state_province_name key is empty on civicrm_api('contact', 'get', $params)?

[lolas]

I am just testing some simple custom code that calls the api after an upgrade to 4.4.6. In this code we used to use the 'state_province_name" key on the contact array. This key is set in the array but is coming up as an empty  string after the upgrade. The "state_province" key is not empty. It does contain the short name of the province indicating that the contacts do have primary address. I know I have used this key before to get the State/Province long name. Is there a setting perhaps that I am missing in address preferences?

[Eileen]

what did you upgrade from? if 4.4.x that sounds odd. I wouldn't be surprised if the behaviour had changed from 4.3 - I did push pretty hard to maintain consistency in the api but I'm sure some changes snuck through around the edges - especially in untested parameters

[lolas]

Thanks for answering Eileen. This was an upgrade from way back...4.2.9.
It does look to me like this field is not tested based on this: https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/blob/master/tests/phpunit/api/v3/ContactTest.php

Edited to add: The same thing is happening on the demo site using the api explorer for any contact with a primary address, the location type doesn't seem to matter.

[Stuart Parker]

Yes, I am finding that {contact.state_province_name} works using the Civi user interface in the address display but not in the mailing labels format, whereas {contact.state_province} continues to work fine in both.

I am using Civi 4.4.6 on Drupal 7.29

[Stuart Parker]

Under 4.5.2, the state_province_name field is still elusive for mailing labels, meaning that address labels come out just with the short acronym (eg "PA" rather than "Pennsylvania")

You can see this on the demo site, by using the API explorer to Get all the fields for a contact:
http://d45.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/api/explorer
Where a contact has a valid state_province, it shows the same shortened version for state_province_name, whereas I think it should show the long version of the state there.

[Stuart Parker]

I have filed this as an issue on 4.5.2 with a suggested fix here:
https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-15505

[Eileen]

Stuart - you say that {contact.state_province}  works fine in both - what is the problem with just using that? If we change the result coming out of the Query object then code (custom & core) that is adapted to current behaviour will be affected so I think we need to potentially add a parameter or use a different one

[Stuart Parker]

Eileen. I am using Civi in the UK, where we need the full state/province name (which we actually call "county") on mailings. The 2/3 letter acronym, which is well used in the US, is totally unheard of here in the UK and so completely useless in addressing letters. The postman would know where Surrey is, but would be flummoxed by SRY!

Also, {contact.state_province_name} used to work correctly. It's only in recent versions of Civi that it's started giving the shortened version. So I don't think there will be much adaptive code around.

[joanne]

I thought that County was basically superfluous in the UK as far as mail is concerned:

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/how-to-address-mail?intcampaignid=MNmailaddressmail say:

you don’t need to write the name of the county if you have included the post town and postcode

[Stuart Parker]

Well, yes it is. But in a recent change to the list of state/provinces in Civi, "Greater London" was changed to "London". So unless you want "London, London" (which looks messy), you need to rely on the state/province field for the City in at least this case.