Manage Locations in Store Locator Plus® (SLP) by clicking on Locations in the sidebar after you’ve logged into your account.
SaaS users can login via the SLP Dashboard.
Manage Locations
CSV File Import Header
All Store Locator Plus CSV files must start with a file import header that indicates what data is in each column.
The first row of the Store Locator Plus import file should look like this, you do not need the (sl in front of the header name for the basic import function to work):
sl_store,sl_address,sl_address2,sl_city,sl_state,sl_zip,sl_country,sl_latitude,sl_longitude,category,sl_tags,sl_description,sl_email,sl_url,sl_hours,sl_phone,sl_fax,sl_image,sl_private,sl_neat_title
Please see the Example CSV files post for a sample base file with a header.
To speed up imports you should NOT include columns that have no data.
For imports that did NOT start out as a CSV export from the SAME SITE you should NOT have an sl_id column.
For geocoding, assigning a latitude and longitude, to work during import you need to have at least one of the address fields in your file and preferably these main fields:
- sl_address
- sl_city
- sl_state
- sl_zip
All field names can drop the leading “sl_” for readability. For example sl_address can become address. The field names usually match the field label, for example if you have the Experience add on or the Professional level or higher SaaS plan , you can have “Featured” and “Rank” as import columns.
Results Layout Shortcodes and Attributes
Changing the results layout is a feature provided for Professional level accounts. Users of the self-managed WordPress plugins will find this in the Experience add on.
Default Format
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.
Step 2: Add A Location
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.
If you have many locations and have either the Power add-on enabled for the plug-in or have signed up for the Professional level plan for the mySLP SaaS you can import them via a CSV import file.
Reports
Reports are included with the Professional or Enterprise plan.
Current reports include:
- Location Searches shows the address entered by users on your map display page.
- Location Results are the results returned by those searches.
Location Results Report
Location Results reports are included with the Professional or Enterprise plan. This report is designed to show the locations that were returned by users entering addresses on the search form when looking for locations. This can be useful for determining which locations are appearing most frequently for your site visitors.
To view this report you’ll need to turn on reporting features as outlined in the Reports documentation.
This report will show up to the top 500 locations returned within the date range selected.
Location Search Report
Location Search reports are included with the Professional or Enterprise plan. This report is designed to show what addresses users are entering on the search form when looking for locations. This can be useful for determining areas where your site visitors are looking for your product or service.
To view this report you’ll need to turn on reporting features as outlined in the Reports documentation.
This report will show up to the top 500 searches within the date range selected.
How To : Location Categories
Assumptions
WordPress environment is setup and configured including activation of the following plugins
- Store Locator Plus®
- SLP Power add on
In addition map service (Google API keys) should be in place and some locations should be added to the system.
A page has been created with the [slplus] shortcode present and the map is rendering properly.
Users are logged in as a WordPress administrator (the process will be slightly different for SaaS users).
Adding Categories To Locations
Objective
Create a location category and attach it to an existing location.
User Action: Add A Location Category
- Click on Store Locator Plus® | Categories in the WordPress sidebar menu.
- In the left “Add New Category Form”…
- Type a category name. (Restaurant)
- Click Add New Category
Result
The new category should appear on the category list on the page.
User Action: Attach Category To Location
- Click on Store Locator Plus® | Locations in the WordPress sidebar menu.
- Click the Edit action icon on the first location.
- Check off the box next to “Restaurants” in the Power | Categories section of the form.
- Click Save.
Result
The category is assigned to the location and appears on the location table.
User Action: Show Category Select On Front End
- Click on Store Locator Plus® | Settings in the WordPress sidebar menu.
- Change the Category Selector setting to “Single Drop Down”.
- Click Save
- On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
Result
The search form for the map should show a category drop down.
User Action : Filtering Locations With Category
- On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
- Enter an address, choose a category.
- Click “Find Locations”.
Results Panel Settings
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”
Map Settings for Store Locator Plus®
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
