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Setting up/Disabling Petfinder

Setting up/Disabling Petfinder

Owned by Stephanie Weggeman
Mar 10, 2025
2 min read

October 26, 2023 at 5:36 AM

When setting up Petfinder for a new site, follow these steps:

  1. Go to System Options

  2. Click Upload Locations

  3. Click Create

  4. On that page that loads, enter the following:

    • Description: This should match the "Upload To" field

    • URL: for Petfinder, enter ftp://members.petfinder.com/import

    • Photo URL: for Petfinder, enter ftp://members.petfinder.com/import/photos

    • Username: This is a mandatory field, but not used on this page, so enter "See tblPetFinderAccount". 

    • Password: This is a mandatory field, but not used on this page, so enter "See tblPetFinderAccount". 

    • Upload To: Select Petfinder from the drop-down options

    • Site Code: this field is not used, so leave it blank

    • Payload: enter the following (or it won't upload) -{ UsePassiveFtp : true }

    • Make sure there are no spaces at the end of URLs!

  5. Click Save

  6. Return to System Options

  7. Click on Regions

  8. Make sure the correct username and password are entered against any uploading Region - these are CASE SENSITIVE so ensure they are entered correctly. 

  9. Save any changes. 

  10. Return to System Options

  11. Click on Background Tasks

  12. Find the option for PetFinder Upload and tick the checkbox.

  13. In the drop-down at the bottom of the page select "enable task" then click "Apply to selected".  This will enable the task to run.

  14. Remember to mark the organisation as having PetFinder on Zendesk once you've finished. 

Upload Statuses:

Petfinder allows us to upload to different statuses:
A: This is the standard Customise Option you set (petfinderUploadStatuses)
F: This is for "found", you can set it via Customise Option petfinderFStatuses
P: This is for "pending" although it isn't clear how customers use this, it's set by Customise Option "petfinderPStatuses"
H: this is for "hold" although it isn't clear how customers use this, it's set by Customise Option "petfinderHStatuses"

The customer will need to advise which of these they wish to use. Statuses are set using the status ID number with a comma between each (e.g. 3,92)

 Running a Manual Export: 

  1. Go to System Options

  2. Click Background Tasks

  3. Find the option PetFinder Upload (Include All Photos) if the site has never used Petfinder before. If it has, use the option PetFinder Upload. 

  4. Click Run

  5. To check it's working, open a web browser and go to ftp://members.petfinder.com/import/ 

  6. When prompted, log in using the ID & Password lodged against the region in question (remember they are case sensitive)

  7. Once the task has run, a file will appear here with the region login as the header

  8. Click the login header to view the data sent

  9. Click the Photo to view the images sent. 

 

Re-uploading Photos: 

  1. Go to System Options

  2. Click Background Tasks

  3. Find the option PetFinder Upload (Include All Photos)

  4. Click Run

When you need to disable Petfinder for a site, follow these steps:

  1. Go to System Options

  2. Click Upload Locations

  3. Find the option PetFinder

  4. Click Delete

  5. You should see a Success! message

  6. Return to System Options

  7. Click on Background Tasks

  8. Find the option for PetFinder Upload and un-tick the checkbox.

  9. In the drop-down at the bottom of the page select "Disable task" then click "Apply to selected".  

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