I have the same issue, and is a big problem.  For the "insert state" field some people for example will put California, some put CA, some misspell Calfornia.  This is a big problem because when members try to search by state they get different results.  This could all be fixed with a drop down box with all states, and if you want to take it one step further this logic should be applied down to the city/zip-code level.

Same exact problem, and it's a big one!  Members search in CA, they dont get results of member who input California, or Cali.  This is a MUST FIX.

This is such a bad problem for me and what I want to do, I might not use this script after all

I felt there was sometype of flaw in the search because people were not finding matches although there were matches in their area. I asked customer service about this and they responded that they do not guarantee the accuracy of the data for searches because they use a third party software and they only update it once a year.

This is very concerning.

Location system in SkaDate works the following 2 ways:

1) Simple location mode: it comes with SkaDate by default. You don't need to upload any additional databases (fullcities.zip) and users must choose their country from the list and enter their state/county and city as free text values with all the drawbacks you mentioned.

2) Advanced location mode: You need to have complete database of states/counties and cities of the whole world or particular countries. Then users will be able to choose country, state/country, and city from drop-down list among the suggested values. Also users will be able to search and match by radius from a zip/postal code or a city. To add cities from admin panel you would need to know their coordinates which is a problem.

This database comes from a 3rd party, contains zipcodes and cities coordinates and needs to be constantly updated to stay relevant. That is why we can't guarantee its accuracy. All we can do is to download new versions.

We provide this database free of charge, of course. For hosted and managed customers we also install it free. Self-hosted customers can download this database from Customer Area and upload it manually. If you believe another database is more accurate and it contains sufficient info, we can convert it to match SkaDate format for additional fee.

As far as I see from your words you guys do not have the cities database in place. If you wish to have one feel free to let support know. Also, if you have any suggestions regarding this system let me know.

Thanks.

Paul,

I'm not sure if our support team has UK database. Feel free to ask them, I believe we did some cities database integration for UK sites. If not you might want to search for UK database of counties, cities and postal codes with geographic coordinates.

Thanks.

     Hmmmm... can you explain HOW we (self-hosted) go about using the "us_state_city.rar" with the current version of SKADATE?  I don't see any instructions on HOW to install this SQL and integrate it with the software.