Search Form Labels

 Set the Labels for the Search Form

The label that will be displayed in front of the Search form box on your locator page can be changed under Settings/Search in the Appearance section Label. If none are set, a blank box will appear on your site. The “Address” Label you enter will appear in front of the search box. The “radius” information indicates to the site visitor that this is the radius (whatever radii you entered in the search form  for radii options.

Consider this label as  a help text tool for the site visitor to assist them as to what  to enter in the box.   Label Examples:  zip code, city, street, or a combination such as  address / zip code.  The more detailed the better. We find address and zip code to be the most useful hint.  If you leave this label blank nothing will appear in front of the search form box and your site visitors will be guessing what to enter to start their search.

Additional Search settings and labels are available with MYSLP Professional or Enterprise level or the WPSLP self managed with the   Experience or Premier add-ons.

With the WP Add-ons or the MYSLP SaaS professional level plan and higher you will find additional help search boxes such as Address Placeholder.

Search by Name

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” 

 

Store Locator Plus Discrete Searches

The Experience add-on  for WordPress SLP or the Professional level Plan for MySLP SaaS provides a “search by city”, “search by state”, and “search by country” feature.   This search form element, when enabled, will build a drop down list based on the locations in your database.   This is meant to provide a hint to the user where your locations are.

The Advance level or basic SLP  search button  looks for locations closest  based on your other search form settings.  If your default radius is 100 miles and the user selects the state of Texas, the base plug-in will search for all locations within 100 miles of Google’s estimated “center of Texas”. With the Professional level plan  you can select certain settings to redirect the search selector and provide other options to direct or assist your site visitor.

Search Address Auto-complete setting

Feature to have the address to auto-complete the zip code based on your location database is available with the Premier/Enterprise or the Experience add-on

When 2 or more characters are typed in the address input box,  input suggestions based on location data will appear.

  • None (default) – do not suggest address input.
  • Zipcode – suggest matching zip codes.
  • With Premier or SLP SaaS Enterprise you can also have a zip code drop down selector

If the formatting of the autocomplete is not  the way you would like it to appear, reset the Search Form Style under appearance layout.

Locator Styling determines how the auto-complete drop down box will appear on your page.

Search Form Style

Search Form Style sets the styling for the interactive locator elements on your site.   It uses pre-built jQuery Theme Roller style CSS designs to create a simple way to style interactive elements such as the autocomplete feature (available in WPSLP Experience or with MySLP Professional) on the address box. with Experience or Professional level plan additional search elements are available, including a one click checkbox to “Hide the search form”  altogether.

The default styling is set to “None” which provides not special styling rules from interactive JavaScript elements in the locator interface.   This allows the site designer to create their own styles for the website in which the locator will be placed.

Search Form Style Default None 2017-05-23_16-20-30.png
Default styling for autocomplete is “none”.  The theme in this example does not specifiy any ui-autocomplete styling. The background inherits the transparent background used by the website as the default for all divs.

The base service also includes the Base jQuery theme.

Setting A New Style

For WordPress plugin users go to the Store Locator Plus selection on the sidebar menu.

For MySLP users go to Store Locator Plus sidebar menu.

Select Settings/Search from the tab list.

Scroll down to the Appearance section and expand it by clicking the word “Appearance” if necessary.

Select a new style from the Search Form Style drop-down menu.

Available For WPSLP and MySLP

Search Form Style is a feature that is included in the base plugin of Store Locator Plus for WordPress and is available under Store Locator Plus for all levels of the MySLP service.   Premier members on WPSLP and Enterprise Level users for MySLP will have multiple options for the Search Form Style.

The [slp_search_element] Shortcode

The [slp_search_element] shortcode is only processed within the Search Layout setting.   It is used to display user input elements on the search form.

Attributes

Attributes are the keywords that appear after the opening [slp_search_element and before the closing ].

Default attributes include:

button=<slug>

Output a form button.  <slug> should be an input supported by the base plugin or an add on such as:

submit

Output the Find Locations button.

[slp_search_element button="submit"]

 

dropdown_with_label=<slug>

Output a dropdown selector with a preceding label for the specified input.  <slug> should be an input supported by the base plugin or an add on such as:

radius

Output a dropdown of radius selections based on the Experience / Search / Radii Options setting.

hard_coded_value=<value>

Outputs the specified value.  Used by some add ons to add a specific [slp_search_element] output.

input_with_label=<slug>

Output a input selector with a preceding label for the specified input.  <slug> should be an input supported by the base plugin or an add on such as:

address

Output a the address/zip-code input box.

Tech Geek Stuff

Processed by the SLP_UI class via add_shortcode in create string_SearchForm() which calls crease_SearchElement().

Filter shortcode_slp_searchelement is used to manipulate attributes.  Many add ons use this to render specific output using attribute ‘hard_coded_value’ => ‘xyz’ to output a specific value.

Search and Results Report (Legacy: pre-2208.15)

The Power Add On for the self managed plug-in, or the Professional Level or higher of the MYSLP SaaS subscriptions include basic search and results reports.  When  enabled you will see a new Report tab on the Store Locator Plus admin pages. This tab is where you can view and generate locator search reports. See what visitors are searching for and what results are being returned.

Shortcodes for StoreLocatorPlus and Add-ons

[slplus] is the primary shortcode used within WordPress sites to display the Store Locator Plus map and location search interface. Many other attributes can be found within the plugin and add-ons.

A shortcode is a special label inside of square brackets that is used within WordPress pages and posts to display the output from a plugin. You place a shortcode within the text of your page or post and the plugin will “do it’s magic”.

Note: Shortcode attributes WILL NOT WORK if Force Load JavaScript is turned on under Store Locator Plus General Settings. Try turning it off before using attributes. If Store Locator Plus won’t load when you turn Force Load JavaScript off, get a different WordPress Theme that fully implements WordPress code standards.

Note: As of  WordPress Plugin API update 4.2.3 effects shortcodes with filtered styles which will not be recognized when stored between quotes.

Location Search Enhancements

Premier subscribers  or  MYSLP Enterprise level subscribers will see the following features under the Store Locator Plus Settings / Search Panel.

Premier settings to influence Google search

Show Address Guess

If checked, replace the address the customer typed into the address box with what Google thought they meant. This feature is useful if your site visitor is browsing “incognito: or the location sensor is not activated.

Country Influences Guess

When checked , SLP uses the selected Country Map Domain to influence how Google returns  the location based on what they think the user meant when entering a search address. Google returns the most searched locations based on an algorithm. This feature is coded to redirect the returned location based on your location data points.

Boundaries Influence Guess

Uses a search boundary to influence how Google guesses what the user meant when entering a search address.

  • Locations in your data set will show a rectangle that surrounds all of your locations.
  • Defined Boundary is a rectangle that you define with a map that will appear below.
  • The default is none, using standard Google address lookup rules.

These features are very useful, especially when you have a mix of some non – standard Zip/postal  codes or addresses that otherwise might be hard to find with the basic Google MAP API query.Premier Google influenced guess and Boundary Influemced guessesPremier Search features Show address and show google guesses

Search Panel Settings

How SLP Search Works

Store Locator Plus searching can operate in radius or discrete search mode.  The default mode is radius based and is the premise behind much of the operational aspects of the Store Locator Plus plugin.  Additional search features and settings can be obtained through the  Experience Add-on or Professional subscription suite and/or  the Premier /Enterprise Subscription (see below).