Updates from the hub

When your site is linked to ModuleFest, Pet Central checks the hub for new releases and offers them through WordPress’ normal update system — Dashboard → Updates, the Plugins screen, or the button on this page. You can also enable auto-updates like any other plugin.

During any update WordPress briefly shows “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” — this is normal: it takes the site offline for a few seconds while it swaps files, then restores it automatically.

Example

A new version is published on the hub; the Help & About page shows “Update available”, you press Install update now, and WordPress downloads and installs it.

FAQ

Why don’t I see updates?
Link the site first (Support → Link now). Updates come through that same secure channel.

I published a new release but the site doesn’t offer it
Press “Re-check now” on this page (or “Check again” on Dashboard → Updates) — the site caches the hub’s answer for up to an hour, and these force a fresh check. The Update check line then shows exactly what the hub reports: if it still names the old version, the release didn’t publish on the hub; if it names the new version but says “no installable package attached”, attach the plugin .zip to that release on the hub so it can auto-update.

Can I roll it out automatically?
Yes — tick Update automatically on this page. New versions then install in the background with no clicks. It is this setting that decides: WordPress’ own “Enable auto-updates” link on the Plugins screen has no effect on Pet Central, because the choice made here overrides it either way. Background installs follow WordPress’ own update schedule, so allow a few hours rather than expecting one within minutes.

Does the update download need my licence?
The package is fetched from the hub over the same secure link as everything else: your site’s private token is attached automatically to the download so a protected release installs without you entering anything. If a download ever 403s, re-link the site (Support → Link now) to refresh the token and try again.

The update seems to pause and only finishes after a prompt
Fixed in 1.59.0. It happened when auto-updates were on: a background update could start at the same moment as your manual one and briefly put the site into maintenance mode. Updates now stand back on the update/Plugins screens so your click always runs cleanly on its own.

It’s stuck on “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance”
That WordPress message normally clears in seconds. If it stays longer than a minute, an update was interrupted — delete the file named .maintenance in your site’s main WordPress folder (next to wp-config.php) using your host’s File Manager or FTP, and the site returns instantly. Your data is untouched.

What is the “Upgrade tidy-up” note on the Support page?
A note, not a problem. Pet Central runs background jobs — sending statements, chasing reminders, checking your licence — and WordPress keeps a list of them for your site. An update occasionally has to give one of those jobs a different name, and the entry filed under the old name would otherwise sit in that list for ever, coming round on schedule and finding nothing to run. The update clears them and leaves this note saying how many and when. Nothing is lost: the jobs themselves carry on under their new names, and the note is only ever shown on a site where there was something to clear.

What is the “Shortcode tidy-up” note on the Support page?
Also a note rather than a problem, and it appears once. So that two Pet Central plugins can one day sit on one website without writing into each other’s records, each edition needs its own name for the things it puts on your pages — including the shortcode that draws your staff app. Your existing pages were updated to the new name at the same moment the software started using it, so nothing changed on screen. The note says how many pages were updated and when.

Do I need to change the shortcodes on my pages?
No. Any page you already had was updated for you. If you are adding a new page, copy the shortcode from the screen you are on rather than from an old note — the screens always show the name this copy of the plugin actually answers to.

The note says something “did not all arrive”. What now?
It means a page carried one of the old shortcode names before the update and does not carry the new one after, which should not happen. Nothing has been deleted — the page and its content are exactly where they were. Send us the note and we will look; in the meantime the old name still works on that page.

I have two Pet Central plugins on one site and I only saw the note once
Fixed in 2.719.0. Each plugin does its own tidy-up and each now keeps its own record of it, so you should see the note once per plugin. Before that they shared one record: the first plugin to update wrote it down, the second read the same record, decided its own pages had already been done, and left them alone — so its pages showed the shortcode text instead of the app. If you are on an older version and seeing that, updating both plugins puts it right on its own.

The note says some pages were left alone. What should I do?
Open each page it lists and change the Pet Central shortcode in it to the copy it belongs to — the screens in each copy always show the name that copy answers to, so copy it from there. The pages keep working in the meantime; whichever copy WordPress loads first answers for them, which is fine until the two copies would give different answers. This only ever appears where two or more Pet Central plugins share one website: a page you wrote yourself carries a shortcode name both copies recognise, and nothing in the page says which business it is for, so neither copy claims it rather than one of them guessing.

Could an earlier version have renamed a page to the wrong copy?
Yes, if you run two or more copies on one site and updated before 2.720.0. Whichever copy updated first renamed every Pet Central shortcode on the site into its own names, its neighbour’s pages included, and those pages then showed the wrong business’s services. They are not renamed back automatically, because that would mean guessing a second time. Open any page you did not create from inside Pet Central and check the shortcode in it names the copy you meant.