The quirky shoe sizes (Read 2832 times)

A couple of weeks ago, jkmnop asked if I can add a shoe size field to the shoe data. One would imagine that it would be easy: add a new field to the page, and save the data to the database. Normally, this would take me about 15 minutes, if that. I also learned that nothing is as easy as it seems. So what's the problem? The first thing that came to mind was international support. For a given pair of shoes, there are several shoe sizes associated with it. There's the US/Canada size that made no sense to me. There is the European system, as well as a separate set of numbers for the UK. Australia and Japan have their own as well. Wouldn't it be neat if you specify a shoe size in a particular unit, and that number can be automatically converted to another unit so users from other countries can relate? So off I went to find a conversion table. I wasn't expecting anything simple like a formula. A lookup table would work just as well. I found one immediate using Google, then another, and another. And they are all different! It turned out that each manufacturer has its own conversion table: http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/TWInt/Twint_Pages/shoe.html. A Nike US size 10 is the same as a UK 9, but a New Balance US 10 is a UK 9.5! Why in the world would this number be different? An inch will always be 2.54 centimeters. PI will always be 3.14159654... (that was actually from memory). Why can't shoe sizes behave in the same way? So, I had to scratch the nifty idea of auto conversion, or at least until I can find conversion tables for all manufacturers. If anyone can find the conversion tables for other brands, please let me know. The next problem is ensuring data integrity. I need to ensure that a user can't enter obviously wrong shoe sizes. For example, a size of 99 is obviously impossible using the European shoe size. The cardinal rule of writing software for other people to use is to assume that every user is hostile. I know that none of you want to ruin this site, but I can't say the same thing for the next user that signs up. For this, I opted to let the user select the size from a dropdown. To make it user friendly, the default shoe system should depend on the user's country. If you're from Australia, then the Australian system should be displayed. This adds another level of complexity: if you live in a country in Europe, then the European system should be selected, except if you live in the UK. So, I took a brief tour of the continent, and located all its member countries. So far so good. Whenever a user changes the size system, the list of possible shoe sizes needs to be updated as well. Otherwise, the numbers won't make sense. That means I had to write a little bit of Java script to update the list, and it was pretty straight forward. A simple field is expanded to two fields: one for the shoe size, and the other for the unit system. After a couple of hours, I finally added the new fields to the page, as well as hooking it up to the database. So who wants to be a web developer?

Gee, Eric...I think you should add widths, too... j/k k

Not to pile more onto your worries, but I noticed a glitch in the "Edit Shoe" menu when I try to add a new shoe using Firefox (on Mac OSX.4). I have no problem with the "Make" pulldown menu, but when I next choose an option from the "Model" pulldown menu it "sticks" -- the pulldown menu (especially the slide bar on the right side) doesn't dissappear and disrupts my ability to fill in the next entry blank. I noticed this at least a month ago, I think, before you added in shoe sizes. (Sorry, I should have brought it up then but I don't often add shoes so I forgot about it. ) Keep in mind that I'm one of those pesky Mac users who is using Firefox. And you've got a list of very important/cool features to add so if this isn't a quick-fix, no big deal... we Mac users are used to finding the work-around since we can't expect every site to bend to our needs! I'm really enjoying your new updates! Great job!

Have you tried it in Safari--

Yes, thanks! I forgot to mention that it works fine in Safari (but, as a rule, Safari has other problems that I try to avoid), which is why I suspect it's a FF problem only. Again, no big deal. Just thought I should report it.

LOL!!! And with all that hard work my shoe model wasn't listed! Good thing you can type in the drop-down box... You know I love this site.

I think shoe data is an area where you got "a little carried away" to quote you, Eric. I think it's great to have an online running log that lets you track shoe mileage but that's about it. Is it really necessary to have the make and model pulldowns? Let alone size? Before this site I was used to just giving a shoe name (with a uniqe date code) when I added a new shoe, something like, "Asics Landreth 08-06." Wouldn't it be a whole lot less work for you and just as easy for the users (if not easier) to just make the shoe field a freeform field? I don't see what funcionality the user loses in that. If he/she wants to add size it's easy to write, "Landreth 08-06 size 9.5". Just my .02. Either way, best online log I've ever used.

Mike, The shoe area is not yet finished. There are several more components associated with it that I haven't added yet. Once I get to it, you'll understand why I did it that way. If I started it with just a text field, then it's much harder to add the subsequent parts.

Your shoe model's not listed because you're the first one to have them. The shoe models are added by users of this site. It takes a little more work on my part, but it saves me work now because I don't have to maintain it.

Ahhhhh! ::giggle:: I hope I'm the first one to have these shoes... the bottom didn't look worn at all... Thanks! Good night!