Schedule For Initial Distance

The Premier Add On allows you to set a scheduled interval using the built-in WordPress Cron scheduler to calculate the initial distance for locations where the distance is zero.

The initial distance setting is used by Store Locator Plus to boost performance when loading the initial map.  It uses and SQL index on a numeric value to select a subset of data versus calculating values for potentially thousands of locations and then filtering based on the calculation.  For sites with more than 1,000 locations this feature significantly boosts initial map loading performance.

Google Map Icons

All those little location markers on the map that Google just made FAR more prevalent in their latest update?  Those are what they call map icons.   They are also clickable which means all those locations will pop up a map bubble even if they are not YOUR Locations for your business.  Premier Add On  v 4.7.1 or higher for Store Locator Plus or MySLP/Enterprise lets you disable the “clickability” on the map icons.

What To Buy: Filter By Brand

Question

We need to filter our locations by brand.  Does your plugin or an extension to your plugin have this feature?

Assigning Brands To Locations

Power add-on for WPSLP (DIY)  or the Professional level plan (or higher) for MySLP is the right choice for doing that.  Either  allows for simple categories or  parent/child relationships between categories. Locations can be assigned to one or more categories. Your users can then search for locations based on those categories.

For more complex hierarchical functionality , button barshorizontal check-boxes for categories and more customized approaches you might want to check out our WPSLP Premier subscription or the MySLP Enterprise level subscription

Add a category for each brand you offer and your users will be able to filter locations showing only those that offer specific brands.

Import remote file retrieval

Power Add-on for WPSLP or the Professional level or higher for MySLP   allows the administrator to schedule your Import process from a remote file retrieval (must be accessible public) to provide more control over recurring imports from a full url where you CSV file resides and allows flexibility for scheduling the time for daily imports.

WordPress CRON is not exact, it executes the next time a visitor comes to your site.

WordPress times are UTC/GMT time NOT local time. Set to none and leave the URL blank to clear the CRON job. Example: 14:25. (Default: empty = do not run daily cron)

Checking your server, PHP and MySQL to ensure the character set is correct will go a long way toward importing special characters like registration characters.

Additional Import Data field headers

If you have the Power add-on  for the Self managed WPSLP or if you have the Professional Level MySLP SaaS plan, you will have the ability to import data fields via a properly formatted csv file.  All columns MUST have a header row with  the correct  field name.   All fields are short text fields, up to 255 characters, unless otherwise noted.  The header text is NOT case sensitive.

If you are using the category  functionality of Power you may want to import and assign a category slug on the fly.  The header field name is:

category (or plural categories).

If you wish to import and assign more than one category  per location , you will need to use a comma-separated list for the data field  (category).  Example: My location has more than one category associated with it, I want to indicate it is a hotel,restaurant, and has music.  Category  for that location would show under the column with the header row “category”…. hotel,restaurant,music

Alternatively, to define parent/child relationships , i.e.  hierarchical categories , use a double colon as the separator Example the Parent is Facility, the child is showroom.

Facility::Showroom.

Use Dial Link For Phone Setting

Included in MySLP Professional and WPSLP Experience.

Find it under Settings | Results | Results Interaction

When the Use Dial Link for Phone Setting is checked it will make the phone number in your locations results clickable to auto dial by adding a tel: based hyperlink.

The dial-ready hyperlink will be used wherever the [slp_location] shortcode is used.   This includes the results under the map, directory landing pages, and in Store Pages if the [slp_location] shortcode is used instead of the [storepage field=”phone”] shortcode.

Extensions Pause

Use along with the Phone Extension Delimiter setting to handle pauses for extensions.

 

Formerly labelled: Make a Dial Link Phone number (clickable)

 

What To Buy : Rank Hide Import 10K Locations With Products Offered

Question: I would like to use your plugin to add location searching to my site. I would like to be able to rank and even possibly remove locations from the search results.  Also, each location offers different products of mine. So, if a user selects a product and a zip code I would like to show them locations that offer the product they are looking for ranked in order of my ranking system. I have many locations (10k +). Can you please let me know what add-ons I will need to accomplish my goals? I definitely need to be able to upload CSV.

User Interface Settings for WPSLP plug-in

Settings that impact how JavaScript works on your site.  Note, if you subscribe to the MySLP SaaS, you will  not see a General tab. With the MySLP we  take care of this for you!  The My Store Locator Plus service is a fully-managed application that works with any website or mobile development platform.

UI jQuery Version –

reflects the jQuery version that is currently used with  the Store Locator Plus version  you are using. The SLP jQuery versions are in compliance with the WordPress minimal version requirements.

Force Load JavaScript

 

This settings forces the Store Locator Plus JavaScript (slp.js) to be loaded when your WordPress Theme header is loaded. This is NOT the way to go.  It is recommended that you turn OFF “Force Load JavaScript” and instead contact your theme author. See Troubleshooting for more information

Forceload Javascript Warning

Store Locator Plus has a checkbox under the General /User Interface tab called Force Load Javascript

Having this checked forces the JavaScript for Store Locator Plus to load in the header of EVERY page on your site. This can slow down your site and will disable various Store Locator Plus features. If you need to do this to make SLP work you should ask your theme author to add proper wp_footer() support to their code, or switch to a theme that behaves properly.