How Store Pages Templates and [slp_pages] Work

Posted by lcleveland in for WordPress, Power Add On, Professional
Available In: WordPress Store Locator Plus™ with the Power add on.
Not yet available  SLP  Managed Store Locator Plus™ (MySLP) service.

Showing A List Of Pages — Full Content

[slp_pages style=”full” no_map=”1″ pages_directory_entry_css_class=”slp_page location_details col-xs-12″]
Because there is not template specified it will display the “full” (entire/complete) SEO page.    Login to the WP site and go to Store Pages as admin, click on any page.  What you see there is what you’ll get on the page list output.
That means when we add descriptions to SEO pages (either manually editing the SEO page OR with some new description magic in development today) the ENTIRE page will show up.
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Enable Pages Setting WordPress SLP Power add-on

Posted by lcleveland in Professional

Included in WPSLP Power only   (This feature is currently NOT available with MYSLP  fully managed software as a service)

Find it under Store Locator Plus | General |APP

Enable Pages turns on the Store Pages (“Pages” or “SEO Pages”) functionality of Store Locator Plus.     Once enabled a new Pages tab will appear under Store Locator Plus Admin Panel menu and the Store Locator Plus | Locations | List will have new entries under bulk actions.

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Phone Extension Dialer

Posted by lcleveland in Enterprise, Professional

 

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.

Store Locator Plus Location Imports troubleshooting

Posted by lcleveland in FAQ, Troubleshooting

On  June 11, 2018  Google changed their API.  There is now a pay as you go billing requirement. You  will need to reconsider how to import, how often to import , and whether to break the list into smaller chunks , or skip geocoding.  (Or switch to the MYSLP SaaS managed service and choose the Professional or  Enterprise level plan ( restrictions apply) .

In order to perform bulk location imports with a CSV file for the WPSLP plugin you will need the Power add-on installed.  WPSLP Power add-on does not alleviate the need for you to obtain your own Google API key.  MySLP  SaaS users  do not need to obtain their own API keys but will need the Professional level plan or higher to import.

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Location Sensor Aware

Posted by lcleveland in General, Power Add On, Professional, User Interface

Location Sensor Aware available with the SLP SaaS subscription Professional level (or higher ) service plan

Location Sensor capability is also a feature with the WPSLP Plug in Power  add-on.

Location sensor feature can be  turned on/off with a simple check box under the SLP/General  tab.

WPSLP Power add-on General tab

When the box is checked and a visitor to your site performs a search , SLP queries the browser and requests their current location.    If the browser allows location queries it will return their geographic location which will be used to set the default search location.

Note:  This will only work with most browsers if you have a secure site and/or if your site visitor “allows” their location to be visible to you.

Google  may return a “No results found” if you do NOT have an HTTPS site and will stop the javascript from loading. SLP with the Power add-on will negate Location sensor settings entirely if you do not have https://   enabling  your page to continue to load.   If you require the location sensor functionality to work properly you must have  a valid SSL certification.

Location Aware Browsing

Accuracy varies greatly from location to location. In some places, service providers may be able to provide a location to within a few meters.  All locations returned by service providers are estimates only and we do not guarantee the accuracy of the locations provided.  Your SLP settings also determine the number of locations shown nearest the site visitor.  Settings for radius, number of results to return and center of map  all interact to show locations nearest to the site visitor.

Google Geocoding and Browser keys

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, for WordPress, General, Server, Troubleshooting
This article effects the WordPress StoreLocatorPlus  users “Do it yourself ” plug-in with pay as you go Google Maps API keys

MAP Service and API Keys

Changes as of June 11, 2018 will effect the WordPress Store Locator Plus (DIY) community.  Google requires all sites  using map services to have an API key with a billing account attached. See Google Developers console.

The Browser key is used to display the map and handle user-input addresses during a location search.  The Geocoding API  is used on your WordPress server to geocode locations you’ve entered via the Google “Places” box and  APIs.  You do not need the additional geocoding “key”   unless you have added  restrictions.  You do however, need to have the geocoding API enabled in your Google projects library.

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Mixed Content Warnings and Site migration

Posted by cici in Advanced, FAQ, Support, Troubleshooting

Google’s push for all websites to be HTTPS  has been a game changer over the past few years with many companies  switching from HTTP to HTTPS with some hiccups along the way.  Some of the site transfer mishaps are minor, but if done incorrectly can cause your plug-ins to misbehave , and often is the case, after the transition team has left the building.

Mixed Content Warnings – Loading Assets Over HTTP

If you have never had HTTPS on your site, you will undoubtedly run into an issue with how your site assets are loaded. By assets we are referring to things like images, JavaScript, and even your CSS.   Insecure assets may not stop the green padlock from showing in browsers, but it will add an exclamation point warning to your users that information is being loaded insecurely.

 Site Migrations Vary

Occasionally we see comments from customers that Store locator Plus broke their site or is not working. When asked if they recently  migrated their site they often state nothing has changed.   On further investigation , or by inspecting their console  we often see the “Mixed Content warnings” quite often for images or icons from older versions of Store Locator Plus. This is a sure fire clue that there was indeed a “site migration”. They started out with their site when  the SLP plug-in was originally installed as HTTP and now , at least part of their site, is HTTPS.  This is known as  a protocol migration. If you migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS, Google treats this as a site move with a URL change. That means you may need to obtain a new Google API key for SLP to work properly. With version SLP 4.9.15 you are allowed to add HTTP referrers now as long as you also obtain a geocode key. See  info about those changes under news

Upfront Investment

A site migration is a great opportunity to address legacy issues. If you have outdated legacy add-ons  this is a good time to invest in your future by planning for and including any  update expenses in your overall budget.  Including these costs in the project scope is the most cost-effective method to ensure your site stays relevant and on-track. When you consider that  issues that may arise after going live will require additional time , resources and, yes, may even create downtime and loss of traffic  to your site it is worth including the new versions in your budget.

Store Locator Plus Discrete Searches

Posted by lcleveland in Experience Add-on, for WordPress, Our Add Ons, Search, Settings, What To Buy

The Experience add-on  for WordPress SLP or the Professional level Plan for MySLP SaaS provides a “search by city”, “search by state”, and “search by country” feature.   This search form element, when enabled, will build a drop down list based on the locations in your database.   This is meant to provide a hint to the user where your locations are.

The Advance level or basic SLP  search button  looks for locations closest  based on your other search form settings.  If your default radius is 100 miles and the user selects the state of Texas, the base plug-in will search for all locations within 100 miles of Google’s estimated “center of Texas”. With the Professional level plan  you can select certain settings to redirect the search selector and provide other options to direct or assist your site visitor.

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