Location Map and Directory Listing Improvements

Several changes have made it into the October 2018 release of My Store Locator Plus®.  The updates include features users of the mapping and directory service have been asking for since the start of the summer.

Faster map loads

Users that generate embed codes for their Weebly, Wix, Squarespace or other sites will notice a small change to the code — we now serve up a minified JavasScript snippet.  The compressed code will load faster and take up less memory on your site.   Mobile users visiting your site will like that.

Users that have already embedded the map may want to grab the new embed code by logging into MySLP and copying the code from Generate Embed.

Store Locator Plus updates and Patches

With so many changes in the wind these days about APIs and the speed  in which the Google MAP API  terms of service  in their “cloud” platform have been happening , we are always thankful when our customers point out changes that have occurred in the WPSLP functionality.  Thank you to our forum poster, Paul , for pointing  us in the right direction by deactivating Power and exposing the zoom  issue.  If you discover something isn’t working the way it used to, check for updates.  Posting in the WordPress Store Locator Plus  forums is the best way to bring issues to our attention.  Providing your Plugin environment , as Paul did, helps us the most. The more people who post the issue with a screenshot of their plug-in environment, the more likely we are to believe it really might be a bug in SLP.

Manually Updating WordPress Plugins

This post is for our Store Locator Plus™ WordPress plugin users that are updating WordPress plugins.   Users of our fully managed service do not need to worry about this sort of thing — you’ve earned yourself some extra break time, go ahead and grab an second cup of coffee this morning.

Always use automatic updates

Most WordPress users should perform “inline” or automatic updates.    When logged into WordPress go to the Dashboard | Updates and click “Check Again” to check if there are updates to the Store Locator Plus™ plugins.    If there are, updateStore Locator Plus™ first.

If you do not see updates for our add ons, re-check with the WordPress Dashboard | Updates | Check Again AFTER updatingStore Locator Plus™ to the latest release.

Sometimes the WordPress updates servers or a third party server is slow or the network connection fails when checking for updates of premium add ons.    We have written a workaround for this failure whereStore Locator Plus™ checks directly with our servers, bypassing the standard WordPress update cycle, whenever a new version is installed.

Except when instructed otherwise

If you have received a beta release (prerelease) of our add ons or theStore Locator Plus™ base plugin, follow these instructions to ensure you do not lose any settings.    We recently discovered the using the WordPress “Activate Plugin” button after manually updating a plugin does NOT load plugins into memory the same was as the automatic (inline) updates or in the same manner as the plugins bulk actions activate action.   That means theStore Locator Plus™ environment may not be loaded after a manual plugin upload and it may reset your settings to the default values.     This happens to explain why some third-party premium plugins outside of theStore Locator Plus™ ecosystem sometimes white-screen after install but work fine from that point forward; other developers have told us to “refresh the screen and it will be OK” for this very reason.

The “do not nuke my settings” manual update process:

  • Deactivate the plugin
  • Delete the plugin
  • Go to Plugins | Add New
  • Select Upload
  • Upload the beta release zip file we sent you
  • DO NOT click the Activate button
  • Go to Plugins on the sidebar
  • Check off the plugin you just installed
  • Go to bulk actions and select activate

 

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