Phone Extension Dialer

 

included with MySLP Enterprise and/or WPSLP Premier.

Employ telephone dialer links with extension pauses by turning on the Use Dial Link For Phone option and setting the Phone Extension Delimiter option.

When both are enabled the links for phone numbers are set to the defacto tel: hyperlink and if a phone number contains the text specified by the Phone Extension Delimiter option it will insert a long pause at that point before continuing to dial.

This method uses the oft-support comma placeholder, adding two commas to extend the pause to allow for slower phone systems to catch up and wait for the extension to be entered.

This output behavior will appear on results under the map, directory landing pages, and store pages.

Horizontal | Vertical Checkbox Category Selector

*Included with  WPSLP Premier subscription or MySLP Enterprise level Subscriptions.

The Horizontal or Vertical Checkbox Category Selector feature is available for WPSLP Premier or MySLP Enterprise level subscription customers. The checkbox works with an “OR” selection based on the Parent category.  With Premier or Enterprise you will see additional category selectors under the Settings/Search/Category section. For example : If you check the [] red and [] blue boxes on the category selector it will show any location in the red OR blue category.

Scroll To Map

By adding the scroll_to_map class on any of the Results Layout HTML elements, WordPress Premier or MySLP Enterprise subscribers can enable the scroll to map functionality on any Store Locator Plus plugin style.    When the class has been added to an element in the results layout that element becomes clickable.  Clicking that element will scroll the map back into view and open the map marker and info bubble for the location that was clicked.

We have used this feature in the new Bennett plugin style.

To add the feature to other styles you will need to have the Premier plugin installed for WordPress. Under Settings/Map in the functionality section see the check box ,

For MySLP Enterprise users the feature is already enabled.

Go to Store Locator Plus (MySLP) or Store Locator Plus (WPSLP) | Settings | Results | Results Layout.

Results Layout With Scroll To Map
Results Layout With Scroll To Map

Edit the layout and add scroll_to_map to an existing class on an html element you want to trigger the scrolling feature or add class=”scroll_to_map” if the HTML element does not have a class assigned.

Learn more about other Premier / Enterprise features like the new Category Button Bar.

Category Button Bar

Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar

*Included with  WPSLP Premier subscription or MySLP Enterprise level Subscriptions. 

The category button bar is a  category selection interface available to WordPress Premier and MySLP Enterprise subscribers.   This feature is enabled under the Store Locator Plus menu  select Settings | Search | Appearance | Category Selector.

The button bar will show clickable links that display the icon and category name for the category which will filter locations that match.    The styling for the display will vary based on which plugin style you select.  Currently the Bennett style from our Settings/View /Gallery CSS is configured to appear when you have an active Premier or Enterprise  subscription.

Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar
Bennet Plugin Style with Button Bar

Functionality is based on a single-category selection. Clicking a new category will turn off all other categories.

The map center, either the Center Map for initial map loading or the address a user entered, is retained as is the initial or current radius.  The map will zoom in-and-out to show all locations that match within the radius of the center point.

Shown is the button bar using the Bennet  Gallery plugin style on a modified version of Exists theme  deployed on the Bennet Trim Tabs site.  This video is on our development servers.

 

 

Learn about other Premier / Enterprise features.

CSV File Import Header

All Store Locator Plus CSV files must start with a file import header that indicates what data is in each column.

The  first row of the Store Locator Plus import file should look like this, you do not need the (sl in front of the header name for the basic import function to work):

sl_store,sl_address,sl_address2,sl_city,sl_state,sl_zip,sl_country,sl_latitude,sl_longitude,category,sl_tags,sl_description,sl_email,sl_url,sl_hours,sl_phone,sl_fax,sl_image,sl_private,sl_neat_title

Please see the Example CSV files post for a sample base file with a header.

To speed up imports you should NOT include columns that have no data.

For imports that did NOT start out as a CSV export from the SAME SITE you should NOT have an sl_id column.

For geocoding, assigning a latitude and longitude, to work during import you need to have at least one of the address fields in your file and preferably these main fields:

  • sl_address
  • sl_city
  • sl_state
  • sl_zip

All field names can drop the leading “sl_” for readability.   For example sl_address can become address. The field names usually match the field label, for example if you have  the Experience add on  or the Professional level or higher SaaS plan , you can have “Featured” and “Rank” as import columns.

Blocking Locator Requests By Query Volume

Premier Members with an active subscription can restrict the number of locator queries that can be made by a single IP address.   This feature can help prevent “location list theft” where a competitor uses the locator to scrape location information from a website or JavaScript query.

Note: In order to enable these settings you must enter your Premier Subscription user ID and Subscription ID under the General / Admin tab.  When entered correctly the notice under “Add On Packs , Subscription Accounts” will tell you your subscription is validated.   This feature is only functional while your subscription is active.

When your subscription has been validated you will see new options available to you under several Store Locator Plus tabs.    The new Security settings will appear under the General /App  subtab as shown below.

General?App/Security

Block Requests Limit

This is the maximum number of location searches a user can perform within the Block Requests Time Span before their IP address is blocked from all locator requests.

This should be set to an integer value greater than 0.

The first page load request from an IP address is always allowed, even if this setting is 0.

If this is set to “2” and the Block Request Time Span is set to “Hour” the system will allow 2 location searches before the IP address is blocked.

The initial loading of the locator page will count as a “search” if you have the default “show locations at startup” enabled.

Changing this parameter will not release already-blocked IP addresses.

Block Requests Time Span

This setting determines over which period of time the locator request limit is checked.   A user that has more than the Block Requests Limit number of locator searches performed in this time period will cause their IP address to be blocked from future location searches until their IP is “released” from the block list.

Setting this value to Never will disable the IP blocking system.

Changing this parameter will not release already-blocked IP addresses.

Release IP After

This is the maximum amount of time a request is “remembered” for a given IP address.   Once this amount of time has passed since the most recent location request that triggered the block the IP address is “released” and once again free to perform location searches.

IP Whitelist

A list of IP addresses that will not be tracked by the blocker.   This allows unlimited location lookups from these IP addresses.

Each address entry should be on a separate line.

Uses standard Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) format.   Typical entries include:

  • Whitelist a specific IP address: 192.168.1.1
  • Whitelist an entire C-class block: 192.168.1.0/24

Related Notes

Keep in mind that an IP address is not a unique “user” or “computer”.  Many locations share an IP address such as a hotel or your local Starbucks.    The limitations will apply to the entire group of users from the same shared IP address.

Once an IP address has been blocked, subsequent location requests are not tracked until the block has been released.  This design lessens the server load in both volume of data stored and data I/O requests.   It helps alleviate issues from possible denial-of-service type attacks where a bot loading requests in rapid succession could overwhelm the data storage and/or database I/O processing.

Blocking Locator Requests was added in the Premier Plugin version 4.7.11.