Google Map Style

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.

Changing The Google Map Style Setting

Settings > Map > Map Style

Accessing Settings | Map | Map Style on the Store Locator Plus® 2025 SaaS platform.

Go to the Legacy Map style wizard to generate the JSON value to copy and paste into this field.

Google Map Style Wizard

The value of this entry is a Google Maps JSON style string.  Some of our Plugin Styles in the Style Gallery will set this for you.

Menu Changes For The February 2025 Update

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.

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

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.

Log Out

Logs you out of the Store Locator Plus® system.

This feature is unchanged.

CSV Import Zip / Postal Codes formatting

Note: IMPORT requires  Power add-on for the stand alone WPSLP plugin  or if you are using MYSLP SaaS, the  Professional level or higher plan. 

When creating a CSV import file make sure the zip / postal code column is properly formatted as text so you do not lose leading zeros.

The column header for postal/zip codes is zip or sl_zip.

In the United States many northeastern postal codes start with zero.   Many sheets, Microsoft Excel in particular, LOVE to leave off the leading zero if you enter a zip code as 03907 and save as CSV.

Invalid Postal Codes
Invalid Postal Codes

In Excel, and many other apps, you can force a field where you are typing in numbers to be text by starting your entry with an apostrophe (‘).  Type ‘03907 when entering the data NOT 03907.

A good test to see if this is happening to you,  open your CSV file in Google Sheets and see what it looks like.  Does it look like the sheet above missing a zero and right aligned?

Another indicator that this column is set to a numeric type and not an text type is the data is on the RIGHT SIDE of the cell.  Text is left-justified (like sl_state) and numbers are right-justified.

Removing distance fields and editing Results

Settings > Results > Results Layout

Removing the distance from the results can be done by editing the Results Layout. You will see the results layout box if you have the Experience add-on for WPSLP or have the professional level plan or higher for MYSLP.

For MySLP go to Store Locator Plus > Settings > Results > Appearance
For WPSLP go to Store Locator Plus > Settings > Results > Appearance

With the Results Layout setting find the HTML span tag with the slp_location distance shortcode.

Delete that line.

Store Locator Plus Additional Functionality

Store Locator Plus .     Store Locator Plus SaaS:  Enterprise level subscribers have a module that adds URL control functionality.

Upgraded  Premium Features

Enterprise / Premier Users

Territory Bounds module was moved from the General | Data tab to the General | Server | Web App Settings section.  Cluster Map Markers is useful for a large dataset in close proximity to each other on the map.

URL Control

A  URL Control module was been added to the application for Enterprise or premier subscribers.   Enabling this module will turn on the interface to allow additional data to be presented in a web page URL to impact how the locator behaves.

URL Control : Allow Location In URL

The first URL Control option is to pass a location ID in via a URL.   Adding ?location=<id> to the end of a web page address that hosts the locator will cause the page to load with the specified location being highlighted as if the map marker was clicked.  The default behavior is to show the info bubble for that location.

Layout Shortcode Cheat Sheet

Results Layout ShortcodesThe Experience Add On allows you to custom tailor the look and feel of the Store Locator Plus plugin on your site.   To accomplish this the plugin uses a combination of HTML and special shortcodes.   These can be changed or checked off under the Settings* tab  the plugin.

* formerly referred to as Experience tab, if you do not see Settings in the UI you are not using the latest version of Store locator Plus

The Overall Layout

This is set via the View / Layout setting.    It determines the overall layout for the plugin based on 3 primary components: The Search Form, The Map, and The Results.

Featuring Locations – Top of Results and Highlighting

Store Locator Plus allows you to feature specific locations in your search results.   This requires the Experience add on  (or Premier ) for WordPress or a Professional or Enterprise account for My Store Locator Plus.    Some of the interface styles provided by the style gallery support featured location highlighting “out of the box”, such as the Default With Font Tweaks style.

Select A Style That Supports Featured Locations

The Default With Font Tweaks Style is one of the styles that highlights locations and is a good starting point for testing this functionality.  You can adjust the layout and styling afterwards to meet your specific design requirements.

WPSLP – Select the Store Locator Plus entry in the side menu.

MYSLP – Select Store Locator Plus in the side menu.

Go to the Settings Tab and select the View subtab.

Click on the activate button on Default With Font Tweaks in the style gallery.

Settings/View for styles

Locator Data – The Field Names

Store Locator Plus includes a default set of data fields that is included with every installation as well as extended fields provided by add-on packs.

For  data fields, including those added with the Power add-on, you can output the data in the map info bubble or results layout,  by using the following shortcode:

[slp_location data.<field_slug>]

For example:

[slp_location data.contact]

[slp_location data.facebook_custom_url] (for someone that added a field named Facebook Custom URL).

Both the default data and extended data can be displayed in the search results, (for SEO Pages some fields will be [storepage field=contact] for SEO-friendly details pages. Most of the tools provided by the various add-on packs work best when using the field slug. The slug is a unique name for the field that is similar-to, but not exactly the same as, the field name.

The slugs are used in the add-on packs such as the layout strings from the Experience Add On in as well as the column headers for CSV Import in the Power Add On.

Default Location Fields

ID

Slug: id
Data field: sl_id
Type: integer (auto-assigned)

Name

Slug: store
Data field: sl_store
Type: string up to 255 characters

Address

Slug: address
Data field: sl_address
Type: string up to 255 characters

Address Line 2

Slug: address2
Data field: sl_address2
Type: string up to 255 characters

City

Slug: city
Data field: sl_city
Type: string up to 255 characters

State

Slug: state
Data field: sl_state
Type: string up to 255 characters

Zip

Slug: zip
Data field: sl_zip
Type: string up to 255 characters

Country

Slug: country
Data field: sl_country
Type: string up to 255 characters

Latitude

Slug: latitude
Data field: sl_latitude
Type: string up to 255 characters

Longitude

Slug: longitude
Data field: sl_longitude
Type: string up to 255 characters

Tags

Slug: tags
Data field: sl_tags
Type: Text up to 4096 characters

The Pro Pack tags field. Requires Pro Pack for full functionality.

Description

Slug: description
Data field: sl_description
Type: Long text, as determined by your MySQL settings.  More than 4096 characters.

Email

Slug: email
Data field: sl_email
Type: string up to 255 characters

Website

Slug: url
Data field: sl_url
Type: string up to 255 characters

Hours

Slug: hours
Data field: sl_hours
Type: string up to 255 characters

Phone

Slug: phone
Data field: sl_phone
Type: string up to 255 characters

Fax

Slug: fax
Data field: sl_fax
Type: string up to 255 characters

Image

Slug: image
Data field: sl_image
Type: string up to 255 characters

An fully qualified image URL, http:: with a full domain.

Private

Slug: private
Data field: sl_private
Type: A single character string.

May be used in the future as a 1|0 value to determine if a location is to only appear on the admin interface and not front end searches.

Neat Title

Slug: neat_title
Data field: sl_neat_title
Type: string up to 255 characters

May be used in the future as an alternate store name or subtitle.

Linked Post ID

Slug: linked_postid
Data field: sl_linked_postid
Type: integer, auto-assigned

The ID of the related store_page entry where extra taxonomy data and other location data is stored. Used with Store Pages and Tagalong. Should not be modified.

Pages URL

Slug: pages_url
Data field: sl_pages_url
Type: string up to 255 characters

The relative URL for the Store Pages linked post ID. Provides a processing shortcut for the Store Pages add-on pack.

Pages On

Slug: pages_on
Data field: sl_pages_on
Type: a single 1|0 character

Used with Store Pages to determine which locations have been populated with Store Pages template content.

Option Value

Slug: option_value
Data field: sl_option_value
Type: text up to 4096 characters

A serialized JSON data object which can store extra location data. Slower and less direct than extended data fields.

Last Updated

Slug: lastupdated
Data field: sl_lastupdated
Type: timestamp

A date and time MySQL timestamp indicating the last time the main data for the location was updated.

Initial Distance

Slug: initial_distance
Data field: sl_initial_distance
Type: A float.

The initial distance calculated between your center map latitude/longitude and the location.

Add On Pack Import Fields

These fields appear in the extended data table, slp_extendo. The field metadata, used to manage the slp_extendo table, is store din the slp_extendo_meta table.

Power Add On : Contacts Enabled

Identifier a unique location identifier from an external database that can be used to update existing locations in Store Locator Plus

Contact

First Name

Last Name

Title

Department

Training

Facility Type

Office Phone

Mobile Phone

Contact Fax

Contact Email

Office Hours – long formatted text

Contact Address – long formatted text

Notes – long formatted text

Featured – valid values are “1” for featured and “0” (zero).

Rank – an integer from 1 (highest rank/top of list) to 999999. 0 = no rank.

Power Add On : Categories Data

Power categories utilize the built-in WordPress custom taxonomy system. Standard WordPress category IDs are kept in the term_relationships and term_taxonomy tables. The relationship between locations and categories is managed via the slp_tagalong table that maps the Store Locator Plus id field to the WordPress Taxonomy term_id.

Table: slp_tagalong
field: sl_id = the store id
field: term_id = the WordPress taxonomy id