3.8.15 Update : DO NOT UPGRADE

Restarting a downed site running Store Locator Plus 3.8.15

You must have login to your command line.

1) Login to your hosting site.

2) Go to the WordPress plugin root directory.

3) cd ./wp-content/plugins

4) rm -r store-locator-le

This will remove the faulty plugin & allow WordPress to load.

An http server reboot can be performed (if you have privs to do so) to get WordPress back online faster. On linux the root command is something like this (Redhat flavors):
service httpd restart

I am testing 3.8.17 patches now. Stay tuned.

3.8.17 is being pushed now you can get it on the WordPress directory or download the .zip file here:
https://www.charlestonsw.com/?attachment_id=7301

If you have not upgraded to 3.8.15 or 3.8.16 DO NOT install those versions. The patched version is 3.8.17.

If you updated to 3.8.15 or 3.8.16 you may need to follow the steps above to remove the broken version. An alternative will be to login with FTP and remove the store-locator-le directory that way.

Once the broken plugin is removed WordPress should restart. If not a web service restart may be required (see above). That is typical for any plugin that is stuck in an activation loop, though very uncommon.

To fix the plugin, either search for “Store Locator Plus” in the plugin directory and install as normal. Be CERTAIN the release is NOT 3.8.15 or 3.8.16 before re-installing.

You can also use this link to download 3.8.17 and perform a manual install: https://www.charlestonsw.com/?attachment_id=7301

Once you have downloaded the zip file, go to plugins/add new/upload and upload the 3.8.17 zip file.

Sorry for the problem… I will explain on the next post.

So what happened?

The problem was NOT the unlink function that some people reported. That was a “red herring” (looks like the real thing, but it is not).

The problem had to do with how Pro Pack and Store Pages are connected. While working on 3.8.15 I noticed a bug on how those get activated & setup when a license is entered. It would not ALWAYS load the Store Pages or Pro Pack features early enough. I fixed that bug.

Problem is that not everyone has both licenses. My development system and primary test system do have those (I forgot to reset my test system before running 3.8.15 testing). Thus I never saw the problem. In loading those add-on modules earlier to fix the first bug, it caused another bug that basically was saying “HEY, that thing you just tried to activate does not exist” and would crash immediately.

So, now I make sure those things (Pro Pack module or Store Pages module) exist BEFORE activating them. Like I should have done in the first place.

Side note:
This fix also caused the BASE PLUGIN (Store Locator Plus, not the add-on packs) update modules to start firing off again. Some installs would run into a problem and “hey I’ve got a new version now” code would never run. Now the update function runs. That means most installs should be happier. It updates the store locator table properly. One of the changes made 6 months ago was adding a couple of indexes to the locations table. That should make installs with more than 100 locations run a LOT faster. That is assuming your MySQL install can handle 4 more index keys. If not it simply puts out a warning on activation and moves on without the indexes. No harm, just the lookups will not be any faster with the patch.

HOWEVER, some sites may run into unknown problems now that the update function is running again. If you see something new, please start a new support forum thread and I will look at it ASAP.