Map Settings for Store Locator Plus®

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, Map, Professional, Settings

Under the menu for SLP / Settings /Map :

The settings contained in the map panel will change the functionality of the map domain, center map, zoom and appearance.

,Google Map domains,language .

The following settings are available to manage functionality for both WPSLP stand alone plug-in and MySLP SaaS managed service..

At Startup

Center Map: This is where you enter an address, or a state, or a location or a specific latitude and longitude to be displayed as the initial focus for the Map. If nothing is entered in this box , the default will be the center of the United States . Google map has determined the center of United States to be somewhere in Kansas. Example: See Google Localizing the Map: The geocodes “Toledo” based on the default region (US) to “Toledo, Ohio” or one which biases results based on a region set to ES (Spain) to “Toledo, Spain.
Center Latitude Fallback: Center Longitude Fallback: These are the latitude/longitude settings that will be called if the Google server is “busy” or offline and not able to geocode or “call” to load your locations. If you reset to blank it will fill in with the Center latitude/longitude of the map domain you have chosen. You can have a different Lat/long fallback then your map domain or center map if you choose. An image of your fallback will be displayed

Geocoding stopped working suddenly

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, for WordPress, General, Locations, Power Add On, Troubleshooting

(This page has been updated to reflect the changes in Google Cloud Platform API changes)

Most likely reasons;

You moved your site or changed the domain name and did not change your Google Map API key or , as of JUNE 2018 Google API changes, did NOT ADD BILLING TO YOUR API KEY . See Getting Started
Check your Google Platform Usage reports
A self-imposed usage cap has been exceeded.
The provided method of payment is no longer valid (for example, a credit card has expired).
You have exceeded the QPS limits for a given API.
If you have the Power add-on and are using the import function , your csv file is incorrect, or your header rows are not accurate, or they have wrong field names, the columns may be misaligned and the data field for an address could not import and/or does not geocode. Check your import message log.
Google does not recognize an address. See FAQ post

Mixed Content Warnings and Site migration

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, Support, Troubleshooting

Google’s push for all websites to be HTTPS has been a game changer over the past few years with many companies switching from HTTP to HTTPS with some hiccups along the way. Some of the site transfer mishaps are minor, but if done incorrectly can cause your plug-ins to misbehave , and often is the case, after the transition team has left the building.

Mixed Content Warnings – Loading Assets Over HTTP

If you have never had HTTPS on your site, you will undoubtedly run into an issue with how your site assets are loaded. By assets we are referring to things like images, JavaScript, and even your CSS. Insecure assets may not stop the green padlock from showing in browsers, but it will add an exclamation point warning to your users that information is being loaded insecurely.

Site Migrations Vary

Occasionally we see comments from customers that Store locator Plus broke their site or is not working. When asked if they recently migrated their site they often state nothing has changed. On further investigation , or by inspecting their console we often see the “Mixed Content warnings” quite often for images or icons from older versions of Store Locator Plus. This is a sure fire clue that there was indeed a “site migration”. They started out with their site when the SLP plug-in was originally installed as HTTP and now , at least part of their site, is HTTPS. This is known as a protocol migration. If you migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS, Google treats this as a site move with a URL change. That means you may need to obtain a new Google API key for SLP to work properly. With version SLP 4.9.15 you are allowed to add HTTP referrers now as long as you also obtain a geocode key. See info about those changes under news

Upfront Investment

A site migration is a great opportunity to address legacy issues. If you have outdated legacy add-ons this is a good time to invest in your future by planning for and including any update expenses in your overall budget. Including these costs in the project scope is the most cost-effective method to ensure your site stays relevant and on-track. When you consider that issues that may arise after going live will require additional time , resources and, yes, may even create downtime and loss of traffic to your site it is worth including the new versions in your budget.

Q. We are developing a new website and want to move the content can I add the plug-in data we already have, into the new website?

Posted by cici in FAQ, for WordPress, Professional

A. If you are moving something like a staging/test site to a new site and want to bring everything over intact , the Store Locator Plus author strongly recommends looking into the WordPress backup tool Vault Press, or better , Jet Pack. One of the features included , besides real-time incremental backups of your site with restore points, is the ability to restore the site to an alternate site.

Countries and Languages

Posted by lcleveland in Advanced, Localization, Map, Settings, Third Party Add Ons

Plugin Text

The Store Locator Plus plugin is now part of the WordPress Translate project. You can get the current status of the Store Locator Plus translations on the WordPress Translation website. If you would like to see the plugin fully translated into your language, please send a request to be added to the WordPress translate team for your language. As soon as a language reaches 100% completion for the stable release of the Store Locator Plus plugin, the custom language files will be removed from Store Locator Plus and be replaced by the more-efficient Translate system.