Power v5.13 Addresses Location Categorization Issue

Version 5.13 of the Store Locator Plus® Power add on for WordPress plugins was released today.    The update is a minor one as we continue to clean up the WordPress plugin family.  Multiple updates are expected in the next few weeks in preparation for better SaaS integration , user experience improvements, and general feature improvements.

In Power v5.13

Add new location category was logging a warning about an undefined or null variable reference.   This has been resolved.

Power – On The Radar

For the WordPress plugins we are aware of an issue related to the SEO pages functionality and an array offset warning that comes up when creating an SEO page.   This is on the R&D schedule to be addressed in an upcoming release.   Current estimate is to have an update ready in less than 30 days.

Store Locator Plus® SaaS Impact

The issues resolved in Power 5.13 do not affect functionality or performance of the MySLP SaaS platform.   As such the updates included here will be published in combination with other updates in a future upgrade to the MySLP platform.

Store Locator Address Accuracy

My Store Locator Plus® was updated this weekend with new software. While we were at it the MySLP servers were upgraded.

Better address accuracy outside the United States

The biggest change to the My Store Locator Plus® software was the implementation of region data handling. The map domain, aka “region” setting under Store Locator Plus | Settings | Map influences the accuracy of the results returned for new location addresses as well as user searches.

Users in countries like Australia or parts of Western Europe should see a notable improvement in the accuracy of locations returned when searching for an address. The map engines, primarily Google, that are used to geocode addresses are more heavily influenced by the region setting in those countries.

WordPress Subdirectory Install and The REST API

Seems there is a number of new people having issues with the Store Locator Plus® address lookup feature due to a failed REST API request. With Store Locator Plus 5 all address lookups are routed back through the WordPress site via the REST API in order to protect Google API keys.

If your site is running WordPress from a subdirectory you may run into issues if your web server is not configured to properly handle REST API routing. Especially if the site is using “pretty permalinks”, any Permalink setting under WordPress Settings | Permalinks other than “plain”.

The problem is that most of the Codex articles on the subject of doing a “WordPress in it’s own directory” installs came out well before the REST API existed. Most, dare we say ALL, have not been updated since and completely ignore the corner case of a WordPress subdirectory install with Permalinks enabled.