tablacus

Use OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps using <a href="https://leafletjs.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">leaflet</a> and <a href="https://tablacus.github.io/maps/" rel="nofollow ugc">Tablacus Maps API</a>.

Tablacus maps

Use OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps.

Norbert Preining

A simple, intuitive Google Map / OpenStreetMap plugin that installs as a Gutenberg block and a shortcode. Packed with useful features — geo-mashup of posts, KML overlays, marker icons, address geocoding — and fully free and open source. No subscriptions, no SaaS, no telemetry.
Slick Google Map lets you embed maps using either:
<ul>
<li>Google Maps — requires your own API key (configurable per-site).</li>
<li>Leaflet / OpenStreetMap — no key required, free tile service.</li>
</ul>
Features:
<ul>
<li>Insert maps via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block (with a multi-marker repeater) or the <code>[slick_map]</code> shortcode.</li>
<li>Classic Editor users get a Slick Map media button above the editor that opens a dialog with the same repeater.</li>
<li>Marker geo-mashup — aggregate every post/page that has <code>lat</code>/<code>lng</code> custom fields onto a single map.</li>
<li>KML and GPX overlays — drop a track or boundary onto any map. KML works on both providers; GPX is Leaflet-only.</li>
<li>Address geocoding — write <code>address="Vienna, Austria"</code> instead of coordinates. Geocoded once per address and cached for 30 days. Uses your Google Geocoding API key if set, falls back to Nominatim/OSM otherwise.</li>
<li>Coordinate formats — accepts decimal (<code>48.2082</code>) and DMS (<code>48°12'29.5"N</code>) in any marker.</li>
<li>Marker icons — bundled set of 13 modern SVG pins (default, restaurant, lodging, cafe, bar, museum, airport, rail, shop, camera, mountain, castle, religious), plus your own URL. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin are auto-aliased.</li>
<li>Map controls — toggle the zoom / map-type / street-view / scroll-wheel / drag controls per map.</li>
<li>Layers — Google bicycling and traffic overlays on demand.</li>
<li>45° aerial tilt — passed through to Google as <code>tilt: 45</code>. Only takes visible effect on vector Map IDs, or on satellite/hybrid view over the specific cities where Google has 45° aerial imagery. No effect on raster maps or on Leaflet.</li>
<li>Custom Google styles JSON — for branded maps without cloud-styled Map IDs.</li>
<li>Wiki-style links in marker titles: <code>[[https://example.com|Display text]]</code> becomes a real link.</li>
<li>Compatible with WordPress page caches — no per-visitor state in the rendered HTML, no AJAX side-effects.</li>
<li>No fixed-cost dependencies — Leaflet / OSM is free; Google Maps is pay-as-you-go with a generous monthly free tier (≈28k map loads/month at no charge).</li>
</ul>
History:
Slick Google Map 1.0 is a rewrite of the original plugin version 0.3, which was itself a fork of the Comprehensive Google Map Plugin by Alexander Zagniotov (2011–2014). Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite for WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 8.1+ — see the “Parity & rewrite” section below for what changed.
Insert a map via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block, the Slick Map media button in the Classic Editor, or the <code>[slick_map]</code> shortcode. Optionally aggregate posts/pages that have <code>lat</code>/<code>lng</code> custom fields onto a single map (“geo-mashup”), and overlay a KML or GPX file.
<h4>Shortcode</h4>
<pre><code>[slick_map lat="48.2082" lng="16.3738" zoom="13" height="400px" provider="leaflet"]
</code></pre>
Geo-mashup of posts and pages:
<pre><code>[slick_map mashup="post,page"]
</code></pre>
KML or GPX overlay:
<pre><code>[slick_map kml="https://example.com/track.kml"]
[slick_map provider="leaflet" gpx="https://example.com/hike.gpx"]
</code></pre>
KML works with both providers; GPX requires the Leaflet provider (Google’s Maps JS API does not natively render GPX).
Markers with addresses and custom icons (nested <code>[marker]</code> children):
<pre><code>[slick_map zoom="6"]
[marker address="Vienna, Austria" title="Home"]
[marker lat="52.5" lng="13.4" title="Berlin" icon="https://example.com/star.png"]
[/slick_map]
</code></pre>
Each <code>[marker]</code> accepts <code>address</code> (geocoded once and cached) or explicit <code>lat</code>/<code>lng</code>, plus optional <code>title</code> and <code>icon</code>.
The <code>icon</code> attribute accepts either an <code>https://…</code> URL pointing to your own image, or one of the bundled short names: <code>default</code>, <code>restaurant</code>, <code>lodging</code>, <code>cafe</code>, <code>bar</code>, <code>museum</code>, <code>airport</code>, <code>rail</code>, <code>shop</code>, <code>camera</code>, <code>mountain</code>, <code>castle</code>, <code>religious</code>. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin (<code>1-default.png</code>, <code>museum_naval.png</code>, <code>hotel_0star.png</code>, …) are auto-aliased to the nearest modern equivalent.
For geo-mashup markers, set a <code>marker_icon</code> custom field on each post to override the default pin for just that post.
<h4>Map controls and layers</h4>
Toggle Google’s built-in UI: <code>zoomcontrol</code>, <code>maptypecontrol</code>, <code>streetviewcontrol</code>, <code>scrollwheel</code>, <code>draggable</code> (all default <code>true</code>).
Google-only overlays: <code>showbike="true"</code>, <code>showtraffic="true"</code>.
45° aerial tilt: <code>tilt="45"</code>. Only takes visible effect on a Google vector Map ID, or in satellite/hybrid view over cities where Google has 45° imagery. Ignored elsewhere.
Custom Google map styles JSON: <code>styles='[{"featureType":"poi","stylers":[{"visibility":"off"}]}]'</code> (ignored when a Map ID is configured — cloud styling takes precedence).
<h4>DMS coordinates</h4>
Marker <code>lat</code> / <code>lng</code> values accept either decimal (<code>48.2082</code>) or DMS form (<code>48°12'29.5"N</code>).
<h4>Wiki-style links</h4>
Marker titles support <code>[[https://example.com|Display text]]</code> to embed real links, or <code>[[Plain Page]]</code> for unlinked highlighted text.
<h4>Geocoding</h4>
When a Google Maps API key is configured the plugin uses the Google Geocoding API (same Cloud project as Maps; enable Geocoding API alongside Maps JavaScript). Otherwise it falls back to Nominatim/OpenStreetMap. Results are cached in a 30-day transient per address, so each unique address is geocoded at most once.
<h4>Privacy</h4>
Using the Google provider loads scripts and tiles from <code>maps.googleapis.com</code>. Using the Leaflet/OSM provider loads tiles from <code>tile.openstreetmap.org</code> and the Leaflet library from <code>unpkg.com</code>. Choose the provider that matches your site’s privacy posture.
<h3>Parity & rewrite</h3>
Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite of the 2015 codebase. The old plugin’s PHP and JavaScript were written against WordPress 3.6 and PHP 5, used the long-retired Google JSAPI loader, geocoded addresses on every page view, shipped 300+ marker PNGs of mixed provenance, and had several unauthenticated AJAX write paths in <code>wp-admin</code>. Re-issuing it as-is on a modern stack was not viable, so the codebase was rewritten from scratch around the same shortcode vocabulary.
What you keep. Posts written against the very old <code>[google-map-v3 ...]</code> shortcode still render. The plugin registers <code>google-map-v3</code> as a back-compatibility alias that maps the still-useful attributes (<code>width</code>, <code>height</code>, <code>zoom</code>, <code>kml</code>, <code>maptype</code>, <code>addmarkermashup</code>, <code>addmarkerlist</code>, <code>maptypecontrol</code>, <code>zoomcontrol</code>, <code>streetviewcontrol</code>, <code>scrollwheel</code>, <code>draggable</code>, <code>showbike</code>, <code>showtraffic</code>, <code>tiltfourtyfive</code>, <code>styles</code>) onto the new renderer. The Google provider is selected by default for these legacy shortcodes, the old <code>addmarkerlist="addr{}icon{}desc|..."</code> packed format is parsed transparently, and the most-used legacy icon filenames (<code>1-default.png</code>, <code>museum_naval.png</code>, <code>hotel_0star.png</code>, …) are aliased to the bundled modern SVG set.
What’s gone for good. Some features can’t come back because the upstream services or APIs disappeared:
<ul>
<li><code>panoramio</code> — Google shut Panoramio down in November 2016.</li>
<li><code>pancontrol</code> — Google removed <code>panControl</code> from the Maps API in 2017; there is no flag to set anymore.</li>
<li><code>google.maps.KmlLayer</code> — deprecated April 2026; replaced internally with a <code>fetch</code> + KML→GeoJSON renderer.</li>
<li>The old <code>https://www.google.com/jsapi</code> loader — retired by Google in 2017; the modern loader requires a user-supplied API key.</li>
</ul>
What’s not yet back. Marker clustering, directions/routing, geolocation marker, and marker drop/bounce animations are reachable from the rewrite but not yet wired up. See <a href="https://github.com/norbusan/slick-google-map-plugin/blob/master/PARITY.md" rel="nofollow ugc">PARITY.md</a> on GitHub for the full, categorised list (restored / new / missing-but-doable / deprecated-by-upstream / deliberately-dropped) plus a migration cheat-sheet.
What was dropped on purpose. The sidebar widget (Classic Widgets is in long-term legacy mode), the saved-shortcodes admin library (it was the largest single security surface in the old plugin), and the 300+ marker PNG library (replaced with 13 modern SVGs plus a legacy-filename alias map) — see <code>PARITY.md</code> for the rationale on each.
<h3>Contributors</h3>
<h4>Current maintainer</h4>
<ul>
<li>Norbert Preining</li>
</ul>
<h4>Original author of the upstream “Comprehensive Google Map Plugin” (2011–2014)</h4>
<ul>
<li>Alexander Zagniotov — thanks for the original work, released under GPL.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Additional contributors</h4>
<ul>
<li>Honza Rameš</li>
</ul>

Slick Google Map

Embed Google Maps (with your own API key) or OpenStreetMap/Leaflet maps via shortcode or Gutenberg block.

Tablacus maps vs Slick Google Map