(This post is intended for people who are using and integrating the PetPress plugin, and it is unabashedly geeky in parts. If you’re not a PetPress user, very little of what follows will make sense to you. And that’s OK.)
A not-so-minor update is coming to PetPress in mid-April March. As always, once the new version is released the documentation will be updated, so check there for notes on how to use new features.
Version 1.4 will be released soon. This latest version is being tagged as a full minor version because the data caching model has been completely re-done. The reason for these changes has to do with large shelters and the time costs of loading more than a hundred or so animals at one time.
New features of version 1.4 include:
- Background content loading. The animal details will be loaded from PetPress periodically. In theory, this means that no users should have to wait for the content to load from the remote database.
- Tolerance for PetPoint outages. If the PetPoint service is down when the plugin calls for a data refresh, the old data will continue to be used until service is restored.
- Pagination. Administrators can set the number of animals shown per page of the list, from as few as 12 up to 200 per page.
- New display fields. A number of new fields can be shown on the detail pages, including “no dogs / no cats / no kids”, “Lived with animals / lived with children”, “special needs”, “behavior test results”. Once the update goes live, please refer to the documentation for details.
- Breed name capitalization. The algorithm to “unscramble” breed names has improved capitalization, using the MLA style guide for rules.
Need Help?
I do my best to make the installation and use of this plugin as easy as possible, but PetPoint can be tricky at times. I am available for hire to help with your implementation or, if you’d like a whole new website, I can do that, too! Contact me.