WP_Places
WP_Places populates up-to-the-minute information about almost any location or business. Display address, phone number, hours of operation, and website …
The facts
- Rating
- 5★ from 9
- Active installs
- 10+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 11 Oct 2018
- Added
- Dec 2015
- Requires WP
- 4.0
- Tested up to
- WP 4.9.31
- Downloads
- 4,769
Our analysis
AI-assistedWP_Places is a WordPress plugin that integrates with the Google Places API to display information about various locations. It allows you to show details such as business name, address, hours, phone number, and website on your site using shortcodes. This can be particularly useful for bloggers or businesses that frequently write about local places and want to provide accurate, up-to-date information to their users.
The plugin requires a Google Places API Web Service Key, which is free for up to 1,000 requests per day. With proper verification, this limit can be increased significantly. Once installed, you can use various shortcodes to display different types of information, and you can control how long the Google response is cached.
Best for: This plugin is suitable for bloggers or businesses that need to provide detailed information about local places.
What it does well
- ✓Integrates with Google Places API
- ✓Displays various location details using shortcodes
- ✓Free API key available for limited requests
Where it falls short
- •Requires a Google Places API key
- •Limited active installs may indicate low usage
- •Last updated in October 2018
Verdict
WP_Places offers a straightforward way to display location information on your site, but its reliance on an external API and lack of recent updates may be a concern.
From the developer
Gary Kovar's own description of WP_Places, lightly tidied.
If you find you regularly write blog posts about (local?) places you might want to provide info such as hours, phone number, address to your users. However, this can be difficult to keep current. Fortunately Google offers an API called Google Places API Web Service. Google Place API Web Service allows you to Add up-to-date information about millions of locations.
WP_Places Plugin requires a Google Places API Web Service Key. However, at the time of writing the API key is free and provides up to 1,000 requests per 24 hour period. If you verify your identity (by providing Google a Credit Card) they will increase your daily request per 24 hours to 150,000.
Once Installed, WP_Places takes name and location and displays a DIV containing Business Name, Address, Hours, Phone Number, Website.
The following shortcodes are available:
- [wp_places name] displays the Google Places name
- [wp_places formattedAddress] displays the address in the regionally standardized way
- [wp_places phoneNumber] displays the phone number in the regionally standardized way
- [wp_places hours] displays the hours of operation in a list
- [wp_places website] displays the website
- [wp_places priceLevel] returns the pricing level as prescribed in google places API
- [wp_places rating] returns the average rating as prescribed in google places API
- [wp_places lat] lattitude
- [wp_places lng] longitude
- [wp_places openNow] returns 1 if open
- [wp_places openNowText] returns “Open Now” if open
- [wp_places permanentlyClosed] returns 1 if permanently closed
- [wp_places photos] returns photos if google supplies them
- [wp_places reviews] returns a UL list of reviews if google supplies them
To filter how long to cache the google reply there is a filter:
add_filter( ‘wp_places_transient’, ‘wp_places_update_transient’, 10, 1 );
wp_places_update_transient( $time ) {
// return a value in seconds for how long to cache.
return 86400; // one day
return 604800 // one week
}