function validatePhone( vField, vEdits ) {

//strip input of spaces, hyphens, underscores, parenthesis, and slashes to prepare for validation testing

	var ph_str = strip_chars(vField.value, " -_()/ \\");
  	var ph_len = ph_str.length;

	var phonetype = "Both";
	var errorstatusUS = "False";
	var errorstatusIN = "False";
	var msg = "";
	var msgbase = "Please enter a valid Phone Number with area code. \nIt can only contain numbers, dashes, parenthesis.\n\n";
	var msgUS = "Do not include '1' for long distance.\nInternational phone numbers are not valid for this field.";
	var msgIN = "It must begin with '011'.\nUS phone numbers are not valid for this field.";
	var msgBoth = "Do not include '0' or '1' for long distance.\nInternational phone numbers must begin with '011'.";

//test if there is no input (not required), get other edit flags.

	if (vEdits != null) {

		if ( (vEdits.indexOf("nr") > -1) || (vEdits.indexOf("NR") > -1) ) {

			if (ph_str == ""){
				vField.value = "";
				return true;
			}
		}
		if ( (vEdits.indexOf("us") > -1) || (vEdits.indexOf("US") > -1) ) {
			phonetype = "US";
			msg = msgbase + msgUS;
		}
		if ( (vEdits.indexOf("in") > -1) || (vEdits.indexOf("IN") > -1) ) {
			phonetype = "IN";
			msg = msgbase + msgIN;
		}
	}

	if ( msg == "" ) { msg = msgbase + msgBoth; }

//Check if valid US phone number
//test for leading zero or 1
	if ((ph_str.substring(0,1) == 0) || (ph_str.substring(0,1) == 1)) {
		errorstatusUS = "True";
	}
//test the phone number has 10 digits
	if (ph_len != 10) {
		errorstatusUS = "True";
	}

//Check if valid International phone number
//test for leading 011
	if (ph_str.substring(0,3) != "011") {
		errorstatusIN = "True";
	}
//test the phone number has 6 to 17 digits
	if ( (ph_len < 6) ||  (ph_len > 17) ) {
		errorstatusIN = "True";
	}
// test for numerics (ch is assigned a numeric value)
//loop:  as long as j equals numerics, add one to j and test the next value till you reach 
//   the length of the string
	for (var j = 0; j < ph_len; j++) {
		var ch = ph_str.substring(j, j+1);
		if ((ch < "0") || ( ch > "9")) {
			errorstatusUS = "True";
			errorstatusIN = "True";
		}
	}

// Check flags to see if phone number is valid and of the proper type.
	if ( ( errorstatusUS == "True" ) && ( errorstatusIN == "True") ) {
		alertBox( vField, msg, "text");
		return false;
	}
	if ( ( phonetype == "US") && ( errorstatusUS == "True") ) {
		alertBox( vField, msg, "text");
		return false;
	}
	if ( ( phonetype == "IN") && ( errorstatusIN == "True") ) {
		alertBox( vField, msg, "text");
		return false;
	}

// Phone number is valid, so reformat according to type.
//      Since the International and US formats are mutually exclusive (US doesn't allow leading 0, and International requires leading 0),
//      we only need to check to see which format did not receive an error.
//reformat US phone number (area code) 123-4567
	if (errorstatusUS == "False" ) {
		vField.value = "("+ ph_str.substring(0,3) + ") " + ph_str.substring(3,6) +  "-" + ph_str.substring(6,10); 
	}
//reformat International phone number 011-12345678901234
	if (errorstatusIN == "False" ) {
		vField.value = ph_str.substring(0,3) + "-" + ph_str.substring(3, ph_len); 
	}
     return true;
}
function ValidatePhone( vField, vEdits ) {
	return validatePhone( vField, vEdits ) }