Topic: country and state database?

[xcoderx]

then could u suggest me on how do i make the registration for my classifieds site? i want it be for international and if someone from some country post somethin it should be easily be searchable. i hope u r getting my concept? could you gue me with this concept then?

[neil.johnson]

Why not let the users do it for you. Start off with countries. Let the users enter the states / regions / locations etc. Just as DMOZ does http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/
If a location has already been created then another user can select it also. You would not want classified ads at a state level. States / regions / counties are far too large an area. Fo instance if I wanted a classified in the UK I would not want it placed in UK -> Greater Manchester. The area is far too large. I would want UK -> Greater Manchester -> Manchester -> Prestwich. You could go even deeper than that with the way other countries are divided.

Look at the breadcrumbs on this page:
http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Manchester/Prestwich/

Also look how deep this page is for Wyoming in the state of West Virginia USA. It also goes deeper into towns.
http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/West_Virginia/Counties/Wyoming/

[xcoderx]

god bless bro this is something i like. ok say for example i let users enter it but by any means if a user say makes a spelling mistake in state/region/location etc how will that be fixed? then even if it exsist other user will again try to enter same kind of name but with different character. what will the solution for that be?

[neil.johnson]

There will have to be a degree of moderation. So, you will obviously approve the classifieds before they go onto your website (otherwise you will end up with spam). This is where you can check the data. In the process where a user submits a classified you could first get them to navigate to the location where the ad will appear rather than selecting from a drop list, so I would click on UK -> Manchester. If my location is not listed then I could suggest it at that point to go into the current screen i.e Prestwich (UK -> Manchester -> Prestwich).
If you look at DMOZ again, when I am on the following page I can submit my url http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Manchester/Prestwich/ by clicking the suggest URL link.

[xcoderx]

found the free solution at last :-) lol

http://www.darwinshome.za.net/demo/xmlworld/