Smart fields

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for directing a computer system to interpret data, the computer system including a display screen, wherein the computer system controls a user interface presented to the display screen, the computer-readable medium comprising:

• instructions for accepting the data from a data entry field of the user interface, wherein the data is input to the data entry field in a user selected format, and wherein the user selected format is different from a common data format recognized by the user interface;
• instructions for normalizing the accepted data to conform to the common data format expected by the user interface, wherein normalizing is based on information about one or more of a geographic location of the user, a geographic location of a server, and a geographic location of a product being used, wherein normalizing further includes,
• identifying that a type associated with the data entry field is a credit card number,
• converting the data into a raw data string using conversion rules associated with the type, wherein the raw data string is a raw credit card string, and
• validating the raw credit card string using validation rules associated with the type of a credit card number;
• and
• instructions for providing the normalized data in the common data format.

A method for using a computer system to interpret data, wherein the computer system controls a user interface presented to a display screen, the method comprising:

• accepting the data from a data entry field of the user interface, wherein the data is provided to the data entry field in a selected format, and wherein the selected format is different from a common data format expected by the user interface, wherein a type associated with the data entry field is a credit card number;
• processing the accepted data based on a current location of the computer system to identify one or more valid formats associated with the accepted data;
• automatically identifying the selected format from the one or more valid formats without user intervention;
• converting the data from the selected format to the common data format;
• and
• providing the data in the common data format.