I know you're thinking about technical things, but there are some common errors you can easily make, and a huge number of American companies make them ....
(1) Not all countries have zip codes, and only a few have 5 character numeric codes. So don't REQUIRE a 5 numeral zip code. (2) Few countries use two characters to name their states/provinces, and some don't have any such divisions at all. So don't make your "state" field a drop down list consisting of only the 50 US 2character state abbreviations. (3). American 1-800 numbers don't work outside the USA. So provide a regular phone number if you're going to put a 1-800 number. (4) Only North America has phone numbers in the format (999) 999-9999. The rest of the world has a dazzling array of formats, and not everyone has area codes. So don't use that stupid feature in CF to format a field as a phone number field. You're locking non-Canadian and non-US customers out of that field. Not everyone has 7 character phone numbers. Some have 5, some have 10, some have numbers in between. (5) Don't use seasons to describe time. It's common for American companies to talk about something being released "next spring" for example. But not all countries have 4 seasons. In the tropics they only have two seasons (Hong Kong, South East Asia, North of Australia, Central America for example). And anyway when we see this expression here in Australia, we often think "which 'spring' is it referring to - is it ours or theirs?" "Summer" in these parts is December-March. And similarly don't use terms like 1QR or Quarter 2. The financial year in Australia begins on 1 July. IN New Zealand it beings 1. April. Different times in other countries. So does the term "beginning of 2Qtr" mean April, (i.e. beginning of the second calendar quarter) or September (beginning of second financial quarter in Australia) or June (beginning of second financial quarter in New Zealand) etc etc around the world. Don't be lazy, use the month names and everyone will know what you mean. (6) Despite the prevalence of the US Dollar, not everyone wants to deal in that currency, and anyway, it can be very expensive to convert local currency to US. (It costs AUD$15 to bank a US cheque in a Australian bank account for example ) So provide for some way for your customers to pay you in local currency. Or make it easy for them to convert. (7) Remember that when you send your data across the Atlantic, or the Pacific Oceans it might well travel 70,000 km before it arrives at the user's browser. (35,000 up to a satellite and 35,000 down again) So don't put huge files in your site - big graphics etc - just because it runs fast in your home town, doesn't mean it's going to run fast half a world away. Will your prospective customers in Europe and Asia wait to download that fancy flash page that you love but which does nothing at all for the customer? (8) I once tried to download some software from a major international company (who will remain nameless but recently announced a merger with Compaq) where the registration form had a compulsory field that required a social security number for pete's sake. The product was a printer driver - not a US specific piece of software, but for general release around the world. The moron who designed that page hadn't thought for a moment that there might just be people in the world who didn't have US social security numbers. (Like for example ALL of the non-US residents!!) I had to make up a social security number, and tinker around with numbers until I invented one the form liked. I also had to invent an address because it had a 5 character compulsory zip code so I just took an address from a company's ad in a magazine. And this is without even touching the idea of language choices. It's common in Europe and Asia for sites to be built in several languages and you choose on the home page which language you want to see. This is costly and duplicates effort to translate your site into other languages, but how many other customers will you get if you do the translation? These are just some random thoughts. I know you were thinking about CF's Locale setting and similar matters, but perhaps these more general thoughts might help you too. Cheers, Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia AFP WebWorks -----Original Message----- From: Paul Giesenhagen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 1:04 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Internationalization We are makers of SiteDirector a commerce application and are getting ready to move it towards internationalization (if that is the correct term). We have many customers who are requesting if SiteDirector supports other languages, currency and so forth. Well it doesn't.. but we want it to! To be honest, I am fairly clueless on where to start, but willing to learn. Does anyone out there know of any good resources to view/read on what steps need to take place .. (ie languages, currency ..and other concerns?). Any help or pointing in the right direction will be most appreciated! Thank you Paul Giesenhagen QuillDesign http://www.quilldesign.com SiteDirector v2.0 - Commerce Builder ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
