Overview of configuring zones

To use zones in your application, you must import zone files, either files that you have created or files that you have purchased from a vendor. For example, your company might have bought a dataset from a company like GreatData. You then use this dataset to plan your zone configuration. For more information, see Importing address zone data

In planning, consider what parts of an address you need to auto-fill and the format of the ZIP or postal codes. Also, note if any of the values are not unique for a country. For example, the country has two cities with the same name.

While most countries have a similar format for addressing, there can be differences. For example, France uses a five-digit postal code plus a city. Additionally, France has a small locality format that includes more information.

You can define multiple zone types for a country. For example, you can divide your country into zones by county, state, and city. Most cities are in a single zone, such as a state in the United States or a province in Canada.

Zone types are defined as typecodes in the ZoneType typelist. You use these typecodes as elements in the zone-config.xml file. You can add your own zone types to this typelist.

A zone type can be defined to refer to another zone types by using a link. PolicyCenter uses links to look up a zone based on another zone. An example is the relationship between the ZIP code and the state for US zones. Your configuration could link ZIP code to state. For example, given the ZIP code of 94404, the application could auto-fill the corresponding state, California.

You do not necessarily need to define all the Zone subelements for a zone. For example, you can define a zone as the entire country, such as the following definition for all of Australia:

<Zones countryCode="AU"/>