In Donations 2.0 test drive, false zip codes are accepted - is this the case in the live site as well?

If you mean on front-end validations, no, I don't think so. Convio does have Address Verification (AVS) for fraud protection that validates the first 4 digits of the street address and the zip code against what's on file with the card issuing bank. There isn't a really good response back to the user when that check fails though.

If you're using Donations 2.0, probably the best way would be to compile your own database of valid ZIPs (or find one online) and call out to that before submitting the donation to Convio for processing. To do the valid address check, I think USPS has an API for this, but it's been a while since I explored their offerings. I'm fairly certian, though, that Convio in and of itself, doesn't have this sort of validation unless they have some partner tucked away in a closet they haven't told anyone about yet

mtrautman :

Thanks Michael, I suspected as much, I'm hoping she'll just let it drop!

Mary

Convio does have an address standardization routine, which is what it uses to get a 9-digit zip to assign political districts. If you do not see this operating on your site, see your account rep. However, it does not reject cases where the address fails the routine or where a zip code cannot be assigned. The good news for you is, it shouldn't, and you don't want to reject these addresses. The USPS routine and all its flavors regularly rejects valid addresses, because new streets and zips are created frequently, because people often enter addresses in formats the computer can't interpret but the mail carrier can, and because some addresses are foreign. The only way you should consider a street address as bad is if there is returned mail. Same with zip code. Of course, you're going to get a bunch of garbage addresses (street = "none of your business", and worse) along with the bad zips, but that's a relatively small price to pay. Do you really want to turn away money because of an address typo?