GEO my WP 2.4

GEO my WP 2.4 is up and ready. This is the next major update of GEO my WP which come with some major improvements. The main focus in GEO my WP 2.4 was on the backend's visibility and performance, Better integration with add-ons and better written code.  As well as some new features, many bug fixes and the first third-party  integration with Sweet-Date theme.

Below is a list of the main changes in GEO my WP 2.4:

Changes/Improvements:

  1. The Code was completely re-built to be better organized and to improve performance.
  2. The admin pages of GEO my WP were complete redone since the initial release of the plugin. It has a completely new , shiny interface which hopefully will bring a better user experience as well.
  3. The Licensing system was fixed and improved. It has caused many performance issues for WordPress admin pages as well as with AJAX requests. It is now being loaded only when needed on the backend, Licensing and activation is more efficient and user friendly and hopefully no more add-ons activation issues.
  4. plugin's fiels and folders were reorganized.
  5. Geocode function was improved.
  6. New "Features" tab in the back-end will allow you to activate/deactivate some features such as short codes and widgets to improve performance when such features are not being used by you.
  7. Many JavaScript and PHP files were either removed or combine for less file loads which should improve performance.
  8. Improved "Curren Location" Widget/shortcode.
  9. New "Shortcodes" page added to Geo my WP admin pages. The page will explain and give an example to each shortcode that GEO my WP or its add-ons provides. Not all shortcodes are there at the moment but will be added very soon.
  11. GEO my WP will not save the data into custom fields any more. I have decided to remove the features for the two main reasons:
    1. Location information is already being saved in the custom table of GEO my WP. Saving the same information in custom fields as well just causes unnecessary duplication of data in the database which results in bigger tables and will hurt performance in the long run.
    2. When there is a need to display different components of the location ex ( city, state and so on ) on a page each of the custom fields that holds the information need to be called which results in weaker performance ( each custom field call is a call to database).

    To replace the support in custom fields I have created new functions/shortcode that will easily provide you with the ability to display any or all of the location data of post. This way is more efficient since it requires a single call to database ( that is also being cached ) in order to display single or multiple fields of a location.

  12. Member Location "Location" tab was improved.
  13. Forms and results template field were visually improved a bit.

New Features:

  1. You can now choose the search form template file when creating/editing a form just like how you choose the results page template file.
  2. You now can now display the results map anywhere on the page using the new short code 
    [GMW map="form ID"]

    When using the map shortcode you will need to make sure you set the new feature "Display map?" ( under "Search Results" tab in the form editor ) to "Using Shortcode".

  3. "Locator Auto-submit" feature will allow you to choose if to auto-submit the form after location found using the auto-locator or just fill the address field but without the form submission.
  4. New search form and search results template file "Gray" were added.

Removed Features

  1. Drop-pin animation was removed due to many errors, conflicts and performance issues.
  2. The support for Bing API Key was removed for the moment for some geocoding issues. I will look into improving it and might add it back in the future.

New Functions/Shortcodes

  1. Easily display any or all of the location fields of a post using a shortcode or template function.Use the function

    in a template file or the shortcode

    [gmw_post_info]

    in a post/page content.

    The accepted attributes are:

    1. info – can be any of the location information comma separated:  street, city, apt, state, state_long, zipcode, country, country_long, address, formatted_address, lat, long, phone, fax, email, website. The default value is formatted_address.
    2. post_id - the ID of a post when you want to display the information of a certain post. Otherwise, when using in a single post page or within a posts loop there is no need for post_id. The post ID will be used from either the post being displayed or each post within the posts loop.
    3. divider – any character you want to display between each field when displaying multiple fields. default is space.

    Example of function usage:

    args = array(    'info'    = 'city,state,zipcode,phone,email',    'post_id' = 34,    'divider' = ',' ); gmw_post_info( $args );

    the code above will produce the location information of post 34 as below:
    Hollywood, FL, 33021, 123-456-7890, info@geomywp.com

    Example of shortcode usage:

    [gmw_post_info info="city,state_long,website" post_id="34" divider="-"]

    The short code will produce the below line:
    Hollywood-Florida-www.geomywp.com

  2. Similar way you can display location of  Buddypress member when the "Members Locator" add-on is activated. You can use the template function 
    gmw_fl_member_info( $args );

    or the shortcode

    [gmw_member_info]

    The accepted attributes are:

    1. user_id - the ID of a user when you want to display the information of a certain BuddyPress member. Otherwise, when using in a member Profile page  or within a members loop there is no need for user_id. The user ID will be used from either the member that is being displayed or each member within the members loop.
    2. info – can be any of the location information comma separated:  street, city, apt, state, state_long, zip code, country, country_long, address, formatted_address, lat, long. The default value is formatted_address.
    3. divider – any character you want to display between the location fields. Default will be space.
    4. message - if you want to display a message when user does not have a location assigned to him/her.

    Example of function usage:

    args = array(      'post_id' = 3,      'info'    = 'city,state,country_long',      'divider' = ',' ); gmw_fl_member_info( $args );

    the code above will produce the location information of member with ID 3 as below:
    Hollywood, FL, United States

    Example of shortcode usage:

    [gmw_member_info info="city,state_long,Zipcode" post_id="3" divider="-"]

    The short code will produce the below line:
    Hollywood-Florida-33021

Sweet-Date Integration

sweetdate.__large_preview
GEO my WP 2.4 comes with the first theme integration which is Sweet-Date theme by Seventh Queen. The Integration will enhance the "Members" page of the theme and will add GeoLocation features to it. It will add the ability to search and find members based on address entered and radius chosen and will display result based on that. It will allow as well to display map above the results showing the found members. If you are using Sweet-Date and you have GEO my WP installed and activated you will see the new settings in the "Settings" page of GEO my WP under "Sweet Date" tab.

Other features that GEO my WP adds to Sweet-Date theme:

  1. Choose the radius values to be display as a drop-down menu.
  2. Choose units between Miles or kilometers.
  3. Adds "order by" drop-down select box that will allow to order results by distance, last active, Newest registered or alphabetical.
  4. Choose if to show map, choose its map type and set its height and width.
  5. Display the distance to each member.
  6. Display the location of members in results.
  7. Display "Get Directions" link that will open a new window with Google map showing the directions from the address entered to the member.

 

Very Important before Updating:

  1. Because of the major changes in the code and database you will lose all your settings and forms that you might have created. After the update completed you will need to setup the plugin and forms again. Apologies for any inconvenience it might cause. However, You WILL NOT lose any of your locations for posts or Buddypress members.
  2. Some functions where modified. If you have created custom search forms or results template files you will need to compare them to the default template files of the new version of GEO my WP and modify the functions of your template files based on the new version.
  3. Some of the existing hooks have modified as well as new hooks added.

Premium Add-ons:

For those of you who are using the premium add-on. Because of the major changes in GEO my WP 2.4 your current version of the premium add-ons will not work with the new version of GEO my WP ( You do not need to purchase a new license just to update to the latest version of the add-on). all the premium add-ons were drastically improved as well. The code was redone in each of the add-ons, Many features were added and many bugs were fixed. To prevent any issue with your license keys and to prevent errors after the updated please make sure to follow the steps below:

  1. Deactivate any license keys you might have
  2. Deactivate the premium add-ons
  3. Deactivate GEO my WP
  4. Update and activate GEO my WP 2.4
  5. Update and activate the premium add-on

If you are having issues with the license key or for some reason you cannot automatically update you premium add-ons from the dashboard you will need to manually download and install them. To do so just login to your <a href="https://geomywp.com/your-account/" target="_blank">Account</a> go to "Purchases" tab and download the latest version of the add-on.

Bugs, Errors, Conflict?

GEO my WP 2.4 and the add-ons all went through major updates. They have been tested and fixed many times before their final release. However, if you are getting into any issues just let me know and I will fix it ASAP.

That is all I can remember. There are other code improvements, bug fixes and features I might forgotten. But the major points were mentioned above.

Last thing

I have put many hours, blood and sweat into GEO my WP 2.4 and GEO my WP in general. please take a moment to appreciate my hard work. Your support is much appreciated and motivating me to keep kicking.

Rate GEO my WP
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Thank you!

Eyal

 

GEO my WP 2.4 Beta

GEO my WP 4.0 2.4 ( my mistake 🙂 ) Beta

I am very excited about the new coming version of GEO my WP 4.0 2.4. This is a major update with many major changes. The main focus was on a better structured code, code improvement, performance, better integration with add-on ( actions/filters ), major improvement of the backend, many bug fix and few new features.

Listed below are some of the major changes made in GEO my WP 4.0 2.4:

  1. Almost every line of code was redone. Code is now much cleaner and better structured using OOP.
  2. The update takes care of major performance issues specially in the back end caused by the licensing system. The update should also take care of performance issues while AJAX call is being performed.
  3. Many php and javascript files were removed which should results in better performance.
  4. Files and folders are better organized.
  5. Code of the back end was completely redone for the first time since the first release of the plugin. This results in a brand new, shiny back-end interface.
  6. Improved Geocode function.
  7. Improved "Current location widget/shortcode".
  8. Instead of using [gmw_results] to display results in a different page you should now use [gmw form="results"].
  9. You can now show the map of a search results anywhere on the page using the short code [gmw map="form id"]. In order to use the feature you will need to set the feature "display map?" to "using shortcode" when editing a form and add the short code anywhere on the page.
  10. The new version of GEO my WP will not save the data to custom fields any more. I have decided to remove the features for few main reasons:
    1. Since location information is already being saved in the custom table of GEO my WP saving the same information in custom fields as well just causes unnecessary duplication of data which results in bigger tables and will hurt performance in the long run.
    2. When there is a need to display different components of the location ex ( city, state and so on ) on a page each of the custom fields that holds the information need to be called which results in weaker performance ( each custom field call is a call to database.

    To replace the support in custom fields I have created new functions/shortcode that will easily provide you with the ability to display any or all of the data of a certain location. This way is more efficient because it require a single call to database ( that is also being cached ) in order to display single or multiple fields of a location.

  11. New "Featured" tab in the "Settings" page of GEO my WP allows you to activate/deactivate some features. ex short codes and widgets. So if you are not going to use some of the features you can improve performance by deactivating them.
  12. New feature: You can now choose a search form  template file when creating/editing a from just like choosing the results page template file.
  13. New Feature: As mentioned above, you can now display the results map anywhere on the page using a short code [gmw map="form id"].

Single Location information

In order to display location's information you can now use the function <?php gmw_post_info( $args ); ?> or the shortcode [gmw_post_info].
the attribute accepted are:

  1. info - can be any of the location information comma separated:  street, city, apt, state, state_long, zip code, country, country_long, address, formatted_address, lat, long, phone, fax, email, website. The default value is formatted_address.
  2. post_id = the ID of the post you want to display.
  3. divider - any character you want to display between each field when displaying more than a single field. default is space.

There is no need for post_id if using the shortocde or function within a page, post or a loop. post_id is needed if you want to show location of a specific post.
Example of function usage:
$args = array(
'info' => 'city,state,zipcode,phone,email',
'post_id => 34,
'divider' =>','
);
echo gmw_post_info( $args );
the code above will produce the location information for post 34 as below:
Hollywood, FL, 33021, 123-456-7890, info@geomywp.com

Example of shortcode usage:
[gmw_post_info info="city,state_long,website" post_id="34" divider="-"]
The short code will produce the below line:
Hollywood-Florida-www.geomywp.com

There are other short codes and functions that will be describe in the future.

Very Important before Installing:

  1. This is a beta version. It is pretty stable but still bugs are expected. It is not recommended to be used on a live site yet.
  2. Because of the major changes in the code and database you will lose all your settings and forms. So after updating you will need to setup the plugin and forms again. Apologies for any inconvenience it might cause. However, You WILL NOT lose any of your locations for posts or Buddypress members.
  3. Some functions where modified. If you have created custom search forms or results template files you will need to compare them to the default template files of the new version of GEO my WP and modified the functions of your template files based on the new version.
  4. Some of the existing hooks have modified as well as new hooks added.
  5. For those of you who are using the premium add-on. Because of the major changes in GEO my WP 4.0 2.4 the current version of the premium add-ons will not work with the new version of GEO my WP. I am in the process of updating the premium add-ons when most of them are ready. If you are using any of the add-ons and want to test GEO my WP 4.0 2.4 please contact me at info@geomywp.com with the add-on and the license key and I will email you the new version. Below the list of the Premium add-on that are ready for GEO my WP 4.0 2.4:
    1. Premium Settings
    2. Global Maps
    3. GEO Members Directory
    4. GEO Xprofile Fields
    5. Gravity Forms GEO Fields
    6. GEO Job Manager
  6. Each of the Premium add-on were improved as well. Code was redone, many bugs were fixed and many new features. Major changes made to Global Maps and Premium Settings.

Updating:

If you are updating to GEO my WP 4.0 2.4 please make sure to follow the steps below to prevent any issues with the license keys:

  1. Deactivate any license keys you might have
  2. Deactivate the premium add-ons
  3. Deactivate GEO my WP
  4. Delete GEO my WP and the add-on
  5. Install and activate GEO my WP
  6. Install and activate the premium add-ons.

If you are facing issues with the license keys not being activated please contact me at info@geomywp.com with the add-on and license key.

Download GEO my WP 4.0 2.4.

Any feedback, bug reports and feature suggestions are greatly appreciated and can be reported via the comments system of this post.

Thank you,
Eyal

GEO my WP 2.2

GEO my WP 2.2 is ready with some major changes, improvements and bug fix. Please read carefully the main changes below:

  1.  First thing you should notice after the update are the messages to update your database tables in the admin pages. It is a good idea to backup your database before updating.
    1. The new version does few things when updating the database:
    2. Duplicating the tables that being updated in case that something goes wrong
    3. Modifying the lat and long columns from varchar to float for better performance
    4. Removed deleted users from wppl_friends_locator
  2. WordPress 3.7.1 and BuddyPress 1.8.1 ready
  3. Redo/improved the whole section of GEO my WP in the admin's new/edit post page.
  4. Modified the way the plugin geocode the address entered in a search form. Now, when one submits the search form the plugin geocodes the address using JavaScript, which is faster than using curl and html, and when the geocode successful the form is being submitted. Otherwise the user will get a message that the address wasn't found.
  5. You can now set the address field to be mandatory ( in the form settings page).
  6. Improved the locator button functionality in the search form.
  7. Few functions of the search form had been modified and a new function was added. The new function called gmw_form_submit_fields($gmw, $subValue); which must be at the end of every search form. If you haven't edited your search forms or created custom ones you have nothing to worried about. Basically, the function populate all the necessary hidden fields of the search forms together with the submit button. the second parameter of the function $subValue is the value of the submit button. So if you modified the search form or created a custom one please compare your search form to the default one that comes in this version of the plugin to see the deference.
  8. Removed "INNER JOIN" ( joining wp_users to wppl_friend_locator ) from the members query for better performance.
  9. Added function that deletes users from wppl_friend_locator table when user being deleted from The site.
  10. Fix : Single location shortcode/widget - Now Directions link and additional information can be hidden
  11. Turn on/off the "Marker drop animation" in the search form settings.
  12. New "Twenty thirteen" results theme.
  13. Save location when saving post as "Draft".
  14. Translation file updated with missing text.
  15. Other bug fixes, Code improvement and clean up, improved queries, and CSS clean up/improvement.

Thank you

GEO my WP 2.0

GEO my WP 2.0 is hot and ready to eat!!!
This is a major update with many bug fixs, core modification and improvements, new features and more. Please make sure to backup your current version before updating to the new one.
After updating your plugin you will need to go over the Settings page and re-save your settings as well as the search forms as many things have changed.
Below are some of the major changes in this version:

  1.  Core modification - The code reduced drastically, It is much cleaner, performs better, many function are documented, the number of files and folders had been reduced and more organized.
  2. Admin - styling improved, better search forms page, tooltips and more...
  3. Search queries - The main search queries are now working directly with WordPress query (WP_query) and BuddyPress query ( BP_User_Query) which should be better for performance and will be much easier to modify the plugin to work with every theme. Now you can simply copy and paste the WordPress posts loop from the theme that you are using into the result.php page of the plugin in order to have the results page matching you theme.
  4. Stand alone search form -  the search form moved into its own template file, just like the results theme. Now you can have full control on the look and functionality of the search form and the results.
  5. Improved widgets and shortcodes.
  6. Warnings removed.
  7. New, improved pagination - new buttons, new look and fix the issue where it shows infinite pagination buttons when having many results.
  8. Per page value - using a drop down box you ( or the users of your site ) can now change the "per page" value live when viewing the results .
  9. There is no more use for the "form_only" attribute when using gmw shortcode. In order to have the results showing in a different page you will have to select the results page in the shortcode setting.
  10. localization - GEO my WP is now ready to be translated. There are no translated files ready yet but a default PO file is in geo-my-wp/languages. the plugin is also ready to be used with right to left languages. Please, if any of you get to translate GEO my WP it will be much appreciated if you'll share the PO and mo files so others will be able to use it as well.
  11. There is no more use for the shortcode [gmw_friends_results]. [gmw_results] will now serve as a results page for both posts and BuddyPress members.
  12. Styling -  i have modified and  removed most of the CSS styling from the plugin. So if you had any custom styling you will probably lose it and will have to adapt it again.
  13. Renamed Files and folders
  14. shortcodes name  changed from "wppl" to "gmw":
    • main shortcode - [gmw]
    • results - [gmw_results]
    • current location - [gmw_current_location]
    • single location - [gmw_single_location]
    • single member - [gmw_member_location]
  15. Some of the settings in the "search form shortcodes" and other shortcodes changed as well. Now you can set the "Width" and "Height" of the maps to either pixels or percentage. in the "search form shortcodes" settings  and in the "single location" and "single member" shortcodes. for example: [gmw_single_location width="100%" height="200px"] .

There are many more improvements and changes that i have not mentioned. Please use the comments below if you want to ask anything before you updating your plugin.