• Google continues to change its geocoder.  The latest change returns multiple results even for unique addresses, so I’ve removed the “did you mean…?” prompt.  MapPress will now immediate add or map whatever Google’s best match is for what you’ve typed.
• I’ve removed the option for custom CSS settings.  It confused many users and often folks linked their entire style.css into that option.  Instead, if you wish to override MapPress CSS, move your settings to your theme’s style.css file (or create a child theme and override them there).
• You can now easily add a colored border to your maps from the settings screen

And some fixes:

• Centering and left/right justification should now work correctly
• Clicking ‘enter’ in the map editor now correctly adds a location rather than publishing the post/page 
• If you choose the option to link mashup titles with the source post, clicking the title in the marker list will go directly to the post (previously, it opened that marker on the map)
• The cursor no longer jumps to the directions panel when it’s opened (this caused unwanted scrolling in some blogs)
• When setting the map to initially open the first marker initially, the map wasn’t centering correctly on that marker
• There was an HTML validation error in settings screen for the map sizes
• And last but not least… the map loading spinner is now centered properly

You may see this in your MapPress maps if you’re using both the overview map and the traffic control.

You can read more about the bug and follow it here:

http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=3167&q=traffic

Entering Locations by Latitude and Longitude

In older versions of MapPress you had to use a ‘swap’ button to alternate between entering street addresses and latitude/longitude coordinates.  In 2.32 you can just enter the latitude and longitude directly into the ‘Location’ box in the map editor.

You can also prefix the latitude and longitude with a title to use for the marker.  The format is [title]@[latitude],[longitude]

For example, this map shows Washington, DC being entered using latitude/longitude:

New Widget Options

Overview maps.  Google’s latest version of the map API offers ‘overview maps’.  These are small inset maps that show the same location as the main map, but the overview map is zoomed out to display a larger area.

You can use the MapPress settings to display an “overview map control” (a small arrow in the bottom-right corner that opens the overview map).  You can also specify that the overview map should be opened initially.

The overview map is especially useful on small maps, like widgets, where it’s handy to get your bearings while remaining zoomed in.

Here’s an example of an overview control, and the overview map:

New Widget Options

MapPress widgets now include some important new options:

Map Sizes and Resizing

You can now specify your default map sizes on the MapPress Settings screen.  You may enter up to 3 dimensions (roughly small, medium and large) which are then displayed as defaults in the map editor.

If you make a mistake and need to resize your maps, you can now enter an “original” size and a “new” size.  All maps in the original size will be resized to the new size automatically.

Directions in Your Language

You can now set a directions server in the MapPress options.  If you’re using Google directions (rather than inline directions), this will let you open a window to a local Google server, such as “maps.google.fr” or “maps.google.de”.  This way your readers will get directions in their native language rather than English.

Other Changes

That covers the major changes but there were many other fixes and enhancements.  Here’s a complete list from the readme.txt included with the plugin:

• Added: you can now enter lat/lng locations directly in the ‘location’ text field.  Use the format “title@lat,lng”.  For example: “Washington@38.902255,-77.036819″
• Added: you can now set a “directions server”.  If you have set directions to open from Google you can open a regional Google server (i.e. German server for Germany, etc.)
• Added: 45-degree angle viewing will soon become the default for satellite view (learn more here: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-angle-on-world-with-45-imagery.html).
• Added: overview map control for widgets, shortcodes and settings.  See the MapPress documentation or learn more here: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-angle-on-world-with-45-imagery.html
• MapPress Pro Added: new widget options, including map zoom, traffic and map type
• Added: new settings screen layout
• Added: you can specify up to 3 default map sizes instead of the default small/medium/large (in case you have custom sizes you want to use)
• Added: RSS and news widget on settings screen
• Added: on the settings screen you can now resize from and to specific sizes
• Added: when a marker is clicked on the map or marker list, it is now brought in ‘front’ of all other markers
• Added: new filters for your own developments: when a map is saved, deleted or create, and when the directions panel HTML is generated
• Removed: the ‘autocenter’ parameter is deprecated; if you want the map to automatically center, set the center to null or (0,0); to automatically zoom set the zoom to null
• Changed: updated the mappress.po file (you can use it as a .pot as well) and many of the plugin texts
• Changed: traffic button has been styled to look more like the Google buttons
• Changed: map type control should now adapt itself to screen size and map size automatically (horizontal bar or dropdown)
• Changed: when clicking on marker ‘directions’ link, marker infowindow is not closed until directions are requested
• Fixed: when requesting directions from a marker on the marker list, the marker infowindow will be opened
• Fixed: geocoding errors for some odd addresses could return blanks, these are now ignored
• Fixed: marker zooming in the editor now works better at all zoom levels

• jQuery is now loaded using the “noConflict” mode.  Hopefully this will reduce the number of plugin conflicts.  MapPress uses jQuery 1.4.4, the version that’s included with WordPress 3.1.  A surprising number of other plugins and themes load and require older versions, some of which are so ancient they don’t support AJAX.  This can cause issue with MapPress  (or the other plugin).
• A bug in the geocode() method of the API has been fixed
• Network activation has been changed.  Because of long-standing WordPress bugs, it’s difficult to determine when a plugin is being network activated, so as a workaround the plugin now just checks if its tables exist each time it runs.