Best ios alternative for an html select box?

Question

An app I'm working on requires the user to enter their address which is then stored on a 3rd party system. The 3rd party has a predefined list of countries and states so when I send off the address I need to send an id for those fields.

When I've used this system on the web I've had the user pick their country first using a select box and then had a second select box where they pick their state (this list is updated when the user changes their country).

What I'm wondering is what's the best way to get that information from a user in an iPhone app?

The two options I've considered so far are:

• Re-creating something similar to the html select box, so there's a form field that when the user taps triggers an action sheet with a standard iOS picker (similar to this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1262574/add-uipickerview-a-button-in-action-sheet-how).

• Have a button on the form that takes the user to a new screen with a scrollable list of countries / states (depending on which one they're editing)

Does anyone have any advice as to which of those is the best approach or if there's a better way I've overlooked?

Answer 1

Due to small device screen HTML-like form isn't a best way to get user input.

If it's a registration form or something, you should probably rethink the whole thing and make it suited for small devices and touch input by doing the following:

1. Minimize number of items user should fill. Keep only required fields, or even move some of the required fields to profile or something so user will be able to fill these fields later. Let user fill as little data as it possible because small devices has input limitations (small size, no full size keyboard, etc).

2. Rethink the rest of the form and make it a wizard of one or several screens. Split your form into logical groups and put the inputs of every group on an individual screen (username and password, location settings, etc).

So, I think, that it's better to use option 2 (show all of the countries on a single screen and guide user to choose a state for US then), but instead of placing a button I will suggest to split your form and use a number of steps (screens).