Documentation

Ninja Geolocation Release Notes

Last modified: October 3, 2026

Introduction

Review Ninja Geolocation releases, including new fields, improvements, package changes, compatibility updates, migration notes, and fixes.

Ninja Geolocation 3.6.0

Released October 3, 2026

Version 3.6 adds guided Quick Setups, visible field connections, native form templates, flexible output, and estimated pricing through Ninja Forms' native calculation system. Read the Ninja Geolocation 3.6 release post.

  • New: Quick Setups for Location & Map, Distance & Travel Time, Directions & Route, and Nearby Locations. Use Add quick setup beside Add new field, review the fields, and publish the form through Ninja Forms to save them.
  • New: Native new-form templates for Location & Map, Distance & Travel Time, and Directions & Route.
  • New: Connected-field summaries and contextual create-and-connect actions, with native field navigation and undo support.
  • New: Optional estimated pricing in Distance and Directions Quick Setups, using connected Number fields populated with meters and seconds and converted for the entered pricing rates.
  • Improvement: Inline, separate-panel, and disabled Directions and Nearby output, with independent route summary and turn-by-turn preferences.
  • Improvement: Numeric Distance and Directions merge tags for action and notification content. Native calculation equations use connected Number fields rather than suffixed travel tags directly.
  • Improvement: New Directions fields calculate automatically when connected locations change. Existing trigger settings remain unchanged.
  • Improvement: Unavailable Quick Setups stay visible with Ninja's native upgrade dialog; empty selectors use clearer wording, and Directions map settings are separate from route-detail output settings.
  • Compatibility: New Dynamic choices use distance_meters and duration_seconds, while older saved distance_in_meters and duration_value selections remain supported without a bulk migration.
  • Compatibility: Existing Directions and Nearby fields retain legacy panel output when their new display settings have not yet been saved.
  • Fix: Connection notices refresh immediately when field selections change; inline output and connected numeric values stay synchronized during updates and clearing.
  • Fix: New Directions fields no longer avoid ferries, highways, or tolls by default. Existing saved preferences remain unchanged.
  • Security: Hardened legacy location-array decoding to reject serialized objects while preserving supported stored formats.
  • Requirements: Ninja Forms 3.13.2 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer.
  • Dependency: Requires and bundles WPGeo Framework 1.0.0-rc10.

The separate Calculation values panel is hidden in this release. Existing connected Number fields remain usable and editable, and Quick Setup estimated pricing remains available.

Ninja Geolocation 3.5.0

Released September 29, 2026

Version 3.5 is a major rebuild that introduces package-aware feature loading, advanced validation, routing, nearest-location and drawing workflows, saved-submission maps, an embedded WPGeo Framework runtime and automatic migration from the previous plugin architecture.

Important: Back up the site, test the upgrade on staging and read Upgrading Ninja Geolocation from 3.1.x to 3.5. Version 3.5 uses Places API (New) and Routes API for current autocomplete and routing workflows.

Packages

  • New: Added Starter, Pro and Agency package-aware builds.
  • Starter: Includes Geocoder, Address, Coordinates, Map, Locator Button and Reset Location Button.
  • Pro: Adds Address Validation, Distance & Duration, Directions, Directions Panel, Single Submission Map and Mashup Map.
  • Agency: Adds Nearest Locations, Nearest Locations Panel, Drawing Tools and Drawing Shape.
  • Compatibility: Eligible legacy Personal and Business entitlements are delivered through the canonical Pro package.

New and expanded features

  • New: Added Address Validation with optional output Geocoder, USPS policies and automatic application of suggested addresses.
  • New: Added Distance & Duration with Routes API and Straight-Line calculations.
  • Enhancement: Rebuilt Directions with Routes API, Straight-Line mode, waypoints, travel preferences, date/time options, route maps and a display-only Directions Panel.
  • New: Added Nearest Locations with manual and configured database sources, maps, panels, output Geocoders and optional route-matrix refinement.
  • New: Added Drawing Tools for markers, lines, polygons, rectangles, circles and freehand shapes.
  • New: Added Drawing Shape for configured and raw-JSON predefined shapes.
  • New: Added Single Submission Map and expanded Mashup Map shortcodes.
  • Enhancement: Expanded Dynamic Geolocation Field Options with sources for validation, travel, nearest-location and drawing data.
  • Enhancement: Restored geolocation bindings when repeater rows are added, removed or reindexed.

Migration and compatibility

  • Migration: Added an automatic, versioned and idempotent migration for legacy licenses, plugin settings, forms, actions, fields and repeater fields.
  • Compatibility: Preserved legacy settings without deleting their original keys and gave existing 3.5 values priority.
  • Compatibility: Kept legacy Base64 Geocoder, Map and Directions values readable without rewriting historical submissions.
  • Compatibility: Preserved Standard Marker behavior for upgraded sites while enabling Advanced Markers by default for new sites.
  • Deprecated: Removed support for legacy Directions Panel stored-value output; use Directions field output instead.
  • Compatibility: Added narrowly triggered temporary Places API (Legacy) and Directions API (Legacy) fallbacks for Address autocomplete and Directions fields.
  • Shortcodes: The supported multiple-form Mashup Map attribute is form_ids. Replace the historical forms_id spelling in existing shortcode content.

Administration, licensing and reliability

  • New: Added the WPGeo Dashboard and connected-account installation and activation workflow.
  • Improvement: Added clear license status and direct local license-management links on the Plugins screen and WPGeo Dashboard.
  • Improvement: Kept license management available under Ninja Forms > Settings > Geolocation.
  • Fix: Prevented the license panel from appearing on unrelated Ninja Forms license screens.
  • Fix: Registered package update checks during WordPress cron.
  • Fix: Isolated forms and standalone-map runtime payloads when both appear on one page.
  • Fix: Initialized standalone submission maps after the Google Maps base API is ready.
  • Maintenance: Updated the bundled EDD Software Licensing SDK to 1.0.4.
  • Dependency: Requires Ninja Forms 3.13.2 or newer and declares Ninja Forms through WordPress's official plugin-dependency header.
  • Dependency: Bundles WPGeo Framework 1.0.0-rc8.
  • Notice: Added a persistent, dismissible 3.5 API-requirements notice covering Places API (New), Routes API, and the temporary legacy fallbacks.

Ninja Geolocation 3.1.1

Released July 9, 2024

  • Fixed Address-field clearing behavior when dragging a map marker with address output disabled.
  • Improved multipage-form loading, geolocation field checks, map marker panning and JavaScript reliability.
  • Improved repeater-field collection, Geocoder submission data and Map field output.

Earlier release history remains available in the changelog included with the plugin package.

menu-circle