Removing Country Checkout Field | US only | State Drop Down

[jeff768]

how do i swap the default State/Province field for a drop down with the states all ready to go? I did the continental 48 only and it stopped the UPS module. and i ended up backup up from 2 days ago to get the shipping module working again.

currently i have the following settings:

config --> my store --> country : United States

config --> my store --> Zone : Empty

modules - United Parcel Service, UPS - it is on, but light is red. works okay now. NO SHIPPING zone is selected in UPS module.

countries - Canada, CA, CAN |United States, US, USA

zones - none.

zone definitions - florida

i'm really looking for the best way. a month ago i did the delete all countries except us and that threw errors, passing incomplete or non matching address info to paypal. so i guess, i'm looking for the best way over quick and dirty.

[DrByte]

how do i swap the default State/Province field for a drop down with the states all ready to go?

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->State - Always display as pulldown? ---- set to true.

[jeff768]

Thanks for the quick reply. That did nothing. it's like it didn't even work. i double checked.

i need to get RID of THE COUNTRY FIELD all together and have the states in a pull down for both the checkout and the shipping estimator.

please note the settings above in the original posts. i do not have a us, or usa zone set.

bulkgummy.com/index.php?main_page=login

[DrByte]

Keep in mind the following meanings:
Zones = states/provinces associated with countries
Zone Definitions = defined combinations of Zones, which can be assigned for various purposes, such as taxation, shipping restrictions, payment-module restrictions, etc

Thanks for the quick reply. That did nothing. it's like it didn't even work. i double checked.

As I quoted, that setting simply makes the state/province field become a pulldown.

And the pulldown's normal functionality is to show the states/provinces associated with the selected country.

i need to get RID of THE COUNTRY FIELD all together and have the states in a pull down for both the checkout and the shipping estimator.

Well, without knowing the "why" behind how you arrived to making that statement, I would wholeheartedly disagree.

The only thing about the "why" that I can surmise from your post is that you've tried a whole bunch of things to set up some restrictions, for some unknown reason, and didn't arrive at your desired goal, again which isn't stated.

please note the settings above in the original posts. i do not have a us, or usa zone set.

I would suggest you set "My Store: Zone" to your store's state. That's important for several good reasons including shipping and payment and taxation purposes.
I would also suggest setting Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Create Account Default Country ID to United States, since you appear to be desiring that people choose from zones associated with United States.


To "GET RID OF THE COUNTRY FIELD ALTOGETHER" is a complicated process, and breaks many normal operations. That would be heavily customized code, and should be done by a programmer who knows Zen Cart very well, and is prepared to re-do those same customizations again when you upgrade next.
So, without knowing the BUSINESS PROBLEM behind all this, I must simply tell you how Zen Cart is designed to work.

[jeff768]

Short and sweet - The Business Problem is making money. I'm not sure why this is being discussed. fundamental sales, least restrictions to close the sale. I guess I'm really looking for zencart technical help over sales philosophy discussions.

i'm selling to US folks only. I can only ship to US folks. I certainly do not need another drop down or reason for any one to leave. Most decent customized us zencart sites do not have the country field.

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Create Account Default Country ID to United States - ALREADY SET.

set "My Store: Zone" to your store's state - I HAVE NO STATES TO SELECT FROM.... although i went thru this yesterday and did a fresh rewrite of countries, geo_zones, zones, zones_to_go_zones.

i probably have 70 hours into simplifying the checkout process. it should be 3 hours. until this point i was quite happy with zencart. it's been a nightmare to remove the country field.

IS THERE A WAY TO DEFAULT TO US AND THEN JUST HIDE THE FIELD BY CSS? I have it set to default to us and it still says Please Choose Your Country....argg....

[DrByte]

I guess I'm really looking for zencart technical help over sales philosophy discussions.

Of course. But I can't give you technical help if I don't know WHY you went and changed how things were originally designed to work in the first place. And since you didn't offer that information, or at least it wasn't clear, I had to ask.

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Create Account Default Country ID to United States - ALREADY SET.

set "My Store: Zone" to your store's state - I HAVE NO STATES TO SELECT FROM....

Then you have a database problem.

although i went thru this yesterday and did a fresh rewrite of countries, geo_zones, zones, zones_to_go_zones

You've probably got zones associated with non-existent countries, because you've been deleting records and then manually adding new ones back, but without pointing them to their proper related records. And the most common cause of that is hacking the raw database.

To reset all the country/zone data, you'll need to TRUNCATE (not "EMPTY"), and then restore the original data from these tables:
- zones
- geo_zones
- countries
- zones_to_geo_zones

And THEN I suppose I can expect you'll be itching to go back into those tables and delete other countries again. You can of course do that, but I would recommend using the admin-supplied controls instead of breaking things in the database again.

[jeff768]

thanks for the reply. i believe the database problem came when i deleted all the countries but the US. with respect to this step below....

To reset all the country/zone data, you'll need to TRUNCATE (not "EMPTY"), and then restore the original data from these tables:
- zones
- geo_zones
- countries
- zones_to_geo_zones

I did this yesterday. TRUNCATE, nice and clean from another copy of 1.5 on my server. then it killed my ups shipping. just killed it. to the point where i had to pull a copy of the site and database from the 13th and walk on 2 days of work. i'm a bit lerry of this again.

"Yesterday, Zencart and I were friends. Today, not so much."

[jeff768]

Once I get the tables restored, is there a link to how to Remove the country field?

[DrByte]

then it killed my ups shipping. just killed it.

What does "killed it" mean? An error message? No quotes? A blank page? Something else?

to the point where i had to pull a copy of the site and database from the 13th and walk on 2 days of work. i'm a bit lerry of this again

Understandable. That's why when you're making sweeping changes like this it's always smart to do it on a test-copy of your site instead.

When you're doing direct edits in the database, you're bypassing all the protections built-in to the PHP code which preserve all the inter-dependent relationships amongst the various tables. That's why it's safest to use the supplied Admin screens to do these kinds of deletions.

Maybe it would be better if you were to use something like this recently submitted addon: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1424 . Of course, it should be tested on a test copy of your site before putting it on your live site. But it seems to accomplish the basics of what you said you seem to be after.

[jeff768]

Thanks again, but it's still crazy.

i did a nice cleanup of the database from a fresh copy. TRUNCATE, looked okay. I downloaded the above utility to turn off the countries. Sure. Seems nice. The shipping estimator on the cart page works fairly well. Checkout is DOA.

Now. as I only have one country, US, the country field does not even pop up on the checkout page. Thus does not pass that value thru, and errors with...

You must select a country from the Countries pull down menu. - suggestions?