Three or more Sub-Categories

glarizza

Hi All,

I'm trying to think-through my setup for easy archiving/sorting. I shoot HS/College sports photography which is HIGHLY seasonal. I need a way to keep things separated by year, then by season, and finally by sport (and optionally by Boys/Girls, JV/Varsity/Middle School, and etc..).

I'm thinking the easiest way might be to create a category for year, and then a sub-category for each season, following on down the line...

As it is right now, Smugmug wouldn't support this.

Is there an easier way to accomplish this while keeping upkeep minimal? Maybe create a Sharegroup for each year, and then a category for the season, followed by a sub-cat for the sport? That would get me CLOSER, but leave problems for the boys/girls and JV/Varsity/Middle School separation.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm sorry If I've reposted, but I didn't find any threads like this before. My site is http://www.ccshots.com

Thanks!
-Gary

jfriend

The secret to living with a small number of levels is to understand how many galleries you're going to have of each type. If you can give us an idea for the following, we can make a better suggestion.

1. How many different sports do you shoot?
2. Within a given sport, what's the most galleries you would have in any one sport for a year?
3. How many total sports galleries will you shoot in this coming year?
4. How many years of galleries do you already have uploaded?

Keep in mind that you do NOT want to overdesign your categories/sub-categories. It's easiest for your viewers if there are the smallest number of choices and fewest clicks that clearly lead them to the right gallery. What might seem like a nice organized way of doing things in a filing cabinet may be more levels than is required for a website, just slowing down your viewers and potentially even making things harder to find.

Right now I'm only seeing 10 total galleries on your site which means you can keep it pretty simple. This is not something you should shoot too far ahead because that will just cause unnecessary levels and navigation when that is not yet needed. I'd recommend planning now for the next year's worth of galleries. You can always upgrade the organization if the need gets more complex over time.

FYI, I've done an extensive customization to produce this: http://friend.smugmug.com/Sports. Unfortunately, it isn't yet something I can easily share (too complicated to explain), but maybe it gives you an idea.

And, here's a season for a particular team: http://friend.smugmug.com/Sports/744243.

glarizza

1. How many different sports do you shoot?
2. Within a given sport, what's the most galleries you would have in any one sport for a year?
3. How many total sports galleries will you shoot in this coming year?
4. How many years of galleries do you already have uploaded?

Hey There. I shoot about 10 - 12 different sports in a year, with the heaviest number of galleries being in the Fall. There aren't so many galleries NOW because it's early in the season - but I'll have about 18 - 22 Soccer galleries, about 15 Football galleries, and probably 8 - 10 galleries total of Volleyball, Tennis, Cross Country, Golf, and the like. In total, I'll probably end up with a total of about 70 - 90 total galleries in a year.

My main concern is overloading the "Galleries" page and making it un-navigable after the first 20 - 30 galleries are shot this season. How do other people that shoot this volume of pictures handle this?