SaaS users can skip this step.Store Locator Plus® for WordPress users need a Google API key to utilize the full features available in the the plugin. WordPress administrators who are self-managing their plugin updates, security, and Google services need to setup a Google API account so they can start billing for map services.
For the Store Locator Plus® for WordPress users these instructions are a general guideline. You will need to visit Google and read their User guide to obtain a new account or update your existing account. Google will bill you directly for your monthly map views and location look-ups.
When a visitor goes to a page with the Store Locator Plus® map code embedded, it will show a default search form and a map centered in your country or on the “Center Map At” address you entered when configuring Store Locator Plus®. When someone searches for a zip code that is close enough to a location you entered it will show those locations on the map.
All Store Locator Plus® software updates are handled for you.
There are no Google or other map location service API keys to manage.
Store Locator Plus® bills a low easy-to-understand monthly fee.
WordPress
You must manage your own Store Locator Plus® software updates.
Google requires an API key for all products using their map software. You must create, manage, and secure your own API key.
Google will bill you for every map view and location geocoding request. Rates are on a sliding scale and are different for map views and location look-ups.
WordPress environment is setup and configured including activation of the following plugins
Store Locator Plus®
SLP Power add on
In addition map service (Google API keys) should be in place and some locations should be added to the system.
A page has been created with the [slplus] shortcode present and the map is rendering properly.
Users are logged in as a WordPress administrator (the process will be slightly different for SaaS users).
Adding Categories To Locations
Objective
Create a location category and attach it to an existing location.
User Action: Add A Location Category
Click on Store Locator Plus® | Categories in the WordPress sidebar menu.
In the left “Add New Category Form”…
Type a category name. (Restaurant)
Click Add New Category
Result
The new category should appear on the category list on the page.
Category list after adding the restaurant category.
User Action: Attach Category To Location
Click on Store Locator Plus® | Locations in the WordPress sidebar menu.
Click the Edit action icon on the first location.
Check off the box next to “Restaurants” in the Power | Categories section of the form.
Click Save.
Result
The category is assigned to the location and appears on the location table.
The location with an assigned restaurant category. This view is showing fewer columns as the Screen Options was updated to removed unused columns from the table view.
User Action: Show Category Select On Front End
Click on Store Locator Plus® | Settings in the WordPress sidebar menu.
Change the Category Selector setting to “Single Drop Down”.
Click Save
On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
Result
The search form for the map should show a category drop down.
The front end page with the [slplus] shortcode, showing the category selection filter.
User Action : Filtering Locations With Category
On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
For the WordPress SLP stand alone (do it yourself) plug-in , the latest update to the Word Press base plugin normally appears in your WordPress site Plugin menu for auto update
To check your version against what is currently available please see the site home page under Support/Versions
The WordPress Store Locator Plus base plug-in is again available in the WordPress plug-in directory. If you purchased an add-on you will need to log into your WPSLP account and download it manually the first time you use it.
ALWAYS BACK-UP your site immediately before updating any Plug-ins.
Some of the most common features requested are included with either the Plug-in for WordPress using add-ons OR a higher level plan if you use the all inclusive (but separate from the plug-in) Store Locator Plus Software as a Service (SaaS)
Import Locations ( SLP PLUGIN needs add-on Power or the SLP Software as a service needs the Professional level MySLP )
(This page has been updated to reflect the changes in Google Cloud Platform API changes)
Most likely reasons;
You moved your site or changed the domain name and did not change your Google Map API key or , as of JUNE 2018 Google API changes, did NOT ADD BILLING TO YOUR API KEY . See Getting Started
If you have the Power add-on and are using the import function , your csv file is incorrect, or your header rows are not accurate, or they have wrong field names, the columns may be misaligned and the data field for an address could not import and/or does not geocode. Check your import message log.
Google does not recognize an address. See FAQ post
T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM is the scope resolution operator. In most languages it is the double-colon (::).
Most people that are looking for this odd-looking word are probably running into an issue with a PHP program. For as often as it comes up, there is very little information on what is causing the problem.
With PHP it typically means the application has a syntax error. The PHP interpreter cannot figure out how to compile your code properly and crashes with the Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM error message. Often it is due to a class name or static method reference that PHP cannot handle. Either the class name is entered incorrectly OR your PHP version is so old it cannot process variable names before the double-colon operator.
For Store Locator Plus™ users that are still using the WordPress plugins it most likely means the version of PHP you are running on your web server is very outdated. Upgrade PHP to a newer version, preferably something that is supported in the past 5 years like PHP 7.
User that chose the fully managed Store Locator Plus™ service don’t have to worry about things like this.
The location limit feature is available exclusively to our Store Locator Plus Premier/Enterprise customers.
When the URL Control module is active you can enable location ID passing by turning on “Location Limit” under the General / User Interface tab.
When this is enabled you can pass in a limit for the number of locations to be returned when the map initially loads and when a search is performed by adding ?limit=<id> to the end of the page address where your locator map is deployed with the [slplus] shortcode.
Example: Client has 250 results to return by default but when the site via a URL link loaded they only wanted 5 to come back.
Location Limit functionality supersedes the initial default limit.
