AJAX state_select

After downloading the state_select plugin for rails.
I put in a little extra work to make the state select AJAX updated.
The address form looks like:

<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='US' %>

...
<%= country_select 'address', 'country' %>
<%= observe_field :address_country, :frequency=>0.5,
:update=>"state_select",
:url=> {:action=>'state_select', :only_path=>false},
with=>"'country=' + encodeURIComponent(value)" %>

Where the AJAX calls into a partial form:

<% if params[:country] == "United States" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='US' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "India" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='INDIA' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "Canada" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='CANADA' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "Australia" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='AUSTRALIA' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "Spain" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='SPAIN' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "Uganda" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='UGANDA' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "France" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='FRANCE' %>
<% elsif params[:country] == "Germany" %>
<%= state_select 'address', 'state', country='GERMAN' %>
<% else %>
<%= text_field 'address', 'state', :class=>"text" %>
<% end %>

I have posted to their blog to see if the state_select could be updated so there was no translation needed between the "country" from select_country and the "country" parameter passed into the state_select. It would be also nice to return a text field if there is no state list for the given country.
This would mean the partial code would just be:

<%= state_select 'address', 'state', params[:country].uppercase %>


Importing zip codes

This entry will show you how to quickly import zip codes into your database. From there, they can be used with AJAX lookups or verification.

Step 1: Download the zips.txt into your RoR (rails) db directory or some other place.
http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt

Step 2: Generate the table in MySQL

CREATE TABLE zip_codes (
id INTEGER NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT
, zip CHAR(5)
, state CHAR(2)
, town VARCHAR(50)
, population INTEGER
, PRIMARY KEY (id)
);


Step 3: Generate the model

ruby script\generator scaffold zip_code


Step 4: Run this import code

require 'csv'
CSV.open("#{RAILS_ROOT}/db/zips.txt", "r") do |row|
zip = ZipCode.new
zip.zip = row[1]
zip.state = row[2]
zip.town = row[3]
zip.population = row[6]
zip.save!
end


You can then monitor the table size and wait for it to grow to 29k+.