[Steven Zahm]

@ Virgil

Great to hear it is working! That message, indicates that for some reason your web host was having difficulty communicating to mine. The good new is that will not prevent the template (or other addons) from working.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Desiree

Yes, you should disable the category drop down in the template when using Enhanced Categories otherwise they’ll conflict with each other because they use different methods for querying the category.

To disable, navigate to the Connections : Templates admin page and click the Customize button for cMap. The page will reload with the Customizer of the left and a preview on the right.

Click the back arrow in the upper left of the Customizer and then click the Category Select panel. Uncheck the Enable Category Filter option.

Publish the changes and exit the Customizer.

I hope this helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ shanna

Since we last emailed I have released a couple updates…

The first, I implemented multi-service provider geocoding support. When the Google Maps Server API key has not been setup, Connections will now default to a free geocoding provider, Algolia. They are basically a OSM provider.

The other, released today, extends this support to the maps being displayed. If the Google Maps Browser API has not been setup, Connections will now default to displaying maps from Wikimedia.

This update also include a new general purpose map shortcode. I’ve added this mostly so I can more easily test code as I develop it.

The basic options match the shortcode plugin you shared with me. Although the actual implementation differs greatly.

Basic usage:

[cn-mapblock]

This would simply display a map, centered in the US, zoomed in on a marker. The default will eventually be pulled from the Region/Country defined by the user on the Connections : Settings admin page under the General tab.

[cn-mapblock zoom=3 marker=no]

This will change the zoom so you can see the entire US and no marker.

[cn-mapblock latitude=40.3887 longitude=-78.6722 zoom=13]

This will create a map with a marker at a specific location with a marker.

[cn-mapblock latitude=40.3887 longitude=-78.6722 zoom=13]Marker popup content.[/cn-mapblock]

To add a popup to the marker, put the popup content between the opening and closing shortcode. It supports HTML :)

You can also add multiple markers to the map and set the map height, like so:

[cn-mapblock latitude=40.3356 longitude=-75.9269 zoom=13 height=600px]
<strong>Map</strong> pin!
[mapmarker latitude=40.3887 longitude=-78.6722/]
[mapmarker latitude=40.1098 longitude=-76.5033]<strong>Marker</strong> pin![/mapmarker}
[/cn-mapblock]

This will set a map marker with a popup and two additional markers, one with a popup, the other will be just a marker. To turn off the map level marker, add marker=no to the shortcode and remove the marker popup content, <strong>Map</strong> pin!. Like this:

[cn-mapblock latitude=40.3356 longitude=-75.9269 marker="no"]
[mapmarker latitude=40.3887 longitude=-78.6722/]
[mapmarker latitude=40.1098 longitude=-76.5033]<strong>Marker</strong> pin![/mapmarker}
[/cn-mapblock]

Now you’ll just two markers, one with a popup.

It can actually get crazier than this because the shortcode also supports multiple layers and adding markers to the individual layers. At that point, I think someone would be better off using a map builder plugin because that can get ugly looking real quick. This was added mostly for my testing.

You can also use the shortcode on the page more than once. But, due to the nature of nesting shortcodes and WP being “greedy” when parsing for them, you might have to self close a shortcode. Something you normally do not need to worry about. Here’s an example:

[cn-mapblock zoom=3 marker=no/]

Notice that slash in the shortcode… if you are nesting shortcodes and something is not working right, try self closing the shortcodes.

And one last thing… the maps lazy load! They will only load when the are within the window viewport. :)

Any way, that’s all. Hope you find this helpful!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Diane

My advice would be to activate the licenses on the instance where you apply plugin updates. The other instance if the site, the addons will continue to function normally – minus the ability to be updated.

I have made an inquiry on the possibility to support GoDaddy staging sites. I’ve not heard back yet.

Hope this helps, let me know.

[Steven Zahm]

Ok, It seems the shop plugin does not allow, for some reason, to delete the default card. I edited it and then deleted the card associated with your account.

Hope this helps!

ps.

If you have a moment, I would truly appreciate a review as they really do make a difference.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/connections/reviews/

Thanks in advance for your time!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Shawn

The Contact extension is activate. One if its primary features is to suppress the display of email and display a contact email form instead (on supported templates). The Slim Plus template is not a supported template due to it no having a single entry profile view like most others feature.

I recommend deactivating this extension if you wish to display the email addresses.

Slim Plus is configured by using shortcode option. Those options and their defaults can be found here on its docs page.

To change the “Notes” header you would use this shortcode:

[connections str_note_head="Change Me"]

Tip: Shortcode options are added to the existing shortcode not by adding the shortcode multiple times to the page with different options.

Hope this helps! Please let me know.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Alan

No problem!

If you have a moment, I would truly appreciate a review as they really do make a difference.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/connections/reviews/

Thanks in advance for your time!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Rebecca

RE: Ok. How can I be sure that they modify only THEIR entry?

I was speaking in context of access to WP in general. When Link is configured per the instructions, the user will be able to edit their directory entry.

RE: How can I allow them to modify all the fields?

They will be able to edit their entire entry.

Based on your questions, it seems like you just want a user to be able to add and edit their own entry. To do this, configure Link per the instructions. Do not enable the “Submit Entry” link option.

Set up a process, using either the core WP user registration process or a plugin which processes user registration. After the user is registered, they will be able to add/edit their directory entry. I suggest setting users as Subscribers. With that role, the will only be able to edit their name and password as well as maintain their directory entry per the Link configuration.

Hope this better answers your questions.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Hassan Hafez

RE: we need to rebuild the website and wondered if the new version of your plugin could be used with less customisation.

This is somewhat tough to answer not knowing how Connections has been altered. What I can see…

The Gender is being added to an address field. I would suggest creating a “Gender” category with “Male” and “Female” as children.

It seems the Specialties are being added to the Title field and sub categories added to the Bio field while also being assigned as categories. I would suggest just assigning them as categories to avoid all the duplicate work/display.

The bio seems to be entered in the Notes field. I would recommend using the Bio field.

The consultant photos are uploaded to the Logo image. I would recommend uploading them as the Photo image.

RE: Can the new version of your plugin be searched by Category, gender, keyword to show results?

If these are added as categories and the entries assigned to the appropriate categories. Yes.

There is the advanced search addon which enabled multiple category search as seem here on this live third party site:

https://sscit.org/directory/

The “Insurance Plan”, “Specialization” and “Group” dropdown are all parent categories allowing the user to filter by the chosen children categories.

This addon is offered, to those that request it, who purchase the Extension Pack of the Pro Pack

Or as installation/configuration service.

The addon comes styles as is. Although I can provide the CSS necessary to change the color.

RE: Can we also export the existing data into the new version easily?

Assuming none of the core Connections files were altered and its database structure was not altered you should be able to upgrade to the new version. From appearances, it appears only the template itself was altered, but there is no way for me to know that for sure.

I would recommend backing up the files and the database before applying the update so you can roll back if it does not go well.

I hope this helps and answers your questions.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Lisa

RE: Change the names and descriptions of fields

Depending on what exactly you are asking for can already be done by following this tutorial on how to change text and labels in Connections.

RE: Assign which fields are mandatory

This is on the todo list and will be added to the Field Configuration settings when it is added. No ETA on this as I’m working on items for Connections at the moment :)

RE: Eliminate fields which we do not want/use

Checkout the options under the Field Configuration tab on the Connections : Settings admin page.

RE: Add a checkbox field for tags that could become searchable by users.

Tag support has forever been on the todo list. Most often I find that clever usage of categories can work well.

Thanks for the feedback! all of it has been noted.

[Author]

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