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.
Additional Updates This Month
We have been releasing minor updates to the locator software stack throughout the month of January. Many of the updates are transparent to the users and are focused on cleaning up other warnings in the JavaScript and/or server-side PHP code. To date these updates address warnings. As noted above the warnings do not cause problems in the code today, but it is an indicator that sometime in the future it could cause problems.
Some of the updates in the latest release include replacing some of our jQuery code with the recommended standards that were updated in the last couple of updates. We’ve also removed some old unused code from the core Store Locator Plus® libraries which helps reduce attack points for malicious actors that scan code hosted in open source servers like the WordPress plugin directory.