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.
Click on an upgrade or downgrade button for the new level you wish to use.
Log in dashboard, select My profile, Make changes to your account subscription.
To cancel your subscription, please log into your account and click on the words “cancel subscription” under the Blue update card button.
Note: PayPal does not support direct subscription upgrades or downgrades. The subscription details will show the total paid for the newest level of service only. It will show $0.00 during the pending process and the accrued monthly amount once PayPal has activated your new subscription level on their end.
Preferred method of Payment is now done through our STRIPE card processing system. All transactions should be done in MYSLP under your profile to ensure proper credit to your account (this includes cancelling).
When the URL Control module is active you can enable location ID passing by turning on “Location Selection” under the General / User Interface tab.
When this is enabled you can pass in a location ID by adding ?location=<id> to the end of the page address where your locator map is deployed with the [slplus] shortcode.
When the location ID is present and the settings is enabled the specified location will be activated on the location map as if a user had clicked the marker on the map. This will show the info bubble by default.
Note:If cluster map markers are enabled they will be turned off for the initial page load. Subsequent input or searches by the user will re-activate the cluster map markers.
Note: When passing in a location ID via a URL the location latitude/longitude will become the center point for the map display. The location that is shown will be at the top of the result listing if sort by distance (default) is in place.
Location Limit
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.
Filter By Tag
When the URL Control module is active you can filter locations to show only this matching the tag(s) by turning on “Filter By Tag” under the General / User Interface tab.
This setting will require the Power Add On to be installed and active.
This setting will also require the following shortcode to be present in the Results Layout. The shortcode is standard in most Store Locator Plus provided Style Gallery Styles. It can be removed or changed if you have the Experience Add On active.
[slp_search_element selector_with_label="tag"]
An example of a Results Layout where locations are assigned a single tag. With multiple tags the entire list will be hyperlinked and will not likely perform as expected. Note the [slp_location data.sl_tags] takes the place of the [slp_location pro_tags] shortcode that is set by default on most Style Gallery styles.
If you have URL controls enabled you can now pass in location filters based on a tag by adding ?only_with_tag=red to the end of your locations page URL.
Combining URL Options
You can combine the URL control options by using standard URL notation for parameter passing.
The standard is to define the first parameter by starting with a question mark.
Additional parameters are started with an ampersand.
To pass a location ID and a location limit, in this example to show ONLY the location specified, you would add ?location=32&limit=1 to your map page URL.
With the Power add-on you will find additional Bulk Actions under the Locations/Manage panel. There is a drop down menu under the Bulk actions tab that can be utilized to remove many, some or all tags associated with the location data. Check off which locations you want to remove the tags from, or you may check off all and select the filter to “Apply to all”
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.
Assign categories to your locations that allow users to pick a category and show only those locations. Great for showing service versus retail centers or locations that carry specific products.
Note: Starting in March 2017 you can now pay with a credit card via Stripe. This will not interact in any way with PayPal and allows you to purchase subscriptions on a credit card.
Store Locator Plus subscriptions or add-ons can be purchased with a credit card. To do so go through the normal checkout procedure. When the PayPal login screen appears choose the “Pay with Debit or Credit Card” button on the bottom of the screen. Fill out your details for the credit card information.
This will allow you to make the purchase and have it billed directly to your credit card WITHOUT going through a PayPal account.
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.
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.
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.
