Store Locator Plus® continues to upgrade the outdated 2002 style PHP interfaces that were inherited with our WordPress framework to modern React interfaces.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.
Updated locations 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.
Updated import progres meter.
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.
Location Import Settings
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.
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.
Location Cards Fitler
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.
One of our users reported an issue where their location import stopped working after updating the Power add on to a new release. This was never an issue for our SaaS users given the strict nature of the directory configuration, WordPress version, and PHP version running on that platform.
If a user downloads a new version of the Power add on (a zip file) and already has a prior version of the slp-power.zip file in the download directory on their laptop, the browser may create a new file named slp-power-2.zip without direct notification or confirmation it has done so.
If the user uploads this file to the WordPress installation it will create a NEW installation of the Power plugin at ./wp-content/plugins/slp-power-2/. This may or may not reside alongside a version of the older installation at ./wp-content/plugins/slp-power/ which is the standard installation path.
Even if a user deactivates and deletes the existing Power add on , which is best practice, before uploading the new slp-power-2.zip , the new path for the plugin will not match the prior path.
This causes the JavaScript for location imports included in the Power add on to not be loaded.
While some users may still encounter this issue depending on how their servers are configured (WordPress version, PHP version, and other variables can impact how the plugins behave).
There is a patch out in the latest version of the Store Locator Plus® WordPress plugin v2511.05.01 and Power add on v2511.05.01 that make this process less fragile. That will alleviate issues on some server configurations, but best practices should still be followed when updating plugins.
Premier users can login to their account at the SLP WordPress plugin store, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the downloads link to get the latest versions of all SLP plugins.
Tired of dealing with plugin version issues, server issues, and Google API billings? Try the Store Locator Plus SaaS edition. It works with WordPress, no plugins required, as well as most other online presence services including Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and others.
