Store Category Management Improvements

Store Locator Plus® was updated today with store category management improvements. Users reported an issue where the could not disassociate all store categories from a location. Assigning a store to a new category worked as expected, as did changing the category assigned to a location. The issue only appeared when trying to remove all category associates from a location.

Today’s updates resolves that issue and users can now disconnect all category references from a location.

store category management improvements
Store listing showing active categories.

Store Category Management

Store category management is a feature that is available to Professional or Enterprise level subscribers. It is enabled for WordPress plugin users with the Power add on.

Resolving The Issue

The issue impacts both SaaS platform and WordPress plugin users.

WordPress plugin users will need to upgrade to the latest version of the Power plugin to get the store category management improvements. Users with a SaaS subscription have been automatically updated to the improved experience.

post image via Pixabay

Google Maps for JavaScript Update

Store Locator Plus® was recently updated to accommodate the latest Google Maps for JavaScript update which now requires a callback parameter. Third party hosted scripts such as the Google Maps for JavaScript library, a foundational component of Store Locator Plus®, can change how they operate at any time and without warning to the developers that employ these scripts. Thankfully the recent Google Maps change that makes a new callback parameter required only generates a warning. If this follows in the footsteps of prior Google Maps updates, it will one day suddenly be required and many sites that do not update the script deployment will fail.

For our clients using the WordPress plugins, this means you will need to update the Store Locator Plus® plugin before Google “flips the switch”. For our SaaS users, you do not have to do anything — we’ve already updated the library for you.

Locator Styling Updates

Updating the locator styling default settings is the latest customer concern to be addressed as we continue to improve the overall Store Locator Plus® user experience. Updates are being made on a regular basis for both our SaaS platform users and WordPress plugins users. The latest update focuses on changing the default layout that users see when they first use Store Locator Plus®.

The Locator Styles

Locator Styles is a pre-defined set of Store Locator Plus® settings combined with a set of cascading style sheets (CSS) to go with those settings. The idea is to help users by providing a set of pre-defined layouts for the locator applet along with common settings users prefer when using our locator and directory software. For example, the pre-defined settings will change things like the internal applet layout — when a visitor searches for your retail locations do the list of locations appear on the left side of the map, or below? It can also set things like “do you want to show the label Phone ” before displaying a phone number or show nothing at all?

The idea is to provide a solid starting point of pre-loaded settings that can be modified after the base style is set.