Pro v2.6.1 with significantly decreased loadtimes for OpenStreetMap-based maps is available

Posted on 29 November, 2015

Category:

Pro-Version Releases
Attention: this is not the changelog for the latest stable version 4.28 (see related release notes)

Although we tested v2.6 intensively, some user reported issues immediately after the release last weekend. This was quite frustrating for us in the beginning as we aim to deliver a high quality premium mapping plugin. Anyway after intensive research we found that the main issue was caused by other plugins also loading the Google Maps API which resulted in problems on layer maps. 

When searching for a fix, we discovered a great optimization as a sideeffect which will significantly decrease the loadtime of your OpenStreetMap based maps – saving your visitors up to 370kb on each page view with an embedded OpenStreetMap based map.

We hope that this optimization will compensate you for any issues you may have experienced with v2.6 🙂 An update to the latest version is – as always – highly recommended.


Let us know what you think about this new release by submitting a review or leaving a comment below!

If you want to keep up to date with the latest Maps Marker Pro development, please follow @MapsMarker on twitter (= most current updates), on FacebookGoogle+ or subscribe to news via RSS or via RSS/email.

We would also like to invite you to join our affiliate program which offers commissions up to 50%. If you are interested in becoming a reseller, please visit https://www.mapsmarker.com/reseller


Now let´s get to the highlight of pro v2.6.1:

significantly decreased loadtimes for OpenStreetMap-based maps

If you are using OpenStreetMap or other non-Google-based basemaps for your maps, your maps will now load much faster with v2.6.1. This is achieved by conditional & deferred Google Maps API loading.

This means that the Google Maps API scripts are only loaded if either Google Maps is used as basemap your map or if you switch to a Google basemap in the layer controlbox.

This new loading approach saves your visitors up to ~370kb uncompressed data transmission for each page view with an embedded OpenStreetMap based or other non-Google based basemap. Depending on the internet connection speed of your visitors, this may decrease the loadtime of your page by up to 5 seconds (assumption: ADSL user with 512kbit/s bandwidth, source: http://www.download-time.com/)

This optimization is enabled by default – you just have to upgrade to v2.6.1 to take advantage of this optimization.

Other changes and optimizations

  • URL hashes introduced with v2.6 are now disabled by default for new updates
  • optimized URL hashes (Prevent from registering events twice if calling startListening twice)
  • Tools page/move markers-bulk action: multi-layer-maps are now excluded as markers cannot be assigned directly to multi-layer-maps (thx Andres!)
  • now loading Google Maps API by default via https and only via http for WordPress installations with Chinese locale (as performance issues with https in China have been reported)
  • sort “list of markers” for multi-layer-map selection on layer edit-pages by ID ascending

Bugfixes

  • “used in content” warnings if special widget configurations were used
  • occassionally wrong “used in content”-results linking to contents where shortcode is not used (thx Hans-Georg!)
  • responsive tables were not shown correctly on some devices (column with relative instead of absolute widths)
  • marker edit link on fullscreen maps linked to layer edit page instead of marker edit page
  • layer maps could get broken recently if other plugins or themes also embedded the Google Maps API
  • marker count for multi-layer-maps on “list all layers”-page was broken
  • duplicate marker button on marker edit page did not duplicate assigned layer(s) but unassigned the marker from any layer
  • fix for “WPBakery Visual Composer” plugin v4.7+ introduced with v2.6 did not work correctly on all sites
  • bulk actions for layer maps did not delete or re-assign markers from sub layers
  • Web API: assigned markers are not deleted or re-assigned if using delete action for layer maps

Translations updates

Thanks to many motivated contributors, this release includes the following updated translations:

If you want to contribute to translations (new Hindi translators would be appreciated!), please visit https://translate.mapsmarker.com/projects/lmm for more information.

Please note that translators are also compensated for their contribution – for example if a translation is finished less than 50%, the translator receives a free 25 licenses pack worth €149 as a compensation for completing the translation to 100%.

Outlook – plans for the next releases

Please understand that we am not being able to promise any release dates for new features. The roadmap for major new features gives you an idea where Maps Marker Pro is heading – anyway we just would want to keep the flexibility to add optimizations and bugfixes with rather unplanned minor releases resulting mostly from users feedback.

Please subscribe to this blog (via RSS or Email) or follow @MapsMarker on twitter (= most current updates) if you want to stay up to date with the latest development news.

Full changelog

significantly decreased loadtimes for OpenStreetMap-based maps by supporting conditional & deferred Google Maps API loading (~370kb(!) less uncompressed data transmission)  
URL hashes introduced with v2.6 are now disabled by default for new updates 
optimized URL hashes (Prevent from registering events twice if calling startListening twice) 
Tools page/move markers-bulk action: multi-layer-maps are now excluded as markers cannot be assigned directly to multi-layer-maps (thx Andres!) 
now loading Google Maps API by default via https and only via http for WordPress installations with Chinese locale (as performance issues with https in China have been reported) 
sort “list of markers” for multi-layer-map selection on layer edit-pages by ID ascending  
“used in content” warnings if special widget configurations were used 
occassionally wrong “used in content”-results linking to contents where shortcode is not used (thx Hans-Georg!) 
responsive tables were not shown correctly on some devices (column with relative instead of absolute widths) 
marker edit link on fullscreen maps linked to layer edit page instead of marker edit page 
layer maps could get broken recently if other plugins or themes also embedded the Google Maps API 
marker count for multi-layer-maps on “list all layers”-page was broken 
duplicate marker button on marker edit page did not duplicate assigned layer(s) but unassigned the marker from any layer 
fix for “WPBakery Visual Composer” plugin v4.7+ introduced with v2.6 did not work correctly on all sites 
bulk actions for layer maps did not delete or re-assign markers from sub layers  
Web API: assigned markers are not deleted or re-assigned if using delete action for layer maps 
Translation updates
In case you want to help with translations, please visit the web-based translation plattform
updated German translation
updated Russian translation thanks to Ekaterina Golubina (supported by Teplitsa of Social Technologies – http://te-st.ru) and Vyacheslav Strenadko, http://slavblog.ru 
updated Swedish translation thanks to Olof Odier http://www.historiskastadsvandringar.se, Tedy Warsitha http://codeorig.in/, Dan Paulsson http://www.paulsson.eu, Elger Lindgren, http://bilddigital.se and Anton Andreasson, http://andreasson.org/ 

show previous changelogs

How to download / update

The easiest way to update is to use the WordPress update process: login with an user who has admin privileges, navigate to Dashboard / Updates, select plugins to update and press the button “Update Plugins”. The pro plugin checks every 12 hours if a new version is available. You can also manually trigger the update check by going to Plugins and clicking on the link “Manually check for updates” next to “Maps Marker Pro”:

manual-update-check

If you do not see the link “Check for updates” and are using a version below 1.7, please update manually once by downloading the current package from https://www.mapsmarker.com/download-pro and overwritting the existing plugin files on your server via FTP. This might be needed on several hosts, which use outdated SSL libraries, which prevent Maps Marker Pro from making a secure connection to retrieve the update package from mapsmarker.com. Pro v1.7 includes a workaround for those kind of servers and the following updates should work again as usual. If you are affected and need help, please open a support ticket.

How to verify the integrity of the plugin package

SHA-256 hash value:

B2CB348D5DA5F56FC1ABE0A8B1682A7F30341D988C58315008FDFD67BD671AC7

Click here for a tutorial on how to verify the integrity of the plugin package (recommended if the plugin package for a new installation was not downloaded from https://www.mapsmarker.com – verification is not needed though if the automatic update process is used)

Additional update notes for beta tester

No additional action required when updating from a beta release to this final release.