Step 1: WordPress Store Locator Plug-in Users Need A Google API Key

Posted by lcleveland in Base Plugin, FAQ, for WordPress, Getting Started, Support

SaaS users can skip this step. Store Locator Plus® for WordPress plug-in users need a Google API key to utilize the full features available in the the plugin. WordPress administrators who are self-managing their plugin updates, security, and Google services need to setup a Google API account so they can start billing for map services. 

If you are a subscriber to  Store Locator Plus® – our SaaS directory and locator service, you can ignore this page, we’ve got it covered. Go to our Getting Started guide and move on to Step 2.

For the Store Locator Plus® for WordPress users these instructions are a general guideline. You will need to visit the Google developers page and read their User guide to obtain a new account or update your existing account. Google will bill you directly for your monthly map views and location look-ups.

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Where to find the Store Locator Plus for WordPress Plug-in versions and updates

Posted by cici in FAQ, for WordPress

WordPress Plug-in Log-in

For the WordPress SLP stand alone (do it yourself) plug-in , the latest update to the Word Press base plugin normally appears in your WordPress site Plugin menu for auto update

To check your version against what is currently available  please see the site home page under Support/Versions

The WordPress Store Locator Plus base plug-in is again available in the WordPress plug-in directory.    If you purchased an add-on  you will  need to log into your WPSLP account and download it manually the first time you use it.

ALWAYS BACK-UP your site immediately  before updating any Plug-ins.

How to manually update.

Most Common “What Should I Buy” Questions

Posted by cici in What To Buy

Some of the most common features requested are included with either the Plug-in for WordPress using add-ons OR a higher level plan if you use the all inclusive (but separate from the plug-in) Store Locator Plus Software as a Service (SaaS)

MySLP to WPSLP Comparison

Advanced is comparable to the basic Store Locator Plus plugin.

Professional is the Power level (excluding SEO Pages) plus the Experience add on.

Enterprise is the Professional level plan plus the Premier subscription features, functionality  and  support services.

Read below for answers to these questions and check out our other “What To Buy” articles.

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Search by Name

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

Additional Search settings are available if you are using either:

Word Press Store locator Plus plugin with the Experience Add-on , or  the Store Locator Plus SaaS / Professional level plan.  have multiple search tool options to display on the front page when a site visitor lands on your locator page. Search by Name is a checkbox that is found under the Store Locator Plus “Settings/Search” menu.   

The default is “Name” 

 

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

Location Limit URL control

Posted by cici in Enterprise, General, User Interface

Location Limit

The location limit feature is available exclusively to our Store Locator Plus Premier/Enterprise customers.

When the URL Control module is active you can enable location ID passing by turning on “Location Limit” under the General / User Interface tab.

When this is enabled you can pass in a limit for the number of locations to be returned when the map initially loads and when a search is performed by adding ?limit=<id> to the end of the page address where your locator map is deployed with the [slplus] shortcode.

Example: Client has 250  results to return by default but when the site via a URL link loaded they only wanted 5 to come back.

Location Limit functionality supersedes the initial default limit.

Store Locator Plus INFO Plug-in Environment

Posted by cici in for WordPress, Info, Support

Plug-in environment

We often have questions posted from users asking why something is or is not working. The information needed to be able to assist them properly and efficiently is shown under the SLP/INFO tab under Environment

What is meant by the  (Plugin) Environment.

The plugin environment shows the versions of Store Locator Plus, and any active SLP add-ons you have installed, as well as the WordPress version, php version, MYSQL , the domain name and other useful data specific to the WPSLP environment.

You can also  find the latest release versions under your account Downloads List, and/or review the Versions under the Support tab on the WordPress Store Locator Plus  home site  to see if you have the most recent version of Store Locator Plus and the various add-on packs.

CSV Import Zip / Postal Codes formatting

Posted by lcleveland in FAQ, Professional, Professional, Support

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.

MySLP SaaS: Deploying On WordPress

Posted by lcleveland in for Everything

These instructions are for MySLP SaaS users only.  

MySLP is a monthly subscription service that allows you to deploy a locator map on ANY platform including WordPress.   It is a managed service where we handle the hosting of the locations, settings, and map software as well as handle the Google API key.   We keep the software updated so you don’t have to worry about it.

These instructions DO NOT APPLY to the stand alone, self managed WordPress plugin(s).

For our buy-it-and-own-it solution you will want to look at the WPSLP plugins instead of this page.

If you are NOT using My Store Locator Plus® you should think about it.

If you are using MySLP, read on…

You’ve already added your locations and generated your embed code per the instructions in our Getting Started post.  Now you are ready to deploy on your WordPress site.

Here we are going to deploy the script in a new page on our site.

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MySLP : Deploying With Basic HTML

Posted by lcleveland in for Everything

My Store Locator Plus can be deployed on any website technology that can publish basic HTML pages.   The functionality of the service depends more on the browser technology used by your site visitors than your web stack.

The most basic deployment is a local HTML file that is opened by your web browser.   Your desktop or laptop and even some mobile devices will allow you to create a basic HTML file on your device.   You can then open this file using that device’s web browser.

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