Special picklist items

There are certain types of picklist item that must be treated as special cases in Typedown and SingleLine searches:

An unresolvable range is a picklist item that represents a range of premises, but where there is not enough information within the data to resolve the entry into a list of premises.

These are very common when searching against the USA data, although they also exist within other data and must be handled appropriately. For example, search using SingleLine against the USA data using the optimal prompt set with the address:

Street Address: Arch St
Zip Code: 02110-14ND

This returns a page containing a text box that prompts the user to enter a premises value within the following range:

2…78 Arch St, Boston MA [even]

This is an unresolvable range, meaning that there is no available data to determine which possible even values between 2 and 78 are valid, and which are invalid. Therefore, the user has to specify the premises number that will resolve this picklist item, so that a single address can be generated from the range.

A phantom primary point is a premises which is non-deliverable unless the user enters further secondary information. This secondary information may or may not be in the actual data. The user must enter this sub-premises information in order to complete a final address match. For example, search using SingleLine against the AUS data using the optimal prompt set with the address:

Building number or PO Box: 44
Street: Miller St
Postcode: 2060

This returns a picklist where the first entry is:

44 Miller Street, NORTH SYDNEY NSW

This is marked as a PPP, which means that if this picklist item is selected, the integration must prompt the user for additional sub-premises information.

An incomplete address is an address that is not deliverable due to missing premises information within the data. This therefore requires the user to provide additional premises information so that the address is deliverable. For example, search using SingleLine against the DEU data using the optimal prompt set with the address:

Street: Feldburg
Building number or name:
Postcode: 50181

This returns a picklist with the following single entry:

Feldburg, BEDBURG 50181

This is marked as an incomplete address, which means that if this picklist item is selected, the integration must prompt the user for additional sub-premises information.

Handling special picklist items

The following steps should be taken when a picklist item is flagged as an unresolvable range, Phantom Primary Point or an incomplete address:

  1. The entry should be stepped into, in the same manner as with hierarchical picklists.
  2. The premises information submitted by the user should then be used to refine the resulting picklist.
  3. The picklist should contain a picklist item at the first position that does not have the original flag, but instead a FullAddress flag.
  4. This flag can be used to format the address.

See xs:string PartialAddress and xs:boolean UnresolvableRange for details on these flags.