Problems with the current location database

As of about 5 minutes ago I put the finishing touches on code to allow people to make changes to the location data.

This includes being able to move locations between regions, adding and deleting locations and adding and deleting regions.

If you delete a region it will also delete any locations hanging off it.

So those making changes should only use deletes as a last resort as this has implications for users that have selected a location for their location.

Moving a location between regions will not have any impact on users as the region will be updated for all users etc.

The plan is to also replace the current system of listing yourself, you will simply be able to type in your location and hopefully the system will be able to narrow it down so this should be a lot quicker and more efficient. Also finding assurers will gain the same ability to type in a location and the system will in turn the system will display the closest 100 assurers.

Currently people store their location against their user record, I’m planning to split this off into it’s own table so users can store multiple locations.

3 thoughts on “Problems with the current location database

  1. stevec

    Looks good so far. I’ve typed in several small towns in the USA and Europe and have found them predefined in the location database. Auto-completion works well. Other comments:
    – there should be a way for an assurer to check his current location value. Right now, that can be done in a roundabout way, by doing a search on your location and seeing if you are listed.
    – why should the “find an assurer” function require a (secure) login? Shouldn’t that information be visible to anyone, without registering an identity on the CAcert website?
    – where should location database errors be reported? For example, one assurer in Muttenz Switzerland noted that it was listed as Muttenz,Basil-Stadt,Switzerland but the correct region should be Basel-Land (the canton) and not Basel-Stadt (the city). This is like listing “New York City” instead of New York, the state.

  2. thirteen

    Great job (so far)! I’ve tried several villages in Germany and Switzerland. For Germany, I was really surprised to find even quite small villages predefined. Unfortunately for Switzerland this seems not to be the case. Even medium-sized towns are not listened. Often only the capital town of the region is defined which is a bit too few, I think.
    I hope you will add the function to add a custom location soon…

  3. ostridge

    It didnot work for me in Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom. There is no help text, what about spaces in country name? How about some help?????

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