On April 16, PetPress version 1.6 was released. This release is unusual in that the appearance of the list pages may change slightly for some users. I make every effort not to change the look and feel for existing users whenever possible, but in this case it was necessary. The explanation of the changes and the reasons for them are detailed below.
First, to recap changes for version 1.5, the current latest version. Most of the changes for version 1.5 were internal, but there were some additions (PetPoint ID and Microchip ID are not fields that can appear on the list page) and once change (Removed separators between age / sex / weight when there is no data to separate).
== Changelog ==
Version 1.6
1) Added option to hide animals that are flagged “on hold”.
2) Animal photos now shown in “lightbox” instead of simple links to the Petango image.
3) Added an option to show adoption application links for those shelters that use PetPoint’s application process.
4) Stylesheet now loaded using WordPress enqueue call instead of being loaded in-line.
5) Removed custom coloring for male/female/unknown from admin settings. Colorization still available by overriding styles.
On Hold Animals
If an animal has its “on hold” flag set in PetPoint, you now have the option of leaving those pets off the lists. Note that by default, every available pet is shown (on hold or not), and you will need to check the checkbox in the admin page to invoke this new behavior. If you are upgrading from a previous version of PetPress, the option will be initially turned off (so your site does not change its behavior).
Photo Lightbox
From this new version, the animal photos will be shown in a Lightbox instead of just loading the photo from Petango.
Adoption Application Links
For shelters that use PetPoint (Petango) to process adoptions, there is now an option to include those application links on the detail pages. Shelters that are not set up to use the PetPoint system for applications should not see the links even if this option is checked, but it is off by default nevertheless, to preserve the existing look and feel for any existing users.
Removed: Accent Colors
Beginning with version 1.6, the ability to set accent colors for male and female animals has been removed from the admin screen. It is still possible to set the accent colors by setting the colors of a.pp_Male , a.pp_Female, and a.pp_Unknown classes in your style sheet.
Stylesheet Loading
Recently, I heard from a few new users that they didn’t seem to be seeing the PetPress styles on their pet pages. I am not sure of the issue (or if there is even just one), but it did prompt me to go back to how stylesheets are loading and switch to a method that is “WordPressy”. This should help elminiate problems in the future with stylesheets and, since stylesheets can be locally cached, might make things a tiny bit faster (though probably not measurably).
Fixing the method of stylesheet loading is, in fact, the reason why the accent color options have gone away. I’m normally reluctant to remove any features or to change how the site works, given the number of users of PetPress, but in this case removing the accent color interface simplifies some things greatly and permits a more orthodox way of loading the main style sheet. I do not have metrics on how many people were using this feature, but anecdotally it seems to be small. Removing this feature seemed worth the opportunity to simplify and remove some sources of potential issues.