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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Google Maps API Prices Increase 9,000%

Posted by lcleveland in Map Software, MySLP SaaS, Store Locator Plus, WPSLP

How much did the Google Maps API prices increase? The true cost is hidden for many users of the ubiquitous Google Maps API as Google is weaning you onto a potential 9,000% price increase by giving everyone a $200 per-month credit towards API billing through September 2018. For many API users the true sticker shock will come when that $200 credit expires.

Google Maps API Prices Increase by 9,500% for our account in September.

Our fully managed locator service has already seen the impact. When the $200 credit expires our expenses will increase 9,570%

Up until July 2018 most users were able to get by with no official Google API key at all. Those that started a site in the past year needed an API key but likely fell under the “free usage limits” and never saw a bill; even if they enabled the older “Pay-As-You-Go” system under Google.

Load Locations From WordPress Sites

Posted by lcleveland in MySLP SaaS, Store Locator Plus, WPSLP

You can now load locations from WordPress sites directly into Store Locator Plus. This new feature makes it easier to migrate from self-managed WordPress plugins to our fully managed My Store Locator Plus service.

This is the first iteration and only provides fundamental location loading features.

The current version does not import category information and as such will not retain location:category associates. It will import contact fields, if you are using that with a Power add on, or feature and rank fields if you use the Experience add on.

The current version of the location loader will not check if locations already exist in your location list; as such it can create duplicate entries. It can also stall if the site that is being loaded from is slow to respond; it is important to check that your loaded list of locations matches the source site when the loading process is complete.

The location loader only supports loading locations from WordPress sites running the WordPress Store Locator Plus plugin. If you are using a locator or directory plugin other than Store Locator Plus, please contact us to discuss the possibility of beta testing the forthcoming “MySLP Location Connector” plugin.

Use this to migrate to MySLP

With MySLP, we worry about software updates and Google keys. You manage your business.

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