Discussion: Default Quick Setting

darryl

Originally posted to the Feature Request thread here, but I got tired of having to hunt through that thread for follow-ups.

Title: Save Quick Setting as Default?
Hi -- Quick Settings are nice and all, but neither the Picasa Uploader nor the Lightroom plug-in let you pick a Quick Setting when you create a new gallery, so after creation you have to go through the annoyance of Customize Gallery and selecting it there.

Since not all of the upload tools support selecting a Quick Setting (although they should!), it would be swell if you could set one of your Quick Settings to be the default for new galleries. Or maybe it could be an ad hoc thing, a button to "Save these settings as the default for new galleries" (ok, so that wouldn't really fit on a button, whatever.)

Thanks!

darryl

jfriend then wrote:

This would be a great feature and would save having to ALWAYS go to customize settings after every gallery you create. Then, if you don't like square thumbs, you just save rectangular thumbs as your default quick setting. FYI, I don't think quick settings are available via the API so that's why no uploaders support them.

darryl

I replied:

Hey John:

Turns out the API does support Quick Settings, via a method named smugmug.albumtemplates.get

What do you use to upload? Lightroom? Picasa? Guess we need to whine about it to those developers. (Hey wait, isn't the Picasa plug-in developed in-house? If so, SmugMug should really update it to support Quick Settings!)

darryl

jfriend then replied:

I mostly use StarExplorer for uploads because it has much more robust error handling, auto-retry logic and persistent upload queues along with the ability to upload to multiple galleries in one, unattended overnight session.

darryl

So I asked Nik whether SE supported Quick Settings, and he replied (so quickly!):

nik wrote:

darryl wrote:

Hey Nik -- so does Star*Explorer support Quick Settings (Dev's post was from back in July 2007)? From a thread embedded into the monolithic (ugh) "Feature Requests", it seems that jfriend uses SE to upload, but apparently still has a need for *default* album settings:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=943502#post943502

Darryl,
not those SM-based yet, sorry. Only its own.
It will eventually

So John -- why can't you use SE's default album settings?

devbobo

darryl wrote:

jfriend then replied:

I mostly use StarExplorer for uploads because it has much more robust error handling, auto-retry logic and persistent upload queues along with the ability to upload to multiple galleries in one, unattended overnight session.

this may be the case, but Nik is super lagged with respect to implementing newer api versions. SE is still using 1.1.1 and I imagine that there is a swag of stuff in newer releases that users would find useful.

jfriend

darryl wrote:

So I asked Nik whether SE supported Quick Settings, and he replied (so quickly!):



So John -- why can't you use SE's default album settings?

When I create albums in SE, I do use the settings there and they are GREAT. It's wonderful to be able to specify how a gallery should be configured before I create it, not create it, then go multiple clicks to the customize screen just to get my thumbs the way I want them and my privacy settings the way I want them.

As I just said in the SE thread, I don't find quick settings to be useful. I've tried to make them part of my workflow and they just never seem to work for me. For one, they are all or nothing. If your whole gallery isn't supposed to be exactly like the quick setting, then it doesn't really work. For two, it's not easy to see what's in a quick setting, certainly not right where you'd want to know (in the create gallery screen). Second, the UI for using, viewing, changing, deleting them is not easy to get your head around. I find that I'm stumped every time I go to use them and feel like I constantly have to relearn how they work. Whenever I want to do quick setting maintenance, I always feel like I'm going to mess up the gallery that I had to use to get to the quick settings too.

If they worked like Lightroom presets where you could specify which settings you wanted to apply in the quick setting, they would probably be more useful.

I actually love the Star Explorer scheme for a vertical line of checkboxes that let me set up a gallery exactly how I want BEFORE I create it. The layout that Nick chose isn't pretty, but it's highly functional and it's way less steps to get exactly what you want than the current SM UI. So, I often create galleries in SE. But, I don't always have it up when I'm doing gallery maintenance so sometimes I do it in SM too.

Erick L

Not sure it's the right thread to ask this but I'll ask anyway...

What I'd like is seing what quick-setting is applied to a gallery. I go to "customize gallery" and the quick setting says "none" instead of whatever quick-setting was applied before.

I'd also like to make change to a gallery and then choose an existing quick-setting name so that the new changes would apply to all galleries under that quick-setting name.

everydaymemories

darryl wrote:

jfriend then replied:

I mostly use StarExplorer for uploads because it has much more robust error handling, auto-retry logic and persistent upload queues along with the ability to upload to multiple galleries in one, unattended overnight session.

Where do I get StarExplorer? (I ask as I'm in the midst of uploading all my tens of thousands of photos from the last few years to Smugmug using "Send to Smugmug.")

jfriend

everydaymemories wrote:

Where do I get StarExplorer? (I ask as I'm in the midst of uploading all my tens of thousands of photos from the last few years to Smugmug using "Send to Smugmug.")

http://www.starexplorer.com/ and discussion of it here.

hyachts

Eye-Fi and quick settings
I'd love to be able to specify a default quick setting. Here's my use case: I use an Eye-Fi card configured to upload to unlisted SM galleries. I get one gallery per day. Every so often I go through recent galleries and cherry pick images to move to a public gallery or galleries. The only thing I want to be able to set by default is the sort order, but the Eye-Fi configuration doesn't allow for that (only allows private/public choice). Is there any other way to go about this?

gillat

Hi hyachts,

Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "sort order"?

Looking forward to your reply ---
Ziv.

hyachts wrote:

I'd love to be able to specify a default quick setting. Here's my use case: I use an Eye-Fi card configured to upload to unlisted SM galleries. I get one gallery per day. Every so often I go through recent galleries and cherry pick images to move to a public gallery or galleries. The only thing I want to be able to set by default is the sort order, but the Eye-Fi configuration doesn't allow for that (only allows private/public choice). Is there any other way to go about this?

hyachts

Hi Ziv,

Sort order is a selection allowed in gallery settings. It can be alphabetical or chronological (by date taken or by date uploaded).

In the galleries Eye-Fi creates I want to be able to specify the order the pictures are sorted to be by date/time taken by default. That way if they come off the card or my computer out of order they get sorted to be in chronological order in the gallery. It's just a memory aid, really, but it saves me the trouble of having to set the sort order manually. I believe some of the uploaders allow setting the sort order for new gallery creation, so I think it must be available in the API.

I'm fairly certain quick settings are available in the API as well, which would be another way to go about it. Even if it required me to, say, use a quick setting called "eye-fi". That way you wouldn't have to clutter up the online service settings with SmugMug gallery settings. If a SM user had a quick setting called "eye-fi" it would use it, if not it would use the default. Just a thought.

I posted about this on the Eye-Fi forums as well.

Thanks,
Sam

grapejape

darryl wrote:

Originally posted to the Feature Request thread here, but I got tired of having to hunt through that thread for follow-ups.

Title: Save Quick Setting as Default?
Hi -- Quick Settings are nice and all, but neither the Picasa Uploader nor the Lightroom plug-in let you pick a Quick Setting when you create a new gallery, so after creation you have to go through the annoyance of Customize Gallery and selecting it there.

Since not all of the upload tools support selecting a Quick Setting (although they should!), it would be swell if you could set one of your Quick Settings to be the default for new galleries. Or maybe it could be an ad hoc thing, a button to "Save these settings as the default for new galleries" (ok, so that wouldn't really fit on a button, whatever.)

Thanks!

I 2nd this recommendation. I would LOVE to be able to use the Picassa uploader, but I can't because it ignores my quick settings. I have one that I use for 99% of my uploads, and setting it to "default" would be fine. I would be even better if the Picasa uploader would allow you to select quick settings, or even define the settings themselves (like in StarExplorer) - but alas - it has no such features.


- Jason

gillat

Got it. I think I understand, and I should file it as a feature enhancement. For the local transfers, we DO offer the user the ability to choose between date uploaded or date taken. For online uploads, we don't.

BTW, we treat ALL of our partners, in terms of uploading, the same. If a folder with the date exists, we upload into that folder. If one doesn't exist, we create it. That mechanism is shared among everyone, with no exceptions. I've heard of other OLS's (online sharing sites), watching for Eye-Fi uploads, and then doing special stuff when images come in. Like putting them into one folder, always. So it can either be done by Eye-Fi, or by our partners.

That said, I'll file it as a feature enhancement.

On a personal note, Sam, I'm hearing that you're a total ROCK STAR on OUR forums. THANK YOU. I think that Jeremiah (our support guru), said that other than him, you have the highest # of posts. That's totally awesome. We promise to get you back :-)

Thanks a lot ---

Ziv.

hyachts wrote:

Hi Ziv,

Sort order is a selection allowed in gallery settings. It can be alphabetical or chronological (by date taken or by date uploaded).

In the galleries Eye-Fi creates I want to be able to specify the order the pictures are sorted to be by date/time taken by default. That way if they come off the card or my computer out of order they get sorted to be in chronological order in the gallery. It's just a memory aid, really, but it saves me the trouble of having to set the sort order manually. I believe some of the uploaders allow setting the sort order for new gallery creation, so I think it must be available in the API.

I'm fairly certain quick settings are available in the API as well, which would be another way to go about it. Even if it required me to, say, use a quick setting called "eye-fi". That way you wouldn't have to clutter up the online service settings with SmugMug gallery settings. If a SM user had a quick setting called "eye-fi" it would use it, if not it would use the default. Just a thought.

I posted about this on the Eye-Fi forums as well.

Thanks,
Sam

cols

Let me resurrect this post since I tried searching and this is the only thread I found about it.

So, how does one set a quick setting as default for all new galleries? Sorry if this question has been answered.

jfriend

cols wrote:

Let me resurrect this post since I tried searching and this is the only thread I found about it.

So, how does one set a quick setting as default for all new galleries? Sorry if this question has been answered.

You can't set a default for all new galleries. Smugmug does not support that. I wish they did. In the Smugmug UI when you are creating a gallery (right in the same screen where you give it a name), you can pick which quick setting you want to be used when it is created.

Wendee

You don't set a Quick Settings as a default for all new galleries, but when you create these new galleries, you can select your Quick Setting so that the gallery has your preferred settings from the start.

See here for a simple example:
http://img.skitch.com/20090819-cbd1wx8d4tk94a6crt531e84jg.jpg

So whenever you create a new gallery, you can choose your Quick Setting, and your gallery settings are done.

Does that help? So, you can't set one Quick Setting to be your default... But you can choose this Quick Setting for every new gallery, and you can apply this Quick Setting to existing galleries as well. So basically, it becomes your default because that's the one you choose to use.

Holler if you still have questions.
http://www.smugmug.com/help/emailreal

~Wendee

cols wrote:

Let me resurrect this post since I tried searching and this is the only thread I found about it.

So, how does one set a quick setting as default for all new galleries? Sorry if this question has been answered.

cols

I'm using send to smugmug, are quick settings supported by this uploader? If not, are there other free ones that do?

Even if someone was not using uploaders, applying a setting everytime a gallery is created seems unreasonably inconvenient. I guess I don't understand why this feature is not implemented after seeing it requested for this long. Are there plans to implement this feature?

darryl

I too wish there was a way to have default settings for new galleries. And the Eye-Fi scenario (automated album creation) makes this even more necessary.

C'mon guys!

Ok here, I've filed it in your fancy new system: http://smugmug.uservoice.com/pages/17723-smugmug/suggestions/299234-give-us-the-ability-to-save-default-settings-for-new-galleries

Everybody please vote. Thanks!

BTW, if you don't want to link Uservoice to your Google/Facebook account (or create yet another account somewhere), you can link it to your SmugMug account/password. Details here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1196750#post1196750

ande8150

Default Quick Settings
I agree with the default quick settings option. Not all uploaders allow access to the quick settings menu, so we are required to go back into the gallery to change settings after it has been created. A big duplication of effort.

I know that devleopers can include this in their programs, but if I only ever use one type of Quick Setting, then why should I have to select it every time?