News | Store Locator Plus®

Store Locator Plus® Updates: Easier Location Research, Editing, and Imports

Posted by lcleveland in Google Maps, Map Software, Release Notes, Research, Store Locator Plus

Since the September 10 release, Store Locator Plus® has focused on making large location directories easier to build and manage. The updates span the hosted dashboard and the core and Power WordPress plugins, with a new research workflow for eligible SaaS accounts and a more consistent experience for editing and importing locations.

SaaS Updates

The Store Locator Plus® SaaS dashboard adds a Locations Research workflow for Enterprise accounts. Search for places by region and business category, review the results, and add selected places to their location list. Results already found in the account’s locations are marked, helping avoid duplicate additions. The results table supports paging through larger searches, up to 1,000 results per search; narrower searches can help when a region has more matches.

The hosted dashboard also received refinements to the way newly added research locations appear in the Locations List.

This uses the AWS Location Services Places API to search for locations to add to a directory.

WordPress Plugin Updates

The core WordPress plugin now uses a newer location editor integrated with the Manage Locations screen. The editor layout and field labels have been refined, including marker selection. The Locations List also gained improvements to filters, table controls, and bulk actions, making it easier to work through a large set of locations.

The Power add-on has a redesigned location import interface. CSV uploads and loading locations from WordPress are brought together under the Import tab. A Recent Uploads view lets administrators review previously uploaded CSV files, preview their contents, run an import from an existing upload, or remove a file they no longer need. Import feedback and performance have also been improved, particularly for larger jobs.

Admin and Interface Refinements

Across the Store Locator Plus® dashboard and WordPress admin screens, action buttons and layouts are more consistent. The Locations List refreshes after an import or after locations are added through Research, so new records are easier to find without manually reloading the page. The Contact Us form has clearer label and placeholder positioning, and location-list controls have been adjusted for better spacing and sizing.

Fixes and Stability Improvements

This round also addresses location-list filter behavior and an issue that could interrupt the Locations List script. Import processing received safeguards to keep jobs associated with the correct SaaS customer site. Behind the scenes, older location-management interface code was retired as the updated screens took its place.

What You Need To Do

SaaS customers do not need to install plugin packages; hosted dashboard updates are delivered through the service. Locations Research is intended for Enterprise accounts and requires location-administration access.

If you manage your own WordPress site, update the core Store Locator Plus® plugin and any active add-ons through your normal update process. Power users who regularly import locations should take a look at the revised Import tab and Recent Uploads view. As with any production update, test first on a staging site if you have custom location workflows or large import files.

Image by Marius from Pixabay

New Location Import Interface

Posted by lcleveland in Google Maps, Map Software, Store Locator, Store Locator Plus

Store Locator Plus® continues to upgrade the outdated 2002 style PHP interfaces that were inherited with our WordPress framework to modern React interfaces. Our latest updates focus on replace the mix of old JavaScript and PHP code on the Location Import interface.

Separate Upload / Import Progress Meters

The new interface has a clear separation between the file upload process with its own progress meter and the import processing. The import is designed to separate the file upload process from the file import process. The import process is asynchronous, which means the user can go to other parts of the app to continue working, then come back at any time to the import page and see how their location imports is progressing.

Sidebar: For smaller files with a couple of hundred of locations this may not seem important. For our customers that are uploading files with 35,000+ locations it is critical that the file upload process is distinct from the processing of the file. While uploads that large can take up to an hour, depending on the user’s connection speed, the import is more challenging. For our customers that do not use our SaaS platform, they can be running on slower smaller web hosting platforms. Importing 35,000 locations will break those servers as they run out of memory or “time out” during the 2-3 hour import process (our SaaS servers are far larger and faster than most self-WordPress sites; if you are doing large location imports you may want to switch to our SaaS platform). The Store Locator Plus® import process manages this by detecting pending timeout issues and keeps track of the current line being imported. If a timeout is imminent the import will stop on the last record processed and queue up a new import request to pick up the process where it left off. That allows the memory and processor to “take a breath” – preventing server crashes and getting those large import files fully loaded without additional user intervention.

Remote File Imports

Remote file location import interface

Remote file imports allow user to load CSV files that are hosted on a different server. This is often used for companies with a separate CMS or inventory management system that exports their locations on a nightly basis to a private URL. The remote file imports can be setup to read those remote files on a regular basis, keeping the list of locations in Store Locator Plus® in sync with external services.

This section now has its own interaction panel with related messages and processing details.

Recent Uploads – new feature

Recent location import files

A new Recent Uploads section allows users to see the list of recent CSV file imports. From here the files can be re-imported (without uploading), downloaded, viewed, or deleted.

Viewing the file shows the details of the most recent import as well as a summary of the first 20 records in the file. To view the complete file, the user can download the CSV file.

Uploaded location file details.

CSV Processing Settings

The shared CSV processing settings are shared between the uploaded CSV, remote processing, and re-import actions. The setting can be accessed via the settings icon on the top right of the Import panel.

Load Locations From WordPress

This feature is now part of the Professional and Enterprise accounts and is included in the Import tab as a new section.

This feature allows users to load locations from a WordPress site they own that has the Store Locator Plus® plugin installed.

New Location Cards View

Posted by lcleveland in Google Maps, Map Software, Plugins, Release Notes, SaaS, Store Locator, Store Locator Plus

Our August 2026 user experience updates continue for Store Locator Plus® with a new Cards viewing mode for Locations. The Cards view provides a vertical scrolling column of location cards. This provides a quick view of the location data alongside a map preview to help ensure the location is where you expect it to be.

This feature replaces the SaaS-only Card listing that was in need of a refresh. We opted to include this in the WordPress plugin as well, but be aware this view can use up Google API charges when viewing this mode for users of the WordPress plugin. For the SaaS users, there are no additional charges.

Location Cards Features

Filter Locations
The location cards view provides a filter interface that allows for stacked filter selections to limit the cards that are displayed.
Search Locations
The search feature is a multi-field text search that matches full or partial text across multiple location fields.

Both feature mimic the functionality of the new Location List table view that went into production last month.

Getting the Location Cards

Store Locator Plus® SaaS users will automatically see the new Cards view under the Locations page later this month.

WordPress plugin users will need to update to the latest Store Locator Plus® plugin. Look for the plugin version at or above v2608.04.XX for this new feature. If you’ve not updated the plugin recently you may need to update any associated add on plugins including Power, Experience, and Premier plugins. Keep in mind that all plugins require your WordPress server to be running PHP 8.2 or higher.