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Phone Number Formatting on the Directory
Posted by on 2018-12-27 at 10:46 AM
Hello All,
We are always working on updating our site and adding new cool things for you. One of those recent things is click-to-call on the Directory.
I potentially need help formatting non-US phone numbers on your profiles. If you see your phone number formatted incorrectly per your country’s conventions, please please let me know.
Here’s the full scoop:
We implemented click-to-call on the Directory, now your clients can click your number and auto-launch the phone application with your number auto-loaded, yahoo!
but – it auto-formatted everything into a US-centric format cutting off numbers, boo.
But don’t worry, it was only for a few hours max about 2 weeks ago or so. I fixed it…mostly.
I forced the widget to display alllll the numbers, but that messed up the formatting for some countries. So while the click-to-call and the display IS ENTIRELY FUNCTIONAL in that it would call the number and display your full telephone number, it wasn’t formatted correctly for each country.
US phone numbers are written: XXX-XXX-XXXX a 3,3,4 format
In order to fix the formatting of everyone’s phone numbers I need to tell the widget how to display by country code
for instance the US fix is: ‘US’=>’3,3,4’,
I’ve got about 25 countries fixed so far….but I only have things like wikipedia to inform me on country phone number display conventions….and there are sometimes more than one option.
SO – if your phone number is formatted incorrectly, please let me know! It will *work* no matter the formatting, but we want your phone numbers to be formatted correctly per your country too : )
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18 Replies
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thank you. the New Zealand mobile phone number format is +64 xx xxx xxxx
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@Lani_Calkin thank you!
annnnd this has revealed another US-centric coding decision by the platform developers. Looks like phone numbers are only dividing into 3 sections at the moment.
Okay! I will work on digging out that poor decision and get the widget to allow for more divisions in phone numbers. This should be fixed I think before the new year rolls around.
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Does it need to be in sections? often on online forms we enter the network code e.g. (027) or (022)1231234 – +(64) 271231234 with 64 being country code, and there can now be 10 digits now that networks have expanded.
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have to? No…but if the standard convention is to have the number as +64-xx-xxx-xxxx then the display should reflect that.
It’s unreasonable that the original code is preventing the correct formatting conventions. We should not need to work around the code of the platform if it can be fixed. The platform should work for us, the way we want and need it to, no matter how small an issue.
If it can be fixed, it will be.
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Okay so we’re most of the way there! 4 segments now possible, @Lani_Calkin your number is now correctly formatted.
I’m still working on phone numbers that need additional segments like *i believe* French numbers
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you are awesome!
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Hi and thank you for the great work !
French numbers are indeed usually shown in 2s !
The international display is +33 x xx xx xx xx.
(national, for calls within France is 0x xx xx xx xx) with the 1st x showing the region or mobile network.
Hope this helps
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@SandraSandrine_Souillard it does help, thank you!
If you had to pick a format…which is more useful for French practitioners?
The way the click to call widget was designed I can change some formatting things, and designate a format per country…but I have to pick one per country. It can’t handle 2 different formats per country…
Which is ridiculous.
Ive already spoken to our developer about this, who says this will not be a problem when we move to our custom platform.
This issue is that the widget only allows for static display and in order to support multiple formats the widget needs to be built with dynamic display. I can prod the widget into fixing the current static displays, but I can’t make it a dynamicly displaying widget since I don’t have access to the code that would fix that.
Sooo I have to pick a single format per country at the moment, which is eye-twitchingly frustrating
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I guess you can keep the international display. Not sure the widget would work with only the national display (without the international country-number before it).
And if only 2 or 3 groups possible, for France you can keep the last 8 digits together.For Germany what might be a problem, is that numbers can have different LENGTH ! (also in Luxembourg. Maybe other countries??)
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I’ve got 4 segments working at the moment, and I’m hoping for more here shortly.
Yes…the different lengths are an issue at the moment, but they would not remain so on a custom platform with dynamically formatted display. And yes it is an issue for more than one country
It’s this sort of smaller thing, that could so easily be fixed, that pushed us to start building the custom platform.
If I just had access to all the code, it could be fixed, but these platforms wont grant that level of access (which I understand why) but they also wont fix smaller things like this themselves either and I cant cajole them into doing so. It’s a frustrating circle.
Thus, custom platform creation where all that ridiculousness ends.
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@SandraSandrine_Souillard
We now have the capacity to list infinite phone number segments, huzzah!
I still have to define it per country, but phone number now can have any segment format and adding a + or not, will no longer affect digit count in those segments!
Yes, we can still improve by having the click to call work no matter the format of the phone number entered. This is already in the works for our custom platform : )
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Hi Lauren, I just noticed that the phone number format on my QH page is now 06 x xx xx xx x , but in France the last 8 digits should be in pairs please! so 06 xx xx xx xx (or the last 8 in one block if it’s a problem)
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@SandraSandrine_Souillard I’m sorry, I thought in the above you said to keep the international format of xx x xx xx xx xx
That is currently how French phone numbers are formatting. Would the national format be more beneficial?
Unfortunately I have to pick a standard format per country.
Again, a problem that will disappear with our custom platform
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Yes please, currently it looks really confusing for French callers.
The international format would be fine but it’s not what is applied now. It would be +xx (for the country code, for example +33 for France) then x (for the area or mobile like 6) THEN 8 DIGITS.
The national format shows no country code but a zero before the 6 or area number (1 to 7) – that’s where it gets confusing for people if the 1st digit after the 6 (for example) is alone and looks like an area number…
For example my number would appear : 06 17 31 02 29. (and only when it’s for foreigners +33 6 17 31 02 29)
Sorry you have to deal with so many details – keep it up 🙂
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Ah I see where we had a communication break down. Okay so when I say format I ONLY mean the segment breaks. I have no ability to add +33 to every phone number.
The + symbol does not count towards the digit count for the segments.
I can pick how to have the number displayed with no regard for the actual digits in the account. It will display the same format for everyone in France no matter how many digits or if they put the +33 or not.
So right now it is the international format by virtue of forcing the phone number digits into the xx x xx xx xx xx format
i can change it to the national format, but then everyone’s phone numbers will be in the xx xx xx xx xx …and if they added extra digits for the international number…they’ll just get tacked on to the end. So if someone’s number was +33.1.23.45.67.89
if I pick a national display that number will appear like: 33.12.34.56.789 because any extra numbers just get added to the end.
if I pick an international format then your phone number, because you did not add the +33, will not display how you’re used to seeing it…but it’s still displaying *correctly* according to the widget…does that make sense?
Is this a dumb limitation? absolutely. If I had any ability to fix this more reasonably I would…So for now, which set of digit breaks are best for France?
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