Our user interface overhaul of Store Locator Plus® continues with a new location management interface. We’ve finally replaced the 1980s style location management interface Store Locator Plus® inherited from WordPress. The old PHP, HTML, and JavaScript table has been replaced with a modern React alternative. The new location management interface comes with all kinds of new ways to organize, sort, and filter your existing location data.
The new location management interface is available for both our WordPress and our SaaS users. SaaS users don’t need to do anything to get the new updates, they will be available next time you login to your SaaS account. WordPress users will need to upgrade their existing plugins to the latest release to get these new features.
Filter Locations
Complex location filters coming in the August 2026 release of SLP.
Complex filters can be built on locations. All of the filters we had with the previous filters drop down menu are still available, plus dozens of additional options.
The filters apply across the entire data set with response times that are vastly improved over the prior versions. Large sets of locations can now be filtered with ease.
Built a wide variety of logic combinations for any location data field.
Data matching options include:
contains | does not contain
equals | does not equal
starts with
ends with
is empty | is not empty
is any of
All fields can be combined with AND or OR logic to display specific locatio
Improved Quick Search
The revised quick search feature.Searching across all fields for the 2059 text (found it in the latitude field in this example).
We’ve completely retooled the quick search feature in the new location management interface..
It still searches across multiple fields, but it now searches across all text fields in the location set not only the name and primary address fields. And it is fast. Much faster than past iterations.
Change The Column Layout
A menu of new column layouts.The name column pinned to the left, the other data scrolls under it.
A myriad of options are now available for how you see your data on the locations list.
Sort columns in any combination.
Drag columns to reorder them.
Pin columns to the left or right of the table.
Hide columns.
The best part is Store Locator Plus® remembers your customization between sessions. No more re-sorting or changing column layouts every time you log back in or visit a different page. We’ve added a notification with an easy reset button in case you ever need to quickly get back to the default
Change The Row Density
Row density options.
While more row management options (like grouping, ordering, etc.) are coming – for now we’ve given the basic option to set the height of the display with several row density options available: Compact, Standard, and Comfortable.
We’ve been working on refreshing the existing Locator Styles as part of our 2026 user interface design refresh. Locator Styles provide preset user interface designs for the public-facing side of Store Locator Plus®. The styles provide an easy way to generate a new look for what your customers see on your website when looking for places you sell your wares or provide services.
Our Locator Styles worked well when they were crafted five or six years ago, but they need a refresh to meet today’s interface design standards. We’ve started working through our catalog of pre-defined styles with refreshes that work better with modern themes on WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Shopify and other web presence solutions. The first round of refreshes it meant to upgrade the most popular styles while provide as much backwards compatibility with older web themes.
The good news it that the updated styles are not implemented automatically even if your Store Locator Plus® installation is using one of the Locator Styles we have updated. To try out the revised version of a style you need to select a new style and activate it via the Style Manager in Store Locator Plus® or reload the style if it is already active on your site. With activating a new style or reloading the current style no changes will be made to your installation.
Our revisions for early August 2026 include the Default, Bobbitt, and Bennet locator styles. These updates are now online for most users.
Default Locator Style
The Default locator style is the style that is the default layout everyone starts with. This is designed to change multiple settings back to their initial configuration and provide generic styling that inherits or works alongside multiple web presence themes.
This is the basic layout for Store Locator Plus®. It allows default browser and website themes to dictate the element styling. It has settings that take advantage of Enterprise and Professional level features.
plus… Location categories Search form style, Search by name, Category selection Results header, Prevent result listing wrap, Paginate results, Show country hours and phone, Category icons on results Map styling, hide home marker, map width, map height
plus… Search box placeholder text Map cluster markers, Google map style, map loading indicator
Bennett Locator Style
Bennett locator style, August 2026 revisions as seen in SaaS Preview mode
The Bennett locator style was created years ago for a client with a specific user interface design requested to blend with their website.
Search: Designed to search by category, city, state, tags or the dealer name versus the standard address or zip centric search. Presents the category options as clickable buttons. City and State selectors are via a drop down selection. Tag search and dealer name is a text input. Displays a reset search button to back to the original search with no filters.
Results: Presented as a 4-column design with name, country, phone, and website as the primary output. Gray highlight on hover over location. Light yellow highlight for featured locations.
This theme has been designed to work best with Enterprise subscriptions as it uses cluster markers, table layouts, and scroll map into view features. Category buttons, column result layouts, and other elements require Professional or Enterprise subscriptions.
Bobbitt Locator Style
The Bobbitt style was another customer request.
A yellow color scheme with a simplified search interface. Does NOT show an address search. Focus is on searching by name (if enabled), tags, categories, city, and state.
Results layout shows only the name, address and directions.
Location details are in the map info bubble.
This theme has been designed to work best with Enterprise subscriptions as it uses category search, tag search, city search, and state search features.
More updates are planned for our two-dozen-plus locator styles throughout the remainder of the year. We are also working on creating more advanced interactive styles that go beyond simple layout and styling. Check the Style menu and click the “New…Old” button on the top right of the style stack to see what updates we’ve released most recently.
Note: WordPress users will want to backup their installation to ensure they can recover any settings that may be changed when trying out new styles. SaaS users can review the Settings History to review what was changed and copy settings back as needed. We are working on a “restore previous setting” feature in Settings History to make this easier in the future. Contact us if you need assistance restoring your SaaS styling.
Work continues to modernize the Store Locator Plus® user experience. The latest round of updates focused primarily on the Location Management table header. Location management updates include an improved tab bar along with improved bulk actions, filter, and search components.
These updates were made in preparation for a complete rework of the locations management table. The reworked table will significantly improve location searches, filters, and other tools that assist our clients with location lists that include hundreds or thousands of locations. Those releases are expected in our Summer 2026 update.
Manage Location Interface Updates
July 2026 location management action bar UX improvements (all users).
The latest Store Locator Plus® updates continue the work of modernizing the location management experience for SaaS customers and WordPress plugin users. This release window focused on the Manage Locations screen, especially the tools store owners use every day: bulk actions, search, filters, category updates, import/export workflows, and clearer in-admin feedback.
The updated tag locations modal (Professional and Enterprise users).
For customers with large location directories, the biggest improvement is a more responsive and easier-to-use admin workflow. The location list controls are being moved into the newer React-based interface, giving the page a cleaner layout while preserving the existing Store Locator Plus behavior that site owners already rely on.
SaaS Updates
The hosted Store Locator Plus® dashboard received shared interface updates that improve button styling and visual consistency across React-based admin screens. These refinements help keep action buttons readable and consistent even on screens that still include older WordPress admin styling.
The SaaS dashboard components were rebuilt against the updated shared interface library. This is mostly behind-the-scenes work, but it supports a more consistent customer dashboard as more account, profile, and location management screens move to the newer interface framework.
Testing and development environments were also updated for newer WordPress compatibility, helping keep the hosted platform aligned with upcoming WordPress changes.
WordPress Plugin Updates
The Store Locator Plus® base plugin updates in this window focused heavily on the Manage Locations screen. The bulk actions, search box, and location filter controls have moved into React-based components while still using the existing backend processing paths. That keeps the customer-facing behavior stable while improving the admin interface.
The Power add-on was updated to work with the new React location management controls. Location filters, import processing, export behavior, hosted CSV options, and category-related actions were adjusted so they continue to work cleanly with the updated admin layout.
The Experience add-on received compatibility updates for the revised bulk action wording and location management controls.
The Premier add-on received a settings message clarification, making the Premier Options guidance easier to understand in the WordPress admin.
For WordPress plugin users, the relevant versions from this release window are Store Locator Plus® 2607.11.01, Power 2607.11.01, Experience 2607.04.01, and Premier 2606.26.01. The Store Locator Plus® base plugin now requires PHP 8.2 or newer.
Admin and Interface Refinements
The Manage Locations screen has a cleaner action bar with modernized bulk action controls. Tagging and categorizing locations now use clearer modal and drawer interfaces, with improved action button layout and better feedback while processing.
Search has been moved into the new header area and continues to use the established Store Locator Plus search behavior. This keeps the workflow familiar while reducing older PHP-generated interface code.
The updated location filter notification interface.
Filters now use a slide-out drawer and active filter indicators. When a filter is applied, the active filter state is shown more clearly so administrators can see what is limiting the current list. Property filters can show details such as name, ZIP/postal code, state, country, and category selections.
The updated location filter interface (Professional and Enterprise accounts).
Filtered searches that return no matching locations now keep the action bar available. This is important because it lets administrators adjust or clear filters instead of getting stuck on an empty result view.
Bulk action progress feedback has also been improved. Actions now show clearer processing indicators, and apply buttons are disabled when they cannot safely act on the current result set.
Fixes and Stability Improvements
Several older location management scripts and unused admin UI paths were removed after the new React controls replaced them. This reduces duplicate logic and lowers the chance of old interface code interfering with current behavior.
Power import handling was updated so import-related scripts load when the Locations tab is available, not only after a specific tab click. This makes import workflows more reliable in the updated admin interface.
A Power categorization issue that could interfere with other JavaScript on the Manage Locations screen was fixed.
The updated Categorize locations interface (Professional and Enterprise accounts).
Unused JavaScript libraries and older table sorting assets were removed from Power where WordPress core or the newer interface no longer needs them.
The Store Locator Plus® base plugin and related add-ons received maintenance cleanup, including PHP compatibility updates, PSR-12 cleanup, dependency simplification, and removal of unused generated assets.
What You Need To Do
Store Locator Plus® SaaS customers do not need to install anything. The hosted service is updated automatically.
WordPress plugin users should update the Store Locator Plus® base plugin and any active add-ons together. If you use Power, Experience, or Premier, update those add-ons at the same time as the base plugin to keep the Manage Locations tools aligned.
Before updating a production WordPress site, confirm that your hosting account is running PHP 8.2 or newer. If your site is still on an older PHP version, update PHP first or ask your hosting provider to move the site to a current PHP release.
As always, test updates on a staging copy first if your site has custom integrations, large location imports, or custom admin workflows.
