Categorical Location Markers

MySLP Professional and Enterprise level services allow for locations to be categorized. Each category for a location can have its own map marker associated with the category. These markers are then displayed on the map to mark the location. (This also applies for those customers using the WordPress SLP plug-in with the Power add-on or Premier)

However, some locations may belong to more than one category. In this case the map marker that is selected to be displayed on the map is determined by the RANK assigned to the category. If multiple categories have the same rank, or no rank, then the first category by alphabetical listing will be the one selected as the “main” category for rendering the map marker.

Default map markers when no category is selected.

Filtering Locations By Category

What happens when a user decides to filter the list of categories? Only locations that are within the selected category are shown.

If the location only belongs to ONE category, as is the case for the “#1 Food Store” in our example above, the choice is easy. Show the category map marker.

But what should be displayed if a location belongs to several categories, as is the case for our “24 Seven #1” location shown in the example above?

Prior to our mid-September 2020 release of Store Locator Plus® (or the Power 5.5.7 add on for our legacy WordPress plugin users), the marker for the “24 Seven #1” location would be the highest ranked category, which is the convenience store marker.

With the mid-September 2020 release, however, this behavior has changed. The map marker displayed will be the one that matches the filter the user selected.

Since our mid-September 2020 release, category filters change the map markers to match.

Multiple Location Categories

What about Store Locator Plus® interfaces that allow users to select more than one category, such as interfaces that allow checkbox selections for categories? Markers will be chosen from the markers for the selected categories only. If a location matches 2 or more of the categories, the highest ranked OF THOSE SELECTED will be displayed on the map.

This is different from earlier versions of Store Locator Plus® where it would always display the highest ranked category map marker, even if it was not part of the checked list of categories.

Horizontal | Vertical Checkbox Category Selector

*Included with  WPSLP Premier subscription or MySLP Enterprise level Subscriptions.

The Horizontal or Vertical Checkbox Category Selector feature is available for WPSLP Premier or MySLP Enterprise level subscription customers. The checkbox works with an “OR” selection based on the Parent category.  With Premier or Enterprise you will see additional category selectors under the Settings/Search/Category section. For example : If you check the [] red and [] blue boxes on the category selector it will show any location in the red OR blue category.

Category Button Bar

Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar

*Included with  WPSLP Premier subscription or MySLP Enterprise level Subscriptions. 

The category button bar is a  category selection interface available to WordPress Premier and MySLP Enterprise subscribers.   This feature is enabled under the Store Locator Plus menu  select Settings | Search | Appearance | Category Selector.

The button bar will show clickable links that display the icon and category name for the category which will filter locations that match.    The styling for the display will vary based on which plugin style you select.  Currently the Bennett style from our Settings/View /Gallery CSS is configured to appear when you have an active Premier or Enterprise  subscription.

Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar
Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar

Functionality is based on a single-category selection. Clicking a new category will turn off all other categories.

The map center, either the Center Map for initial map loading or the address a user entered, is retained as is the initial or current radius.  The map will zoom in-and-out to show all locations that match within the radius of the center point.

Shown is the button bar using the Bennet  Gallery plugin style on a modified version of Exists theme  deployed on the Bennet Trim Tabs site.  This video is on our development servers.

 

 

Learn about other Premier / Enterprise features.

Additional Layout Shortcodes with Power Add-on

If you have the Power Add-on in addition to the Experience Add-on you have additional fields that can be displayed with the use of shortcodes and attributes.

Contact Fields

The Power Add-on has Contact Fields that can be associated with your locations for adding internal special  ids  for updates or to add filters. The contact fields will not automatically appear in your results on the front end.

Store and Category Manager

Store and Category Manager interface is available if you have the  Power  Add-on installed (for WPSLP users) or have the MYSLP Professional level or higher. You will see a tab “Categories” in your Store Locator Plus User Interface.

Under side menu MYSLP/StoreLocatorPlus menu

Once you open the Category Tab  you can begin to add categories and slugs or edit existing.  Set Markers and Icons per category (optional) if you want those to appear in place of map markers.  A Bulk action drop down to delete some or all categories is  at the top of the category box.

Settings/Search

You can choose to show the categories that you have created in a drop down menu as part of the search form.  There are additional category selector options available for WPSLP premier subscribers  or MYSLP Enterprise subscribers (example see Checkbox selector). You can add text as a label that will display  at the top of the categories drop down menu, or you can leave blank.  You can also add text for the category select box that will appear in front of the category drop down on the user interface.

Hide Empty Categories Setting

For WPSLP Power add-on users . Do NOT turn this on unless you have   Pages enabled.

Settings/Results

If you want the category icons to appear in results list check off Category Icons