virtual gallery

danmalksdanmalks Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
edited January 5, 2009 in SmugMug Support
I had posted a question as a reply to previous thread.
See:
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=910313&postcount=9
and
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=910313#post910313

Summary of use case is the following:
1. Take lots of pics and upload to numerous different galleries
2. Tag photos in numerous different private galleries that I want to share with group x with keyword "xshare" (ie: couple photos in gallery 1, some in gallery 2, etc)
3. email URL: http://malks.smugmug.com/keyword/xshare to people in order to share photos tagged with xshare with them
4. Don't allow people to go to my smugmug homepage and browse my galleries in general



Not sure if my post would be noticed by most folks if it is deep within this prior thread or not so referencing that post via this new thread.
Thanks for any info.

Comments

  • PBolchoverPBolchover Registered Users Posts: 909 Major grins
    edited September 2, 2008
    The problem is that keywords do not work in unlisted / private galleries, except for the gallery owner.

    My work-around would be to make this galleries listed / public, but place them in a category called "hidden", and use a hack to prevent the hidden category from being displayed. (This isn't 100% foolproof: the category would still be available via the iphone interface, since we can't customise that interface.)

    Don't forget that it's also possible to customise the description and breadcrumb (ie the category path) for keyword galleries:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=80776
  • danmalksdanmalks Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited September 2, 2008
    PBolchover wrote:
    The problem is that keywords do not work in unlisted / private galleries, except for the gallery owner.

    My work-around would be to make this galleries listed / public, but place them in a category called "hidden", and use a hack to prevent the hidden category from being displayed. (This isn't 100% foolproof: the category would still be available via the iphone interface, since we can't customise that interface.)

    Don't forget that it's also possible to customise the description and breadcrumb (ie the category path) for keyword galleries:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=80776

    PBolchover,
    Thanks very much for the response.
    Question and a comment:

    1. This is one of my primary reasons for joining smugmug...ie: in order to upload bunches of photos and then select the specific ones I want to share with different groups. Is there any feature (or one in the works) that allows this selective sharing of photos with groups in a way that doesn't involve exposing all the photos in the gallery and doesn't involve time consuming copying and duplication?

    2. What is the hack you're referring to above? And why isn't it effective for the iPhone interface?

    Thanks! -dm
  • zooloozooloo Registered Users Posts: 7 Big grins
    edited September 7, 2008
    I agree that this should be better. I've only been using SM for a couple of months, but I consider this functionality extremely basic to any site that wants to cater to "pros".

    The lack of virtual galleries is causing me a lot of frustration.

    I have your use case plus another example where virtual galleries and better hierarchical galleries would help:

    If I have a lot of pics from say a trip abroad, I'd like to arrange them in sub-galleries (sub-categories seem to be the closest form of hierarchical organization in SM parlance) such as "Day 1", "Day 2", and so on.

    Then I'd like to have a "Highlights" sub-gallery which is a virtual gallery that links to my favourite pics from those "Day 1", "Day 2", etc. galleries, without having to copy those pics into it. All of these would be unlisted.

    This could be doable in conjunction with keywords, but then it gets more complicated with access permissions needing to be loosened -- as someone has mentioned already.

    Here's hoping SM will implement this essential functionality soon ...

    --
    VK
  • danmalksdanmalks Registered Users Posts: 8 Beginner grinner
    edited September 7, 2008
    It'd be great to hear current thoughts from the SmugMug team if this will be considered. Even if the default behavior remains unchanged but if there were an advanced option that could be turned on for those who choose to create deeper heirarchies. And I'm interested in current thoughts from SM team on virtual galleries in terms of priority and technical LOE, so that we users can set our expectations. Thanks.
  • coopooccoopooc Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited November 3, 2008
    I'd like to add a vote for virtual galleries as well. Copying a photo and moving it to another gallery one by one is a real pain. It'd be great to just add a gallery made up of photos with a specific keyword. That way, you could control gallery permissions but not have to go through the labor of copying and moving each photo.

    I hate to say it, but this is making me look around for alternatives to smug mug. : (
  • zooloozooloo Registered Users Posts: 7 Big grins
    edited November 11, 2008
    coopooc wrote:
    I hate to say it, but this is making me look around for alternatives to smug mug. : (
    Me too:bluduh

    After several months of using SM, this and other annoyances make it clear to me that this is not a good site for advanced users.
  • carolinecaroline Registered Users Posts: 1,302 Major grins
    edited November 12, 2008
    zooloo wrote:
    Me too:bluduh

    After several months of using SM, this and other annoyances make it clear to me that this is not a good site for advanced users.

    Can you suggest other sites which provide ALL the facilities of SmugMug AND virtual galleries ?

    Caroline
    Mendip Blog - Blog from The Fog, life on the Mendips
    www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+

    [/URL]
  • JohnBiggsJohnBiggs Registered Users Posts: 841 Major grins
    edited November 12, 2008
    I agree with Caroline, You aren't going to find better overall options than what smugmug offers.

    I don't mind having to copy but I wish SM would allow a bulk copy to other gallery option.

    Right now I have to copy photos one by one, then use the move tool to move all the copies I made. A simple checkbox on the move tool to copy instead of move would solve my problems.
    Canon Gear: 5D MkII, 30D, 85 1.2 L, 70-200 2.8 IS L, 17-40mm f4 L, 50 1.4, 580EX, 2x 580EXII, Canon 1.4x TC, 300 f4 IS L, 100mm 2.8 Macro, 100-400 IS L
    Other Gear: Olympus E-PL1, Pan 20 1.7, Fuji 3D Camera, Lensbaby 2.0, Tamron 28-75 2.8, Alien Bees lighting, CyberSyncs, Domke, HONL, FlipIt.
    ~ Gear Pictures
  • cabinetbuffcabinetbuff Registered Users Posts: 189 Major grins
    edited January 5, 2009
    danmalks wrote:
    I had posted a question as a reply to previous thread.
    See:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=910313&postcount=9
    and
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=910313#post910313

    Summary of use case is the following:
    1. Take lots of pics and upload to numerous different galleries
    2. Tag photos in numerous different private galleries that I want to share with group x with keyword "xshare" (ie: couple photos in gallery 1, some in gallery 2, etc)
    3. email URL: http://malks.smugmug.com/keyword/xshare to people in order to share photos tagged with xshare with them
    4. Don't allow people to go to my smugmug homepage and browse my galleries in general



    Not sure if my post would be noticed by most folks if it is deep within this prior thread or not so referencing that post via this new thread.
    Thanks for any info.

    I had exact same requirement -- slice and dice SmugMug gallery into smaller Virtual Galleries hidden from one another so that I could share it with different groups of people. I also wanted to be able to set different captions for the same photo depending in which gallery it's being displayed.

    I wrote my request here, on support forum, and got no definitive response -- that was few months ago, so I decided to write an external application using SmugMug API -- it's done and you can read all about it here:

    The only thing you must be willing to do is set your galleries with External Links = YES. There's a solution which I am proposing to SmugMug which would remove the requirement of having External LInks set to YES -- check out this thread:

    HTH,
    - Vitaliy
    CLIMB A Classic
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