. Thanks, Bruce.

Have you heard from MIVA if they know about the Ship To country bug, and if they're working on it?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

They know about it...haven't heard when the fix is coming out which is why we went ahead and made the patch...have two client that sell to Canada.

[travelgear]

Thanks Bruce. This fixes the main problem I have with Miva. Hopefully I'll start getting more international orders again.

[Random Confusion]

Well, I have downloaded the fix and applied it as per the instructions, and have just now gotten off the phone with a customer who said that they could not complete the "create account" portion of the program because the Country field was no longer an active field and the creation process would not let them proceed without it.

Any suggestions while I put the old file back into place?

RC

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Ahh, yes....need to do the account screen...download it again.

[Random Confusion]

It works nicely now.

Thank you for tweaking that little part of it, Bruce.

RC

Ahh, yes....need to do the account screen...download it again.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

no prob...kinda rushed through it and completely forgot that the account pages use different variable names (not that I every under stood that...but hey!).

[Red Flare]

no prob...kinda rushed through it and completely forgot that the account pages use different variable names (not that I every under stood that...but hey!).

Not sure if this is because of a fix.
Now when people are checking out, the "Bill to" country selector always defaults to "select one".
Is there any way to uninstall the fix? I never had this happen in the past.

thanks

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Ah, that is the fix....without the fix, the bill to defaults to United States. So, if a user selects Canada, but has no intention of entering a different billing address...he gets a Missing Information Error.

You can just replace the component module with the original.

[Brandon MUS]

Bruce, I installed the module as I'm sure it'll be better for first time customers, but now if I log in under my account since I've placed an order in the past, it takes away my real billing country and changes it to Select One. I have to change my country every time now or I get an error asking me to select a country. Is there a way to not change the default if the customer already has a billing country? If not, where can I download the original module? I forgot to backup!

[Red Flare]

Bruce, I installed the module as I'm sure it'll be better for first time customers, but now if I log in under my account since I've placed an order in the past, it takes away my real billing country and changes it to Select One. I have to change my country every time now or I get an error asking me to select a country. Is there a way to not change the default if the customer already has a billing country? If not, where can I download the original module? I forgot to backup!

I guess that is what I was trying to say as well: if one already has an account, then bill to country defaults to "select one".

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Then you should probably send a notice to me directly, as I might not have caught this forum post. Don't get me wrong, but I don't understand why so many users post this type of question to the forum when a direct email would be more, well direct. Anyway, its a freebie, if I have the time I will see what is up with the account screen field population.

[Brandon MUS]

As you said, Bruce, it's a freebie. I'd hate to bug people about bugs in their gifts. I understand that you took your personal time to try and fix this problem, so it would be unfair for me to "nag" you to fix this problem again.

I figured that you would probably get an email notification or perhaps were even already aware of this problem and would get to fixing it when you had the time. In the future, I will try and email you directly.

Thanks for being the effort in this bug fix... you've done more than Miva at least...

[chucklasker]

Has MIVA even acknowledged that there IS a bug? I haven't seen it. I'd love to know if they intend to fix it once and for all. For now, I've still been telling people who want to sell internationally they should stick with, or start with, MM4. Those already on MM5, though, have benefited greatly from Bruce's module - thanks, Bruce.

[Red Flare]

You can just replace the component module with the original.

How would I do that? I thought I replaced the original with the new module.

[Brandon MUS]

Red Flare, you can probably get a copy of the original from your host. You will then have to upload (via FTP) the original module because Miva will most likely say that Bruce's module is a newer version. I had to do this (after asking Bruce), and everything went through perfectly.

[Red Flare]

Red Flare, you can probably get a copy of the original from your host. You will then have to upload (via FTP) the original module because Miva will most likely say that Bruce's module is a newer version. I had to do this (after asking Bruce), and everything went through perfectly.

Thanks,I will talk to Hostasaurus.

I started another thread on this.
http://extranet.miva.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19566

[angel101]

Hello,

Yes! It really helps a lot.

Thank you.
-angela

[wmgilligan]

is there any reason why some javascript code in the page template - to change the fields in billing to match those in shipping wouldn't work?

Bill

[Brandon MUS]

It can help, and I recommend it, but it doesn't fix the problem. The country selection will still change from what it should be after an error, and if your customer is international, their country will change even if they are logged in.

For new customers, you can preform a check to see if the customer filled in the billing side and if they didn't, copy shipping over (to hide potential errors), but again, this is a limited fix.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

not every one has javascript turned on...

[chucklasker]

I'd be curious at the percentage of users who have javascript turned off. Even better would be the users who have javascript turned off who actually do anything other than check their AOL mail or look for fixes for their Radio Shack computers. How many sites require javascript? If someone has it turned off, they've got to be used to not being able to do half the things on the Web. It's like worrying about people who have monitors that have only 256 colors anymore, or making your site 600 pixels wide for the lowest common denominator, even though the real Web users are seeing a skinny ribbon of a site on their larger monitors. Unless I'm selling things like VCRs or black and white televisions, I'm not going to worry about the lowest common denominator anymore.

How many other industries deal with lowest common denominator issues anymore? Do companies with automated phone systems worry about dial phones? Do software companies still try to make their software work with Windows 95? Do cell phone companies adjust their systems so people with old "brick" style cellular phone still work? Nah.

http://www.grooveking.com/blog/uploaded_images/g-741710.jpg

[Brandon MUS]

From the W3 (obviously a very technical audience): http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp2007 JavaScript On JavaScript Off
January 94% 6%

2006
July 92% 8%
January 90% 10%

[Brandon MUS]

Whoops, I meant to click 'go advanced'.

People turn off JavaScript, too. It's not just that their old Windows 98 computers don't support it (if you look at the same dataset, only 1-2% of the users have win98). Some do it because they hate popups that much... I don't know about you, but I don't want to lose 6-10% of my users because they can't use the site.

JavaScript should only be used to enhance the user experience and not as a requirement. My favorite JavaScript is Unobtrusive JavaScript (http://www.google.com/search?q=unobtrusive+javascript)

[Leanne]

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use a MySQL query and the Tool Kit to somehow look up and populate the bill to country for customers with accounts? MySQL isn't really my thing, but I hoped someone more savvy than I am would have an idea for making this work.

[wcw]

There is no function in the tool kit to pull the customer's bill to country.

[Leanne]

What I was thinking was to somehow call an external file that would query the database, and then pass the variable to the tool kit to display somehow. Oh well. Back to the drawing board, I guess. It would be nice if Miva would just fix the stupid bug already :(