Store Locator Plus® Professional subscriptions support the Google map style rules. These rules let you control the “inner style” of the map itself. You can turn off built-in Google map icons, change the width or roads, change the font size of various labels. Some styles will even change the color of the land and water bodies if you are truly looking to customize the map style to better match your brand. You will find some basic examples of these JSON settings below or you can use the Google styling wizard to create your own custom look and feel.
The February 2025 update to Store Locator Plus® includes a lot of changes to the Store Locator Plus® Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. As we work towards modernizing the user experience , changes are primarily to the user interface to pare down the legacy WordPress framework that runs our service. As part of that effort, we have changed the main menu interface including renaming some items and moving some key features to top-level positions in the sidebar menu.
This guide is intended to show you new features as well as where to find key elements of the Store Locator Plus® interface.
Note: if you are using our legacy WordPress plugins, many of the changes noted here will not apply to you. Recent events in the WordPress community along with our personal experiences with the “WordPress Plugin Directory gatekeepers” has led us to focus on improving our SaaS offering. Many new features and interface updates are likely to remain SaaS-only options.
Store Locator Plus® Information
The Info page is now attached to the top-most main menu item labelled Store Locator Plus® that is on the top left of the sidebar menu.
The Info page shows key articles from the Getting Started Documentation as well as current news about Store Locator Plus®.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Info
The previous menu location for the info page was at a second level menu under Store Locator Plus® | Info.
Legacy Menu : Store Locator Plus® | Info
Locations
The legacy version of Store Locator Plus® included a simplified user interface for managing locations and was labelled “MySLP” (the original project name we had assigned to our SaaS offering).
The menu changes for the 2025 release keeps this in the sidebar menu where it has been renamed Locations.
The locations page provides a simplified interface built in the React JavaScript framework. It provides a simpler interface for viewing basic location data and includes both a table-style list format as well as a modern cards style interface.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Locations
The old location for the Locations page was at the top-most sidebar entry and was named MySLP.
Legacy Menu : MySLP
Location Details
Location Details is where you will find the interface for performing more complex actions as well as viewing more of the location data fields in a table format. This page includes advanced location management features such as performing bulk actions — actions on multiple locations at once. You can also find tools for loading locations from another Store Locator Plus® install including legacy WordPress plugin sites or for importing a long list of locations with a CSV import. You can view up to 999 locations at a time on the table presentation as well as view and sort by various location attributes.
This interface is based on the legacy WordPress plugin with many of the features found here on the development schedule to be moved to the more modern React-based interface.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Location Details
The legacy interface included this feature as a second-tier menu under Store Locator Plus® | Locations.
Legacy Menu Store Locator Plus® | Locations
Style
The 2025 update includes a completely new interface for loading various pre-crafted locator styles for your map interfaces. This feature provides pre-defined CSS styling as well as Store Locator Plus® settings that change the entire user experience with the Store Locator Plus® maps and directories. This provides a quick way to try different interface designs on your locator installation without having to guess at various settings and CSS styles to see which works best.
Included in the 2025 update for this feature is a preview of the interface that updates whenever you load a new style. You no longer need to load a locator style then go to the Generate Embed tab to see what it looks like.
Many web designers use this features as a starting point to find a style that is close to what they are looking for, then modify the settings and CSS details to fine tune the look-and-feel for their website.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Style
Previously, this feature was found in the Store Locator Plus® | Settings page on the View tab and was labelled “locator style”.
Legacy Menu Store Locator Plus® | Settings | View
Settings
The previous second-tier menu under Store Locator Plus®/ Settings is now a top-level sidebar menu.
Various settings change the user experience for your maps and directories. Settings can be changed for search, map, and results elements to the interface.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Settings
The legacy location for Settings was previously under the Store Locator Plus® | Settings sidebar menu.
Legacy Menu Store Locator Plus® | Settings
Generate Embed
When you are ready, generate and retrieve the HTML code that will be embedded on any website or app where you want to display the Store Locator Plus® map or directory.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Generate Embed
This menu item was previously a second-tier entry at Store Locator Plus® | Generate Embed.
Legacy Menu Store Locator Plus® | Generate Embed
Options
The Options page includes various settings that impact how the Store Locator Plus® app behaves and/or displays information on background processes that may be running. This is primarily used for Enterprise level processing of locations. For enterprise users running ongoing location loading or data management processes you can see scheduled actions here. Future application management options will also appear on this page.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Options
This page was under the Store Locator Plus® | General sidebar menu, and has been renamed “Options” in the newest release.
Legacy Menu Store Locator Plus® | General
Note: Force Load JavaScript was a setting only used with WordPress plugins and was provided to support malformed themes. This option does not apply to the SaaS release and is no longer supported in the WordPress plugin.
My Profile
My Profile is where you can update your plan, change your billing details, or cancel your subscription. It shows the current limits and usage on your account, what features are available, and a history of your interaction with the SaaS platform.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : My Profile
This is unchanged from the legacy release.
Contact Us
Contact us to send a message to the Store Locator Plus® support team. When your message is sent , support will receive details about your account with your message.
Store Locator Plus® 2025 Menu Changes : Contact Us
This menu is unchanged from the legacy release, other than repositioning the location to be above the “Log Out” option.
The label that will be displayed in front of the Search form box on your locator page can be changed under Settings/Search in the Appearance section Label. If none are set, a blank box will appear on your site. The “Address” Label you enter will appear in front of the search box. The “radius” information indicates to the site visitor that this is the radius (whatever radii you entered in the search form for radii options.
Consider this label as a help text tool for the site visitor to assist them as to what to enter in the box. Label Examples: zip code, city, street, or a combination such as address / zip code. The more detailed the better. We find address and zip code to be the most useful hint. If you leave this label blank nothing will appear in front of the search form box and your site visitors will be guessing what to enter to start their search.
The default format for the results string uses the numerical encoding for the various data elements that can be rendered. This default string format is present in the base Store Locator Plus plugin. You can reset to the default at any time by deleting the entry in the Results Layout field under Settings/Results/Appearance and saving the settings.
Locations are added to Store Locator Plus® via the sidebar menu via the locations submenu. This option presents a list of all locations along with a menu option to add a location via a web form.
When a visitor goes to a page with the Store Locator Plus® map code embedded, it will show a default search form and a map centered in your country or on the “Center Map At” address you entered when configuring Store Locator Plus®. When someone searches for a zip code that is close enough to a location you entered it will show those locations on the map.
There are five to seven sections under the Settings/Results tab admin panel depending on which add-ons you have activated. Each section describes when and/or where the results will appear under your map.
Not all of the settings will appear if you have the Advance level plan for SaaS or do not have the Experience and/or the Power add-ons for the basic WPSLP self managed plug-in.
At Startup
You determine the Number of results you want to appear on the map and locator page as soon as the page loads when you have “Show locations at startup” checked. We recommend 50 for most sites unless you have the Premier add-on or Enterprise level plan (if using MYSLP) which allows less clutter on the map by virtue of “cluster markers”.
The next setting is the radius to search initially when “Show locations at startup” is checked. Leave empty to use the map radius default. Recommended : Set to a large number to search everywhere.
And the third setting is : ” Number to show initially.” How many results do you want to show under the map? This is the part that populates the actual information regarding your locations (under or next to your map depending on the style) with the address, website info, phone, etc.
If you are signed up for the MYSLP, the Professional level plan) additional settings can be enabled , for example do NOT show the results until after a search has been performed”. The setting is labeled “Disable Initial directory”
MySLP Professional and Enterprise level services allow for locations to be categorized. Each category for a location can have its own map marker associated with the category. These markers are then displayed on the map to mark the location. (This also applies for those customers using the WordPress SLP plug-in with the Power add-on or Premier)
However, some locations may belong to more than one category. In this case the map marker that is selected to be displayed on the map is determined by the RANK assigned to the category. If multiple categories have the same rank, or no rank, then the first category by alphabetical listing will be the one selected as the “main” category for rendering the map marker.
Default map markers when no category is selected.
Filtering Locations By Category
What happens when a user decides to filter the list of categories? Only locations that are within the selected category are shown.
If the location only belongs to ONE category, as is the case for the “#1 Food Store” in our example above, the choice is easy. Show the category map marker.
But what should be displayed if a location belongs to several categories, as is the case for our “24 Seven #1” location shown in the example above?
Prior to our mid-September 2020 release of Store Locator Plus® (or the Power 5.5.7 add on for our legacy WordPress plugin users), the marker for the “24 Seven #1” location would be the highest ranked category, which is the convenience store marker.
With the mid-September 2020 release, however, this behavior has changed. The map marker displayed will be the one that matches the filter the user selected.
Since our mid-September 2020 release, category filters change the map markers to match.
Multiple Location Categories
What about Store Locator Plus® interfaces that allow users to select more than one category, such as interfaces that allow checkbox selections for categories? Markers will be chosen from the markers for the selected categories only. If a location matches 2 or more of the categories, the highest ranked OF THOSE SELECTED will be displayed on the map.
This is different from earlier versions of Store Locator Plus® where it would always display the highest ranked category map marker, even if it was not part of the checked list of categories.
The Locations panel in Store Locator Plus is where you add, manage, edit and/or delete locations.
Bulk Actions and Filters
SLP Locations panel has a bulk tab with drop down actions and other filters that can be applied . If you have a large number of locations, bulk actions can be a very useful tool. If you have more locations than can fit on the display, you can set the display filter to show more locations. You may also use filters to display and manage non – geocoded locations, or show locations with certain properties. The display can be adjusted to suit your needs but configuration constraints and/or server constraints may effect your outcome.
Not all Bulk actions will appear if you have only the base plugin installed. Bulk action filters for removing Tags, performing Exports, geocoding all uncoded, and bulk categorize certain locations will be shown only if you have the WPSLPPower add-on or Professional or Enterprise level Plans for MySLP
The default number of locations that will be displayed on the admin user Interface is 10. Selecting a large number to display can be useful to view or manage but if your server capacity cannot handle it or changes and you go back to manage locations months or years later and try to access your locations panel, you may see no locations panel. If you see the wheels churning on your computer with no results this could be the reason. If you are not sure of the capabilities of your server, browser and various other factors that effect memory, and inhibit loading and displaying fields, err on the side of caution and set the Filter Display locations back to a manageable size before leaving the panel. If you are migrating servers from a “heavy duty” server to a less robust server, or if your memory becomes an issue you will need to reset the display to a manageable number. See Troubleshooting for more info.
