Prevent osCommerce from showing Alabama instead of the correct state.

no-more-alabama.js

/*
  Installation:
  Add this script right before the closing </body> tag in your /catalog/includes/template_bottom.php
  Tested on a heavily modified installation of osCommerce v2.3.x

  Explanation:  
  Once a page is loaded, this code checks to see if there's a <select> drop down box on the page with 
  the name of "state".  The Create Account page and the edit your address book pages both use this 
  Select field.  If a customer makes a mistake, and types the state wrong, and has some other issue with
  their input, like an email address that already exists in the database, the customer is redirected back
  to the page with the form.  If there is Not a value with the Selected attribute, which implies they
  did not enter the state correctly, an additional <option>Please Select</option> is added to the list,
  and selected.  This will prevent the customer from submitting Please Select due to the minimum # of chars
  osCommerce validates for before submitting the form.  By Default, the state list is just sorted A-Z, and
  customers will accidentally submit Alabama without realizing.
  
  Please let me know if you have any issues with this code snippet.

*/
<script>
  jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
    if (!$('select[name=state]>option[selected=selected]').length){
        $('select[name=state]').prepend('<option value="" selected="selected">Please Select!</option>');
    }
  });
</script>