Answers to 40 questions from fair teams and website managers – about the directory, the hall plan, maintaining exhibitors, and import, print and the interface. Specific symptoms with cause and fix are listed under Troubleshooting.
Directory & website
1. My exhibitor list stays empty.
Almost always the right parent_id is missing in the shortcode, or the exhibitors aren’t assigned to an event. The dashboard shows the latter under “Unassigned Event”.
2. Exhibitor pages show “Page not found”.
The address rules don’t know the URL path yet – typically right after installation or after changing the URL slug. Open Settings → Permalinks and click “Save Changes” without changing anything.
3. Booth numbers shouldn’t be public yet.
In the event entry, tick “Hide all location & booth information globally”. Locations, booth numbers and the map icon then disappear from all lists and detail views – without touching a single exhibitor.
4. An entry should only be on the plan, not in the directory.
Visibility “Map only (hidden in list)” – meant for stages, catering or storage.
5. The directory has no filter for products or countries.
Types, categories and locations are always there; products, countries, “Sales at booth” and – with the calendar plugin – “Events” are switched on under Settings → Functions & Defaults. In addition, a filter only appears if at least one value is assigned in this event.
6. On phones the tiles become very tall.
Usually it’s the category badges. Under Design & Display → Categories in mobile view limit them to one or two lines or hide them entirely.
7. Directory colors differ from the settings.
The “Design & Display” tab was never saved – until then fallback colors apply. Open the tab and save it once.
8. The “Featured exhibitors” row doesn’t appear.
Three things must come together: “Show featured exhibitors above the list” is switched on in the event, at least one exhibitor of this event has the “Featured exhibitor” switch on (with 0 the row stays invisible), and the embed has no featured="false".
Note: as soon as a guest searches or filters, the row deliberately steps back.
9. Is there a shortcode just for featured exhibitors?
No. The row belongs to the directory and is switched on at the event – see Featured exhibitors.
10. How do I change colors and labels?
Under Settings → Design & Display and Labels & Texts; type colors on the types.
Hall plan
11. A booth in the hall plan doesn’t react.
The ID in the SVG file doesn’t match the “Booth IDs” field, starts with a digit or sits on a group spanning several booths – see Preparing the SVG.
12. The SVG file can’t be uploaded.
WordPress blocks SVG files by default. Have the upload enabled, e.g. with the plugin “Safe SVG”, which sanitizes the files on upload.
13. “View on map” is missing for an exhibitor.
The map icon only appears if the exhibitor’s location occurs on a hall plan of the event. Assign a location or enter it as a room in the plan. hide_map_icon="true" or globally hidden booth information also hide it.
14. Can I send a link that shows a booth directly?
An address suffix like ?booth= has no effect. Create a page with [event_hall_plan parent_id="…" booth="H02"], or link the exhibitor page – “View on map” there leads to the booth.
15. I have no SVG file and no drawing program.
With the Hall Plan Designer add-on you draw the plan right in WordPress – floors, rooms, whole booth rows – and drag the exhibitors onto their booth with the mouse.
16. My drawing has several floors – do I need several files?
No. Name the layers “Floor: Ground floor”, “Floor: First floor” and the rooms “Room: Hall A”. On upload, each floor becomes a tab with its rooms – see Preparing the SVG.
17. The booth numbers are only in the object names, not in the IDs.
That’s enough. On “Import” the plugin reads the names the way Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity and Figma store them and writes them into the IDs. Only “Use file unchanged” takes the file over without this translation.
18. The plan has changed – do I have to set everything up again?
No. “Upload new version” on the row replaces the floors. Tab name, order and rooms stay, new rooms are added, a missing floor is only marked – see Adding the hall plan.
Hall Plan Designer (add-on)
19. Can I sell or let exhibitors book booth space with the designer?
No. The Hall Plan Designer draws the finished map – what is there and who stands where. Prices, bookings and an availability status deliberately don’t exist.
20. “Hall Plan Designer” is missing from the menu.
The exhibitor plugin is missing, deactivated or older than 1.4.0 – then a red notice appears at the top of the admin. Or your role lacks the permission; by default editors and administrators have it.
21. The designer won’t let me save.
The check report reports a duplicate or missing booth number, or someone else is editing the plan right now. The editor shows both.
22. The assignments aren’t written to the exhibitors.
The project settings are set to “Display only”. Then the designer shows occupancy but never writes exhibitor data – meant for maintenance via CSV or Mass Editor.
23. The PDF underlay doesn’t appear.
WordPress creates preview images for PDF files only if Imagick is installed on the server. Otherwise upload the floor plan as PNG or JPG.
24. The website still shows the old plan.
Only “Save” in the designer publishes. Every version gets a new file name; if the old plan remains, it is usually a page cache plugin – clear its cache.
25. What happens to my plans if I delete the add-on?
The hall plans created remain and keep being displayed – they belong to the event. Only the drawings themselves go, and only if “Delete Data on Uninstall” is switched on in the exhibitor plugin. See Saving & export.
Maintaining exhibitors
26. Can I show an exhibitor at two fairs?
No. Each entry belongs to exactly one event. For the second fair create another entry, easiest by import.
27. Categories and products – what’s the difference?
Categories describe what an exhibitor is (manga, fashion, crafts); their filter is always there. Products describe what is offered at the booth (postcards, books, coffee); their filter only appears if you switch it on. Both can be assigned several times and allow sub-levels. Rule of thumb: what fits on a name badge is a category – what lies on the table is a product.
28. What happens when I delete a category?
It disappears from all exhibitors that had it. The exhibitors themselves remain.
29. Why does the button on the Types page say “Add New Category”?
That’s WordPress’s default wording and also applies to products and locations; for countries it says “Add New Tag”. You always create what the page heading says.
30. A red pill “ID not found” appears under “Events of this exhibitor”.
The number entered belongs to no session in the calendar – typically an ID from last year. The pill stays visible until you remove it; then enter the current session. See Conference schedule & speakers.
31. Can exhibitors create their entry themselves?
The plugin has no public sign-up form. Create external helpers as WordPress users with the Contributor role: they prepare entries including logo and gallery as drafts, and your editorial team publishes them. See Roles & permissions.
32. How do I delete many exhibitors at once?
Select them in the Mass Editor and “Delete Selected”. Cannot be undone – export first.
33. Where do I see how often an exhibitor was saved?
In the dashboard under “Top 10 Most Favorited” or in the Mass Editor’s “Fav.” column.
Import, print & interface
34. The import created everything twice.
Name or event differed; matching uses both, a single space creates a new entry. Or Event_Name named a different event than intended – see Import.
35. The import reports skipped rows.
For these rows neither a target event was chosen nor Event_Name (or Main_Event_Name) filled in. Choose a target event or add the column and import again.
36. Can I clear a field by import?
No, and that’s intentional: empty cells and missing columns change nothing. This lets you upload a slim file with just a few columns. Clear a field in the edit screen or in the Mass Editor.
37. Excel shows garbled characters instead of accents.
Export with semicolon and open it in Excel via Data → From Text/CSV, not by double-click.
38. Can I print only part of the exhibitor list?
The print view always contains all exhibitors of the event. For a part, enter a page range in the print dialog. Also switch off “Headers and footers” there – the plugin sets the page numbers itself.
39. A booth sign is missing the box with the number.
The exhibitor has no booth number – then the box is omitted; logo and name remain. Add the number and generate the print view again.
40. Can a fair app use our exhibitor data?
Yes, through the public interface under Settings → API. It is read-only; nobody can change data through it. Switch it on, choose the data scope (contact details and email addresses are off by default) and create a separate key for each partner. See API tab.