Description
Locations are a custom post type with an address and coordinates. A visitor
types a place, picks a radius, and gets the nearest locations as pins on a map
and as a list beside it. It ships as a shortcode and as a Bricks Builder
element.
What it does
- Search by address, postcode or city, with suggestions as you type and a
search button beside the field - A radius filter in kilometres or miles, and a result-count filter
- “Use my location”, which asks the browser for a position only when the
visitor presses the button - A category filter, backed by a taxonomy
- Marker clustering, which switches itself on once a locator would draw fifty
pins, and which can be forced on or off - A directions link from a result to OpenStreetMap or to Google Maps, or none
at all, whichever the site chooses - Bulk geocoding from the admin, with a report of what happened to each row
- A settings screen whose fields are a closed list of options rather than a
free-text box that can hold anything
How it is built
- No dependencies and no build step. No npm, no Composer, no bundler. What
is in the plugin is what runs. - No jQuery. One frozen
window.SLOSMnamespace on the front end. - The REST API rather than admin-ajax. Four narrow, read-only routes.
- Conditional assets. The clustering bundle downloads only when a locator
actually needs it; a site with twenty branches never sees it. - Geocoding through a server-side proxy, with a thirty-day cache and a
one-request-per-second gap, so a visitor’s browser never talks to the
geocoder itself and a failure is never cached. - Leaflet and Leaflet.markercluster are bundled rather than loaded from a CDN.
Known limitations in this release
Worth reading before this goes on a site that matters.
- The search button is new in this release, and there is no form around
it. The address field has a Search button beside it now, running the same
search Enter runs; with the suggestion list open, both take the highlighted
suggestion rather than looking the text up again. What this markup
deliberately does not have is a<form>: that would make Enter submit the
page for anybody the plugin’s JavaScript has not reached yet, and a form
inside a page builder’s own form is discarded by the browser’s parser with
its controls handed to the outer one. If your theme or builder rebuilds the
filter bar and drops the button, the field still searches on Enter. - The styling is two files, and you can switch one of them off. One holds
the layout — the map’s box and its height floor, the results list beside or
under it, the suggestion popup, the dot marker — and is always loaded. The
other is a skin: the spacing of the filter row and a border and padding on
the search field, the selects and the buttons, in the site’s own font and
colour rather than the browser’s. Untick “Default styles” on the Advanced tab
to drop the skin and write your own; the map keeps its layout either way, so
switching it off cannot leave you with a map of no height, which is the usual
way this kind of plugin appears broken. - The accessibility and translation passes are done; what is left is
checking them with real software. The search field is a combobox with a
listbox of suggestions, the arrow keys walk it, one status line announces
what happened — including how many locations a search found — and opening a
location’s bubble moves the keyboard focus into it and gives it back when the
bubble closes. The map’s close button is labelled in your site’s language
rather than in English. None of that has been through NVDA, VoiceOver or
Orca yet, and that check is listed as open rather than claimed as done. - One thing is deliberately left alone: the name inside a location’s bubble is
bold text and not a heading, because a heading needs a level and the right
level depends on the page you drop the locator into. - Clustering at scale has not been measured on a real site either.
The free services have limits, and a busy shop will meet them
The public OpenStreetMap geocoding service allows roughly one request a second
and asks that heavy use go elsewhere. This plugin keeps to that limit and
caches hard, but a shop with real traffic needs its own instance or a paid
provider. That is a property of a free public service rather than of this
plugin, and the endpoints are settings so a site can point at its own.
Credits and licences
- Leaflet 1.9.4, unmodified, BSD-2-Clause — https://leafletjs.com/
- Leaflet.markercluster 1.5.3, unmodified, MIT —
https://github.com/Leaflet/Leaflet.markercluster - Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors —
https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
Both bundled libraries are GPL-compatible, and each ships with its own licence
file and a note recording where it came from and what its SHA-512 digest is.
A note on the name
OpenStreetMap is a trademark of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. This plugin is an
independent piece of software that works with OpenStreetMap data and services;
it is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or an official product of the
OpenStreetMap Foundation. The name follows the Foundation’s trademark policy,
which permits naming software that works specifically with OpenStreetMap data,
and asks for exactly this disclaimer alongside it.
Leaflet and Leaflet.markercluster are bundled here under their own licences and
are likewise not affiliated with this plugin’s author.
External services
This plugin contacts three external services. Two of them are contacted by
your server; the third is contacted by every visitor’s browser. None of them
is contacted until something on the site actually asks for it.
1. Nominatim, the OpenStreetMap geocoding service
What it is for. Turning an address into coordinates.
When. When a location is saved with an address and no coordinates, when
the bulk geocoder is run from the admin, and when a visitor submits a search.
A result is cached for thirty days, so the same address is sent once.
What is sent. The address or search text, normalised; an ISO country code
when the site has set one; and a User-Agent naming this plugin, its version
and your site’s home URL, which the service’s usage policy asks for. The
request is made by your server, so the visitor’s IP address and cookies are
not part of it.
Where. https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search by default. The
endpoint is a setting: a site may point it at its own instance or at a paid
provider instead.
Terms and privacy. Nominatim Usage Policy:
https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/ . Privacy policy of
the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which operates the service:
https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy .
2. Photon, the address-suggestion service
What it is for. The suggestions that appear while a visitor types in the
search field.
When. While typing, after a pause, and only when suggestions are switched
on. A suggestion list is cached for a day.
What is sent. The text typed so far and a result limit. As above, the
request is made by your server rather than by the visitor’s browser.
Where. https://photon.komoot.io/api by default, and also a setting.
Terms and privacy. Photon is run by komoot. Its terms are a fair-use
paragraph on the service’s own page, https://photon.komoot.io/ , which reads:
“You can use the API for your project, but please be fair – extensive usage
will be throttled. We do not guarantee for the availability and usage might be
subject of change in the future.” The service publishes no privacy policy of
its own, which is said here rather than papered over with a link to something
else. A site that needs a documented data-processing agreement for this should
point the setting at its own Photon instance, or switch suggestions off.
3. The OpenStreetMap tile server
What it is for. The map images themselves.
When. Every time a page carrying a map is viewed, from the visitor’s own
browser.
What is sent. What any image request sends: the visitor’s IP address, their
browser’s User-Agent, and the coordinates of the tiles being looked at. This
plugin sets no cookie of its own and neither the geocoding nor the suggestion
request carries one.
Where. https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png by default, and a
setting, so a site may use any tile provider it has the right to use.
Terms and privacy. Map data and attribution:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright . Tile Usage Policy:
https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/ . Privacy policy of the
OpenStreetMap Foundation: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy .
Not a request, but worth saying
A “directions” link opens OpenStreetMap, or Google Maps if the site chose
that, in a new tab when a visitor clicks it. Nothing is sent anywhere until
they do, and the link can be turned off in the settings.
Installation
- Upload the plugin to
wp-content/plugins/, or install it from the
Plugins screen, and activate it. - Add locations under Locations. Enter an address and press the button
that geocodes it, or type the coordinates directly. - Put a locator on a page: use the shortcode builder under Locations
Shortcode, or add the Store Locator element in Bricks. - Settings live under Locations Settings.
No API key, no account, and nothing to configure before the first map draws.
FAQ
-
Do I need a Google Maps API key, or a billing account?
-
No. The map, the geocoding and the suggestions all use OpenStreetMap services,
and the plugin works with the defaults it ships with. -
Can I use it on a busy shop?
-
Not on the free public services alone. They allow about one request a second
and ask that heavy use be moved elsewhere, and a shop with real traffic will
reach that. The geocoding endpoint, the suggestion endpoint and the tile URL
are all settings, so the answer is to point them at your own instance or at a
provider you pay. Please have that conversation before the traffic arrives
rather than after. -
What happens to my locations when I delete the plugin?
-
They stay, unless you have asked for them to go.
By default, deleting the plugin removes its settings, its two cache
invalidation counters and its own cached entries, and nothing else. Your
locations, their addresses and coordinates, and their categories are posts and
terms in your database, and removing a plugin is not by itself a decision to
delete them.If you want them gone, the Advanced tab has a checkbox — “Delete every
location, category and setting when this plugin is deleted”. It is off by
default, and while it is off, uninstalling keeps every location. Tick it and
deleting the plugin also deletes theslosm_storeposts with their meta,
including any in the trash, and the location categories. Nothing else on the
site is touched: other post types, other taxonomies and other plugins’ data are
left alone.That deletion cannot be undone from here, so please take a backup first if
there is any chance you will want the addresses back. -
Does it work with Bricks Builder?
-
Yes. The element registers itself when Bricks is present and does nothing at
all when it is not, and it renders through the same code the shortcode uses, so
the two cannot drift apart. It was built against Bricks 2.4. -
There is a field for that: “Button class” on the Advanced tab, empty by
default. Whatever you type is added to the Search and “Use my location”
buttons, so they can take the class your theme already styles — on Bricks that
isbricks-button, and most themes and frameworks have one of their own. One
locator can override the site-wide value withbutton_classin the shortcode
or in the element’s own control.The plugin does not fill this in for you, deliberately. Writing another theme’s
class name into a plugin means inheriting that theme’s renames as your own
breakages, and a primary-button class on a secondary control is rarely what a
page wants. The Bricks element also carries a STYLE tab, so a locator can be
styled in the builder without touching CSS at all. -
Can I use a different map style or tile provider?
-
Yes — the tile URL and its attribution line are settings. Please use a provider
whose terms allow your traffic, and keep the attribution that provider requires. -
Where does the plugin store anything?
-
One option for the settings, two counters used to invalidate caches, two
timestamps that keep the plugin inside the geocoder’s rate limit, and
transients for the cached map payload, the cached geocoding results and a few
admin notices. All of those go when the plugin is deleted. Locations
themselves are ordinary posts, and they go only if you asked for them to —
see the question above.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Nearspot Store Finder for OpenStreetMap” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Nearspot Store Finder for OpenStreetMap” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.2
- Renamed, before the first release, to be distinguishable from the several
existing plugins whose names begin “Store Locator”.
1.0.1
- The OpenStreetMap attribution, and everything else Leaflet draws inside the
map, keeps a legible size on themes that set a 62.5% root font size. It was
rendering at 7.5px there, which is not an attribution anybody can read.
1.0.0
- First release.
- The map frames what it is showing — on load, after a search, and when a
location is opened from the list — and redraws itself when its container
changes size inside a page builder, a tab or an accordion. - Keyboard and screen reader: the popup takes the focus, Escape closes it and
gives the focus back to the row that opened it, and that row says what it
opened for as long as it is open. - Map, search, radius and category filters, “use my location”, clustering,
directions links, bulk geocoding, a settings screen, a shortcode builder and
a Bricks Builder element. - The address field has a Search button, and carries enterkeyhint=”search” so
that a touch keyboard labels its action key. No form element is involved:
the button runs the same code path Enter runs. - Changing the radius or the result count updates the results on its own.