Can't allow free downloads for clients

PaulRVP

I did a promotional event and I want to allow those customers to download the images for free. I must be missing something because I can't seem to make it work. I've set the pricing for downloads to $0 but it doesn't work. In order to see the downloads I have to set the price to $.01 which defeats the purpose of my promotion.

The link is:

http://www.rainiervalleyphoto.com/gallery/6860216_VWevN#438766655_fic7X

Can anyone explain what I am missing? Thanks!

jfriend

Don't use digital downloads for this. Enable Originals in customize gallery and then they can just click "Save Photo" in the photobar when they hover the mouse over the main image. The Save Photo function will get them the high-res original. That's how I do it for my soccer parents. You will probably have to tell your customers about this functionality because it's not that obvious to a newbie. I actually have code for a "Download Image..." button that I put into my pages for some galleries to make it more discoverable.

PaulRVP

Thanks! I knew I was missing something easy...

Thanks for the quick reply!

MikeMcA²

But Paul, in your original post you seem to want to track how many free downloads are actually "downloaded." Does allowing for originals to be accessed and either "right-clicked" or downloaded meet your needs? I don't think this tracks anything, it just makes them available.

Andy

MikeMcA² wrote:

But Paul, in your original post you seem to want to track how many free downloads are actually "downloaded." Does allowing for originals to be accessed and either "right-clicked" or downloaded meet your needs? I don't think this tracks anything, it just makes them available.

Right - but the alternative sucks for the cutsomers and us, SmugMug Charging .01 costs SmugMug MUCH MUCH more for the card transaction - and then the customer has to do the whole cart thing.

I hope to put a minimum in for digital downloads.

mbellot

MikeMcA² wrote:

But Paul, in your original post you seem to want to track how many free downloads are actually "downloaded." Does allowing for originals to be accessed and either "right-clicked" or downloaded meet your needs? I don't think this tracks anything, it just makes them available.

Its probably not perfect, but stats would give a rough estimate of at least the number of originals accessed. Not perfect, but its some tracking.

MikeMcA²

mbellot wrote:

Its probably not perfect, but stats would give a rough estimate of at least the number of originals accessed. Not perfect, but its some tracking.

That's what I do when I am allowing a charity or other supported organization free original downloads. I set up a password-protected gallery, give them the password and URL, and then watch stats to see which they access. Better than SM having to pay a price for each $0.01 cent CC transaction and it gives me an idea what they want, so I can shoot more of their interest the next event. Can't know for sure whether it's actually downloaded, but if it's accessed at the original I count it. Not sure it that fits Paul's needs.

chrismoore

jfriend wrote:

Don't use digital downloads for this. Enable Originals in customize gallery and then they can just click "Save Photo" in the photobar when they hover the mouse over the main image. The Save Photo function will get them the high-res original. That's how I do it for my soccer parents. You will probably have to tell your customers about this functionality because it's not that obvious to a newbie. I actually have code for a "Download Image..." button that I put into my pages for some galleries to make it more discoverable.

Out of curiosity could you link me to an example of the "download image" button you have? Would like to see how it works. Thanks.

jfriend

chrismoore wrote:

Out of curiosity could you link me to an example of the "download image" button you have? Would like to see how it works. Thanks.

Right above the main image in this gallery.

chrismoore

jfriend wrote:

Right above the main image in this gallery.

I really like how you have that set up, is a good idea for family albums, etc. Could you share your code?
Thanks
Chris

jfriend

chrismoore wrote:

I really like how you have that set up, is a good idea for family albums, etc. Could you share your code?
Thanks
Chris

Edited to include the latest version of the code

Here's the code. It automatically detects whether originals are enabled and just adds the download button if originals are enabled and doesn't if they aren't. It is only configured to work in Smugmug view. Just paste this code into your bottom javascript.

function IsSmugmugView()
{
    return(YD.hasClass(document.body, "smugmug"));
}

function IsGalleryPage()
{
    return(YD.hasClass(document.body, "galleryPage"));
}

// code to insert a download button for any gallery that has originals enabled

onPhotoShow.subscribe(ProcessDownloadButton);

function ProcessDownloadButton()
{
    // set onlyInGalleries to true if you only want a download button in gallery views
    // set onlyInGalleries to false if you want a download button in other views too like (search, keywords, date, etc...)
    var onlyInGalleries = true;
    if (IsSmugmugView() && (IsGalleryPage() || !onlyInGalleries))
    {
        if (photoInfo[ImageID].albumOriginals && !photoInfo[ImageID]['protected'] && (photoInfo[ImageID].Format !== "MP4"))
        {
            var downloadParent = "cartButtonsWrapper";
            if (!document.getElementById("cartButtonsWrapper"))
            {
                downloadParent = "altViews";
            }
            InsertDownloadButton(downloadParent);
        }
        else
        {
            // disable the button
            var downloadButton = YAHOO.widget.Button.getButton("downloadButtonId");
            if (downloadButton)
            {
                downloadButton.set("disabled", true);
            }
        }
    }
}

function InsertDownloadButton(parentId)
{
    // now add the download button
    var parentDiv = document.getElementById(parentId);
    var downloadButton = document.getElementById("downloadButtonId");
    if (downloadButton)
    {
        // make sure it is enabled
        YAHOO.widget.Button.getButton("downloadButtonId").set("disabled", false);
    }
    else if (parentDiv)
    {
        var downloadButtonInfo =
        {
            id: "downloadButtonId",
            label: "Download Image...",
            container: parentDiv,
            type: "button",
            className: "sm-button sm-button-small themesButton glyphButton",
            onclick: { fn: InitiateDownloadImage }
        };
        
        var dButtonObj = new YAHOO.widget.Button(downloadButtonInfo);
    }
}

function InitiateDownloadImage()
{
    // construct the download URL
    window.location = "/photos/" + ImageID + "_" + ImageKey + "-D.jpg";
}

This should result in a download button that looks like this:

Pupator

Only Smugmug gallery style, or appearance? Code isn't working for me and I'm trying to figure out why... (would be a big help for the grandparents downloading baby pics).

jfriend

Pupator wrote:

Only Smugmug gallery style, or appearance? Code isn't working for me and I'm trying to figure out why... (would be a big help for the grandparents downloading baby pics).

I forgot to include in the posting one of my utility routines that this code uses. I edited the post above. Sorry about that, can you try again?

chrismoore

jfriend wrote:

I forgot to include in the posting one of my utility routines that this code uses. I edited the post above. Sorry about that, can you try again?

Works great for me, thanks!

Pupator

jfriend wrote:

I forgot to include in the posting one of my utility routines that this code uses. I edited the post above. Sorry about that, can you try again?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Thanks!

cmason

So. Freakin. Awesome.


Thanks John!!!!


(pstt.....Hey Smug Sorcerers...put this in the base code....this is so obviously simple!)

BeachBill

jfriend wrote:

Here's the code. It automatically detects whether originals are enabled and just adds the download button if originals are enabled and doesn't if they aren't. It is only configured to work in Smugmug view. Just paste this code into your bottom javascript.

Sweet John! Perfect for my family galleries.

Thanks for sharing.

drsPIX

I'd still like to be able to "sell" digital downloads at no cost...

At least update the documentation to say this isn't possible; I spent some time making sure and double-checking that all products were set to zero EXCEPT digital downloads... then I see here that it won't work.

chrismoore

BeachBill wrote:

Sweet John! Perfect for my family galleries.

Thanks for sharing.

I agree this is a great tool for family albums and the like.
John, I've been pondering over your "search by player" button as I like its functionality. I don't know quite how I would use it, but how did you set it up? Do you just keyword the photos with player names and game, and use java to fetch the keywords?
Chris

jfriend

chrismoore wrote:

I agree this is a great tool for family albums and the like.
John, I've been pondering over your "search by player" button as I like its functionality. I don't know quite how I would use it, but how did you set it up? Do you just keyword the photos with player names and game, and use java to fetch the keywords?
Chris

Yes, I used keywords for the views. When I want a player button in a given gallery, I add a non-visible DIV to the album description that looks like this:

<div id="keyword_ui" selection_list="*AndrewJ, AndrewT, *Antoine, *Blake, Dainen, DanielA, *DanielG, David, Edmund,*Jacob,*Jamie, *Kevin,*Matt,*Mitch,*Nick" query_base_all="u16b321" query_base_local="game1"></div>

This establishes the list of player names that go in the menu and what keywords to use to construct the keyword URL. There is javascript that processes this and constructs the menus and the keyword queries.

hyachts

jfriend wrote:

Yes, I used keywords for the views. When I want a player button in a given gallery, I add a non-visible DIV to the album description that looks like this:

<div id="keyword_ui" selection_list="*AndrewJ, AndrewT, *Antoine, *Blake, Dainen, DanielA, *DanielG, David, Edmund,*Jacob,*Jamie, *Kevin,*Matt,*Mitch,*Nick" query_base_all="u16b321" query_base_local="game1"></div>

This establishes the list of player names that go in the menu and what keywords to use to construct the keyword URL. There is javascript that processes this and constructs the menus and the keyword queries.

So are your parents (I mean the customer ones) aware of the extraordinary amount of time you invest in your web presence? Wow.

jfriend

hyachts wrote:

So are your parents (I mean the customer ones) aware of the extraordinary amount of time you invest in your web presence? Wow.

No, I doubt they are aware of the time spent. It's just a hobby of mine. They do appreciate the pictures and I think they appreciate them more when it's easy for them to find just the pictures they are interested in.

jchin

Andy wrote:

Right - but the alternative sucks for the cutsomers and us, SmugMug Charging .01 costs SmugMug MUCH MUCH more for the card transaction - and then the customer has to do the whole cart thing.

I hope to put a minimum in for digital downloads.

Maybe the alternative is to not actually process the credit card unless there is like $1 in total. That way, if someone decides they want 100 downloads at $0.01 each, Smugmug won't lose out.

Or heck ... charge a minimum ... say the total due is $0.50, make it charge $1 to cover the processing fees. A lot of other companies do that.

jchin

cmason wrote:

So. Freakin. Awesome.


Thanks John!!!!


(pstt.....Hey Smug Sorcerers...put this in the base code....this is so obviously simple!)

+1 ... can it be done globally?

jfriend

jchin wrote:

+1 ... can it be done globally?

What does this question mean? When you paste in this code, it is done globally for every gallery you have that has originals enabled.

jchin

jfriend wrote:

What does this question mean? When you paste in this code, it is done globally for every gallery you have that has originals enabled.

I mean ... as a Smugmug default (part of the server code).
This way when Smugmug adds other features, we don't have to later go in and change the "Footer Javascript" code.

jfriend

jchin wrote:

I mean ... as a Smugmug default (part of the server code).
This way when Smugmug adds other features, we don't have to later go in and change the "Footer Javascript" code.

Got it.

PhotoMarkus

jfriend wrote:

function InitiateDownloadImage()
{
    // construct the download URL
    window.location = "/photos/" + ImageID + "_" + ImageKey + "-D.jpg";
}

Great piece of JavaScript.

The "-D" only works when I have enabled originals as downlaod option.

How could I enabled downloads up to the maximum size I have allowed in the gallery setting, e.g. S,M,L,XL etc ? These would also include the watermark and I'd like this option to have. Surely customers could use mouse right click, but having that button is just more convenient.

Thanks!

jfriend

PhotoMarkus wrote:

Great piece of JavaScript.

The "-D" only works when I have enabled originals as downlaod option.

How could I enabled downloads up to the maximum size I have allowed in the gallery setting, e.g. S,M,L,XL etc ? These would also include the watermark and I'd like this option to have. Surely customers could use mouse right click, but having that button is just more convenient.

Thanks!

As currently written, the download button only appears if originals are enabled (that's why it uses the -D option). And it is the -D option that triggers the save dialog to come up in the browser.

In looking how that works, it's a special kind of response from the server. I don't know how to trigger the save dialog via Javascript for any other URL, so I don't currently know how to make this work for any URL other than the -D URL which would preclude smaller sizes.

margiemu

jfriend wrote:

As currently written, the download button only appears if originals are enabled (that's why it uses the -D option). And it is the -D option that triggers the save dialog to come up in the browser.

In looking how that works, it's a special kind of response from the server. I don't know how to trigger the save dialog via Javascript for any other URL, so I don't currently know how to make this work for any URL other than the -D URL which would preclude smaller sizes.

I woud love a solution where I could enable downloading low res copies. A lot of my clients are High School kids who want to put something up on Facebook, but I'd still like their parents to buy prints through my site instead of then just taking the original size digifile to Costco and getting cheap prints made.

jchin

margiemu wrote:

I woud love a solution where I could enable downloading low res copies. A lot of my clients are High School kids who want to put something up on Facebook, but I'd still like their parents to buy prints through my site instead of then just taking the original size digifile to Costco and getting cheap prints made.

Why not you create a gallery on Facebook with the 600px wide limited editions and put the photos there. That way, if you want, you can even watermark them. The students knows how to copy their images from other facebook users. This way there is no potential of them having anything that can make a decent print. If you scale it smaller than 600px, they cannot even get a 4x6 printed online.