Can I have specific galleries non-password protected?

volcs0

I love having the ability to assign a general password to my Smugmug site. This keeps out the riff-raff, and I don't end up seeing pictures of my kids on google searches of our name (I know I can protect this other ways). So, in general, I plan on keeping the general password for the whole site.

But, there are instances when I want to share a specific gallery with a wider population than just our family and friends. For instance, I was just at a meeting, and I want to send the gallery link to the attendees. Rather than send them all the site password, I wanted to see if there is a way to make certain galleries live "outside the firewall" so to speak.

I've noticed that when I get a link for a specific picture, there is no prompt for password, which is fine. But when I use the link for the gallery, it does prompt for password, which is also good. But I wish there was a way - much like google calendars - where you could have a "private link" to send parties that would give them access to the gallery.

This may already be implemented, and I just can't figure it out. Also, there may be disscussion threads here on this very topic, but my cursory search didn't turn anything up easily. So, please excuse this if it is a newbie question.

Thanks for the help.

gluwater

Hi volcs0,

I'm sorry but there is no way around the site password. The reason the links to individual images works is because those are external links for images only, not galleries. If you want to give access to individual galleries you would have to turn off the site password or give those viewers the site password.

As it sounds like you already know you can block search engines in other ways besides using a site password. Here are a couple helpful links:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/private-photo-storage
http://www.smugmug.com/help/private-search-island

You can also use the Hide Owner option in Gallery Tools>Customize Gallery. That will remove the breadcrumb at the top of the page to the rest of your site and it will also remove any customization you are using. Here is a link with more info on Hide Owner, click on Security and Privacy:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/picture-storage

If you use this option you can give someone a link to a specific gallery without giving them access to the rest of your site. Unfortunately if you have a site password they would still have to enter that in to access the gallery so this may not work for you.

I wish I had a better answer for you but the Site password is exactly what is says it is, a password for your entire site.

volcs0

Nick,

Thanks for the detailed info. I appreciate the links - I will go through them. I have used the privacy functions on occasioin to remove my information, and this has come in handy. I may indeed have to go back to the old system of password protecting galleries individually. I was hoping there was some hidden functionality I was not seeing - the ability to "turn-off" password protection for a particular gallery within a password-protected site.

Thanks again for the helpful information. I appreciate it.

gluwater

volcs0 wrote:

Nick,

Thanks for the detailed info. I appreciate the links - I will go through them. I have used the privacy functions on occasioin to remove my information, and this has come in handy. I may indeed have to go back to the old system of password protecting galleries individually. I was hoping there was some hidden functionality I was not seeing - the ability to "turn-off" password protection for a particular gallery within a password-protected site.

Thanks again for the helpful information. I appreciate it.

Your welcome. I'll pass this thread on as a Feature Request because I'm sure there are others that would also find this feature valuable.

volcs0

I wanted to raise this discussion again.

When I initially set up my Smugmug account, I used gallery passwords to keep people (and google) out. I still wasn't thrilled about everyone seeing my front page full of galleries, but that's OK.

For the last two years, I've used a site password instead. This allows me to only allow in family and friends, and I can easily change the password once in awhile once it has spread too far. My "hint" is my email address, so people can ask me for the password. I know this all sounds very paranoid, but I have little kids, and I have a lot of photos of them that I would only want family and friends to see (bath time, for instance).

Now I find more and more applications where I want to have one or more of my albums "public." For instance, for the SmugFoto application in Facebook. With the current setup, this isn't even an option, since a site password blocks the SmugFoto application.

So... again, these are my questions (I know the answers already, but I raise them to see how/if/why implementation would be difficult/undesirable).

1. With a site password set, can a gallery be customized to place it, in effect, outside the firewall? In other words, can I have a site password and then occasionally have a gallery that I want to make public? (answer = no, but is this something that may be implemented?)

2. Can I change gallery passwords on multiple galleries at once? In other words, I'm willing to accept needing a password for most of my galleries in the absence of a site password, but I would like the option to change the album password globally for all galleries. Does this make sense? (answer = I don't think so. Maybe I should write a python script to do it...)

OK - sorry for resurrecting this. Maybe I'm the only person thinking about this issue.

Thanks.

denisegoldberg

volcs0 wrote:

2. Can I change gallery passwords on multiple galleries at once? In other words, I'm willing to accept needing a password for most of my galleries in the absence of a site password, but I would like the option to change the album password globally for all galleries. Does this make sense? (answer = I don't think so. Maybe I should write a python script to do it...)

You can use SmugBrowser to change the passwords on all galleries, or change the passwords for all galleries within a category, or for individual galleries.

If all of the galleries are set to the same password, your viewers will only need to log in once.

You can grab a copy of SmugBrowser from this thread - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=47484.

--- Denise

volcs0

denisegoldberg wrote:

You can use SmugBrowser to change the passwords on all galleries, or change the passwords for all galleries within a category, or for individual galleries.

If all of the galleries are set to the same password, your viewers will only need to log in once.

You can grab a copy of SmugBrowser from this thread - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=47484.

--- Denise

Wow.

Yes - that's the ticket.

Thanks.