Map display options

Posted by cici in Advanced, Map, Our Add Ons, Settings

Map Display

The Experience add-on for the WP Store Locator Plus or the MySLP/Professional Plan  allows you to customize the way your Map  is displayed and behaves.

With the WPSLP Experience add-on installed and activated  go to Settings/Map.

  • Show Map (default)
  • Hide map until search
  • Image until search
  • Do not autozoom
  • Full Screen (With  WPSLP Experience add-on or Professional level MYSLP)

Appearance

Additional options such as Hide the Map entirely or to change the layout  are available with add-ons. (See   Map layout and appearance   WPSLP Experience Add-on.   or if you have  purchased the Professional and /or Enterprise level MYSLP SaaS . If you do not have the Add-on or the corresponding MySLP plan,  the  optional settings will  NOT appear.   (Note: With MYSLP there is a sidebar menu  called Store Locator Plus/Settings where you will find the same. See Adjust Locator styling for more information)

The additional options with the above mentioned plans or add-ons allows you to  hide the map , change the map layout, change the map bubble display, and/or  hide the map info bubble.  The Plugin Style under View (WPSLP) may supersede these settings. Choose one that  will compliment your theme or utilizes the add-on features available to you.

Q. Why am I seeing a message that I do not have sufficient permissions when I am trying to manage my locations?

Posted by cici in FAQ, for WordPress, Troubleshooting

You Do Not Have Sufficient Permissions

If you are getting the message “you do not have sufficient permissions to access this page” when trying to access the “Manage Locations” or “Map Settings” page, but “Add Locations ” is working it is because another plugin is interfering with the submenu management module in WordPress. You will likely find that any plugin that has a separate sidebar menu with multiple entries underneath will only work on the first entry. There is little we can do to remedy the situation without risking breaking other plugins. We suggest deactivating other plugins, one-at-a-time, until you find the plugin causing problems then ask them to rewrite their menu and submenu process and admin panel filters to ensure the basic menu system remains intact.

Gray map or blank map and/or search does not work

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, Map, Search, Troubleshooting

JavaScript Problems:

Note: Major Updates to WordPress versions (example 5.0 , 5.5 ,5.7) may effect themes behaviors and plug-ins and cause additional errors. We strongly advise updating on a staging site or dev or  test site first instead of allowing AUTO UPDATES)

Many times we hear that an update to SLP plug-in  broke “everything”.  Upon asking  for clarification  we find out that they also updated WP and/or  other plugins or did not update their themes.   WordPress explains how to  use your browser to diagnose javascript error

Issues with the JavaScript part of the plugin usually manifest themselves by showing the search form but either a blank map, a map that is all gray, or a map that appears but search does not wor properly. To identify what is causing your issue use the Firebug add-on with Firefox or any Browser developer tools (see above info in the link to WordPress on how to diagnose with browser).

The WordPress Store Locator Plus map rendering is managed by the slp.js JavaScript file.  It sets up the communication with the built-in WordPress AJAX handler, admin-ajax.   Your server must be setup to allow the built-in WordPress AJAX handler to execute.  Additionally, ANY PLUGIN or THEME that is breaking javascript will break SLP functionality. This is rarely an issue with the SLP plugin.

Common errors or issues:

The PHP JavaScript connector did not load

We have come across this error on several installations. The short answer to this problem is that something in the WordPress installation prevented the Store Locator Plus JavaScript component from loading. This means that the map system cannot communicate with Google. This prevents the map from appearing and search results from working properly on your locations page.

Here are some issues we’ve come across that cause this to happen:

    • PHP version is < 5.3, this generates an error message that you will not see in the browser. Any error message will prevent the JavaScript PHP file from loading. SLP will not work with versions lower then PHP 5.3.
    • PHP Error Reporting Enabled, if PHP error reporting is enabled and ANY PLUGIN has bugs, uses deprecated WordPress functions, or uses deprecated PHP functions they will generate an error message. This error message can be hidden in the browser if the error happens in something that is creating page header information. This will also break the page loading process and prevent the JavaScript PHP from loading.
    • Plugin Errors, any plugin that does not load properly and does ANYTHING with page header output will break and thus cause a domino effect prevent the Store Locator Plus PHP JavaScript component from loading.

In many cases the cause of the maps not loading is because our PHP JavaScript file could not load. We can often detect this and pop-up the “PHP JavaScript connector did not load” warning. However we cannot catch all errors. Why good Javascript is critical.

One of the best tools for searching for errors in the HTML page headers is to use Firefox with the Firebug plugin or any browser developer tool. Turn on the console and check the responses tab under console for any errors. We have resolved many client installation and map problems with this plugin. More often than not we are finding errors in other plugins, themes, or server/site  configuration settings.

The PHP JavaScript page header is a critical part of a working Store Locator Plus installation. Since it loads very late in the page creation process it is susceptible to failures from almost anything else you may be loading on the page or your WordPress site. The the map is not loading and you are receiving this message get some page debugging/tracking tools like Firebug and isolate any plugins that are generating coding/output errors.

IF YOU Update your WordPress environment , BE SURE TO  review  the WordPress VERSION changes  as they have changed.

Review the WordPress suggested requirements

  • Update PhP to 7 or higher
  • Update MySQL to 5.6 or higher
  • Site move to HTTPS 

2017 was  the year  WordPress was requiring   hosts to have HTTPS available. Just as JavaScript is a  necessity for smoother user experiences ,  updated PHP versions are critical for performance,  and SSL just makes sense as the next hurdle  users are going to face.   Note: Google also weighs SSL as a search engine ranking factor and have begun flagging unencrypted sites in Chrome.

Search and results not loading

Posted by cici in Advanced, Support, Troubleshooting

AJAX Blocked

It is common for web hosts and system administrators to disable the built-in WordPress AJAX processing.   Store Locator Plus requires AJAX to be enabled.   This typically manifests itself with the AJAX call to the admin-ajax.php script not executing.

You can test this by directly surfing to the admin-ajax script on your server with a URL similar to this:

/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=csl_ajax_onload&addressInput=&ignore_radius=1

This should return a JSON response showing curly braces that start with {“success”:true,…

If it comes back with nothing, or a warning/error about being blocked, your AJAX security is not set properly.  Check you web server log files and talk to your system admin for assistance on configuring access to WordPress AJAX scripts.

Q. I paid for email support what happens next?

Posted by cici in FAQ, Support

A.   For an  email support order:

  • If you pay and order support on Monday morning before 9 A.M EST , someone in customer support will answer you on, or before Wednesday no later than Thursday of the same week.  If you want to speed things up,  you may follow up with  an email to support letting them know you have submitted an order for support and provide your Plugin environmnet information and a brief explanation of your issue.
  • If you order and Pay for support on a Friday, realize that we are on the east coast.   If the support request comes in at 4 PM EST (which is 1PM Pacific time), do not count that Fri,Sat/Sun. The clock would start ticking Monday for a 3 Biz day email query and an acknowledgement of your paid support or a reply , if you have already provided the info concerning your issue, a reply would be forthcoming on or before Wed the following week.
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Q. What is the difference between a shortcode and locator layout settings?

Posted by cici in FAQ, Map, Professional, Results, Search, Settings, View

A.    A shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort.  Shortcodes can embed files or create objects that would normally require lots of complicated, ugly code in just one line.   In other words, a Shortcode = shortcut.

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Import remote file retrieval

Posted by cici in Our Add Ons, Professional

Power Add-on for WPSLP or the Professional level or higher for MySLP   allows the administrator to schedule your Import process from a remote file retrieval (must be accessible public) to provide more control over recurring imports from a full url where you CSV file resides and allows flexibility for scheduling the time for daily imports.

WordPress CRON is not exact, it executes the next time a visitor comes to your site.

WordPress times are UTC/GMT time NOT local time. Set to none and leave the URL blank to clear the CRON job. Example: 14:25. (Default: empty = do not run daily cron)

Checking your server, PHP and MySQL to ensure the character set is correct will go a long way toward importing special characters like registration characters.

Additional Import Data field headers

Posted by cici in Our Add Ons, Professional

If you have the Power add-on  for the Self managed WPSLP or if you have the Professional Level MySLP SaaS plan, you will have the ability to import data fields via a properly formatted csv file.  All columns MUST have a header row with  the correct  field name.   All fields are short text fields, up to 255 characters, unless otherwise noted.  The header text is NOT case sensitive.

If you are using the category  functionality of Power you may want to import and assign a category slug on the fly.  The header field name is:

category (or plural categories).

If you wish to import and assign more than one category  per location , you will need to use a comma-separated list for the data field  (category).  Example: My location has more than one category associated with it, I want to indicate it is a hotel,restaurant, and has music.  Category  for that location would show under the column with the header row “category”…. hotel,restaurant,music

Alternatively, to define parent/child relationships , i.e.  hierarchical categories , use a double colon as the separator Example the Parent is Facility, the child is showroom.

Facility::Showroom.

Use Dial Link For Phone Setting

Posted by cici in Our Add Ons, Professional, Results, Settings

Included in MySLP Professional and WPSLP Experience.

Find it under Settings | Results | Results Interaction

When the Use Dial Link for Phone Setting is checked it will make the phone number in your locations results clickable to auto dial by adding a tel: based hyperlink.

The dial-ready hyperlink will be used wherever the [slp_location] shortcode is used.   This includes the results under the map, directory landing pages, and in Store Pages if the [slp_location] shortcode is used instead of the [storepage field=”phone”] shortcode.

Extensions Pause

Use along with the Phone Extension Delimiter setting to handle pauses for extensions.

 

Formerly labelled: Make a Dial Link Phone number (clickable)

 

User Interface Settings for WPSLP plug-in

Posted by cici in Advanced, General, Professional, User Interface

Settings that impact how JavaScript works on your site.  Note, if you subscribe to the MySLP SaaS, you will  not see a General tab. With the MySLP we  take care of this for you!  The My Store Locator Plus service is a fully-managed application that works with any website or mobile development platform.

UI jQuery Version –

reflects the jQuery version that is currently used with  the Store Locator Plus version  you are using. The SLP jQuery versions are in compliance with the WordPress minimal version requirements.

Force Load JavaScript

 

This settings forces the Store Locator Plus JavaScript (slp.js) to be loaded when your WordPress Theme header is loaded. This is NOT the way to go.  It is recommended that you turn OFF “Force Load JavaScript” and instead contact your theme author. See Troubleshooting for more information

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