News

Store Locator Plus® May Updates

Several minor updates have been made to the Store Locator Plus® application that was released this week. As always, our SaaS platform users do not need to do anything to receive the updates.

WordPress users will need to manually download and install the Store Locator Plus® base plugin to get updates since the WordPress plugin directory is not properly distributing updates at this time. Once upgrading to the latest version, the main Store Locator Plus® plugin will route directly to our update servers and start receiving inline updates (no manual download zip file, activate process).

The following items are included in this update…

Store Locator Plus® WordPress Plugin Updates

As noted in the opening of this article, the main Store Locator Plus® plugin for WordPress now pulls updated directly from our official update server. If you are on a version older than 2604.06.01, you will need to login to your our WordPress plugin store and manually download then install the new version. Note: Our SaaS platform users do NOT need to do this, head on over to the Store Locator Plus® Dashboard and login.

Make sure your .zip file does NOT have a different name as that can confuse WordPress. The file name should be store-locator-plus.zip. If you end up with store-locator-plus-2.zip (or any other version), WordPress will install multiple copies of the plugin as it assumes the prefix before the .zip extension is a unique plugin name. Not our design, that is legacy WordPress for you.

Another reason to think about replacing your self-managed WordPress plugin install with our fully managed SaaS version. (As an added incentive – we have more features coming to SaaS only with plans for better user interaction reports coming for all plan levels , joining our Settings History feature that was added for all SaaS users in Q4 2025.)

Google Map Domains (Country Codes)

In one of our recent updates, we extended the list of country codes that are supported to match the full list of 100+ countries available on Google Maps today. Two things happened with that update which we missed on release which are now fixed.

First – our Map Domain (country) selection was ordered by country codes (the 2-letter code assigned to each country) which did NOT match the order of the text displayed on the drop down menu. That meant that “United Kingdom” with a NEW country code of “gb” appeared in the middle of the “Gs” on our list. That’s not right! Easy fix to sort our dropdown list by displayed text not country codes. This was a non-functional change but makes the user experience work as expected.

Speaking of United Kingdom, apparently in the ancient history of the Google Map Domains there was an alternative country code of “uk” versus the standardized code of “gb”. Apparently Google Maps stopped supporting “uk” as a country code, which meant that any of our users that had “United Kingdom” selected as their map domain started having issues. Their country code of “uk” was not longer found, and Google did the obvious thing… use the first country code on the list of “Ascension Islands” to try to show the map and addresses. In the most recent update, Store Locator Plus® will automatically convert anyone with the “uk” code to the “gb” code on first launch of the plugin. SaaS user accounts have already been recitified.

Google Maps Latitude/Longitude Links

Another minor update related to Google and the map interface is the link in Location Details. Under each location is the latitude and longitude of the location. Google changed their map search URL which resulted in those links bringing up a 404 page. This has been resolved and once again show the location on a separate Google Maps window. This allows for a quick sanity check that the encoded latitude and longitude align with the Google Maps public service.

Image by Lance Cleveland from Pixabay

Store Locator Plus® Spring 2026 Release Notes: Maps, Profiles, and Plugin Updates

Store Locator Plus® Spring 2026 Updates for SaaS and WordPress

We’ve rolled out a new round of updates across the Store Locator Plus® platform covering both our SaaS offering and WordPress plugins. This release window focused on improving map compatibility, cleaning up modern React-based admin experiences, refining subscription behavior, and tightening up several WordPress compatibility details.

If you are a SaaS customer, these improvements are already part of the hosted platform. If you use the WordPress plugins, updating to the latest releases will ensure you get the newest fixes and compatibility improvements.

SaaS Updates

The SaaS platform saw continued work on modernizing account and profile management screens.

My Profile improvements continued during this release window, including updates to the React-based interface and fixes that help components bind more consistently and behave more predictably. We also refined account-status handling so customers with a canceled subscription that still has time remaining are not shown as expired too early.

Subscription and billing workflows also received an important reliability update. Renewals now better respect the remaining active term on subscriptions that were canceled but not yet fully expired. In practice, this helps avoid starting a replacement subscription too early and makes account transitions cleaner.

We also added additional testing hooks and continued internal UI cleanup work around profile-related screens. These updates help us keep improving the SaaS dashboard while moving more of the administrative experience toward faster, more maintainable React-based interfaces.

SaaS highlights:

  • Continued improvements to the React-based My Profile experience
  • Better account-status handling for canceled subscriptions that still have time remaining
  • Subscription renewal timing improvements for not-yet-expired canceled plans
  • Additional internal UI/testing improvements to support ongoing dashboard modernization

WordPress Plugin Updates

All WordPress plugin updates are automatically part of the SaaS platform updates.

For WordPress plugin users, this release included several map and compatibility improvements across the main plugin and add-ons.

A major focus in this window was Google Maps compatibility. Store Locator Plus®, Premier, and Power all received updates related to Google’s newer Advanced Marker system. These changes were followed by additional patches to make marker behavior more reliable across admin and front-end experiences. The goal here is simple: keep maps working smoothly as the Google Maps platform evolves.

We also improved how Google Maps assets are loaded and configured. That includes refinements to script enqueue behavior, updates to map-related dependencies, and better handling of map domain and country support settings. These changes help reduce edge-case failures and improve consistency across different WordPress environments.

Another useful WordPress improvement in this cycle was expanded Google Maps country support. The country list was updated to reflect a much broader set of supported countries, helping site owners working in more regions configure maps more accurately.

WordPress highlights:

  • Google Maps Advanced Marker compatibility updates across core and add-ons
  • Follow-up patches to improve marker stability and map behavior
  • Improved Google Maps loading and dependency handling
  • Expanded country support for Google Maps configuration
  • React admin rendering updates to reduce deprecation issues
  • Premier map fallback fixes and general maintenance cleanup

Admin and Interface Refinements

This release also continued our effort to modernize older admin interfaces.

In the WordPress plugin stack, some React-powered administrative modules were updated to use newer rendering patterns. That reduces deprecation warnings and helps keep the codebase aligned with newer WordPress and React expectations.

On the SaaS side, we continued that same modernization path in customer-facing admin screens. While much of this work is structural, the user-facing benefit is a more consistent and reliable dashboard experience over time.

Fixes and Stability Improvements

Several smaller but meaningful fixes also landed in this release window.

For Store Locator Plus® core, we improved script enqueue handling to better account for edge cases in WordPress behavior. We also resolved issues around incorrect script registration timing and cleaned up related loading logic.

For Premier, a center-map fallback setting issue was fixed, helping map displays behave more consistently when certain location or viewport data is unavailable.

Across the codebase, we also completed compatibility and maintenance work such as PHPDoc cleanup, versioning updates, and dependency refreshes. These changes are mostly behind the scenes, but they help us keep the products stable and easier to maintain as WordPress, React, and Google Maps continue to change.

What You Need To Do

SaaS customers do not need to do anything. These updates are already part of the hosted platform.

WordPress plugin users should update the core Store Locator Plus® plugin and any active add-ons, especially if you rely on advanced map behavior, Premier pagination and map features, or Power reporting/admin tools.

As always, if you spot anything unexpected after updating, please reach out through our contact form. Real-world usage reports help us prioritize the next round of improvements.

Image by piviso from Pixabay

Location List Pagination

Field and mountains: Location List Pagination

Store Locator Plus® Late February 2026 Updates

The late-February 2026 maintenance window focused on stability and cleanup across the Store Locator Plus ecosystem—especially around Locations import UI reliability, continued PSR-12/PHP 8 compatibility cleanup, and some Google Maps loading improvements.

Release window covered in this post: February 19, 2026 through February 26, 2026.


Pagination Fixes

The most important fix for this release is addressing pagination for lists of locations. A feature available to Enterprise SaaS users and Premier subscription users is the ability to page location search results. This allows for a smaller list of locations to appear on the user-facing location search and map interface with standard next page, previous page buttons. The functionality stopped working at some point in the past. This was brought to our attention by our clients and has been patched in this release.


Locations Import: Fixes for “Broken Tabs / Corrupted Admin UI”

Another important fix in this window was addressing an issue where HTML output from the Import tab could become malformed and then “bleed” into other admin panels. In practice, that could cause subsequent tabs or sections to render incorrectly or behave unpredictably.

Updates included:

  • Fix for rogue/corrupt HTML output in the Locations import UI.
  • Hardening work in Power add-on import to prevent Import tab output from impacting adjacent tabs.

If you’ve ever seen the Locations admin screen behave strangely after viewing Import, this release is aimed squarely at eliminating that fragility.


Google Maps Loading Improvements (Async + Dependency Fix)

We continued improving how Google Maps assets are enqueued and loaded—especially for admin-side usage—so maps can load more efficiently while reducing edge-case failures.

Highlights include:

  • Async script loading support for Google Maps enqueues (including appropriate URL attributes).
  • Defensive checks to ensure required keys are present before attempting to enqueue certain map assets.
  • Dependency fix related to Google Maps script loading (to prevent mis-ordered enqueues or missing prerequisites).

This is part of an ongoing effort to make map loading more consistent across WordPress admin screens and reduce the “works on one screen but not another” class of problems.


Payments / Subscription Workflow Patch (MySLP)

On the MySLP Payments side, this window included a small but important stability fix to prevent a case where subscription detail retrieval could return a WP_Error unexpectedly (stemming from return declaration/typing cleanup work).

Net effect: fewer “mysterious” failures when subscription details are being fetched and surfaced in the UI.


Compatibility & Maintenance: PSR-12 / Cleanup / Version Bumps

As usual, there were a number of housekeeping improvements that help keep the codebase modern and easier to maintain:

  • PSR-12 and typing cleanup in several components (core + Premier).
  • Removal of unused methods/properties to reduce surface area and future confusion.
  • Version bumps across multiple plugins/add-ons as part of packaging these updates.

What You Need To Do

SaaS users (dashboard.storelocatorplus.com): nothing—these updates are part of ongoing platform maintenance work.

WordPress plugin users: if you are impacted by Locations Import UI oddities or admin rendering glitches, you’ll want to update to the latest Store Locator Plus / add-on releases that include the late-February fixes.

If you run into anything unexpected (especially around Imports or Google Maps loading), contact us—those reports are extremely helpful for prioritizing the next round of stability patches.

About This Article

This article was written by an AI agent and refined by a human.

The AI agent was running the openai-codex/gpt-5.2 model with deeper context hints provide by the Store Locator Plus® Qdrant database. The database evaluates the code changes, commit notes, and R&D documentation on our internal documentation site. It generates a basic summary of what changed since the last production release.

Image by Studio Lichtfang from Pixabay