Path/URL to images has changed

aerialphoto · October 23, 2009

I searched for this in a couple of subforums and came up with zip, sorry if it's been discussed...

I was just getting ready to send someone a link to a single image from my site and I noticed the path to the images is no longer "http://pix.aerog.com/photos/imagename.jpg". Now the path includes the category, gallery name, original filename, and smugmug's filename for the image.

*HUH*!?

Example:

The direct link to this image -

used to be http://pix.aerog.com/photos/548697233_iHSsu-S-3.jpg

Now it's http://pix.aerog.com/Image-Store/Aerials/DSC0747a/548697233_iHSsu-S-3.jpg

Obviously both full url's work - I can still use the original one, but right-clicking on the image gives me that second full URL including my original filename and so does the "share" button.

A workaround is to use the "hide owner" option in the gallery but that's a lousy solution. A second option is to edit every stinkin' link to every image I send to people or post on forums - which is an every lousier solution causing a lot of needless clicking, editing, and work.

A good solution is to put it back the way it was PLEASE, or failing that give us the option of having the share button parse out all the data and show us just the "http://pix.aerog.com/photos/548697233_iHSsu-S-3.jpg" type link.

denisegoldberg · October 23, 2009

That changed with the introduction of NiceNames in August. See August 13th entry in http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/.

--- Denise

aerialphoto · October 23, 2009

Sorry Denise, you're incorrect.

Nicenames changed the url to the galleries and to the categories, etc. It didn't change the actual URL to the .jpg

On October 10th, for example, I posted a link to a .jpg from my site. I copied the link by right-clicking and using "copy image location". The url to that image was "http://pix.aerog.com/photos/676466447_B5vRZ-XL.jpg"

Today the link to the same image is "http://pix.aerog.com/Private/Forum-Images-2/nassaupan1/676466447_B5vRZ-XL.jpg"

It's not just a matter of "nice names" because the url also includes the original filename of the image. "nassaupan1.jpg" was the original filename. It wasn't a gallery or category or an assigned nicename, it was a filename - yet it shows up in the URL.

I suspect it has something to do with the changes on the 15th, maybe with the planned possibility of pointing to images from multiple galleries... Whatever it is, it sucks.

Sheaf · October 23, 2009

aerialphoto wrote:

A good solution is to put it back the way it was PLEASE, or failing that give us the option of having the share button parse out all the data and show us just the "http://pix.aerog.com/photos/548697233_iHSsu-S-3.jpg" type link.

We released this again last night (it had some bugs before). It's a massive improvement to the SEO of all SmugMug images. We can certainly discuss having that extra feature on the share page though.

aerialphoto · October 23, 2009

Sheaf wrote:

We released this again last night (it had some bugs before). It's a massive improvement to the SEO of all SmugMug images. We can certainly discuss having that extra feature on the share page though.

Sheaf, I'm sorry - instead of typical Smugmug goodness this is a smugmug FAIL.

Some comments about it:

The URL to each of my images now contains the original filename of that image. All that does for me is make the URLs longer and show the world my original filenames unnecessarily. Seriously - this is dumb.
I can rewrite each url with the old method myself for posting on forums, but every single image on my site still has the original filename embedded in the path.
Each image filename shows the entire path through my site to that image. If we're posting images on forums it conveniently shows everyone that I have multiple hidden galleries in a hidden category on my site. The fact that I just told the world that isnt the point but...yeah, I can manually rewrite each URL I post if I have to.
If we move an image from one gallery to another, but the original massivly long URL remains as a link on a website will the image get "lost"? It appears that the servers automatically find that filename then regenerate the URL based on it's current location on a Smugmug user's site. If that remains true then the problem of "lost" images shouldn't be a factor, but does doing all that regeneration of the URL put an unnecessary load on the smugmug servers and possibly cause longer load times downstream?
Using the previous naming scheme "xyzpdq.com/photos/name.jpg" was short, simple, never changed regardless of how many times you moved it, and worked fine.

Ideally I'd love to see an option in my gallery customization menu that lets me turn this "feature" on and off. "Hide Owner" accomplishes this but with all the other side effects of "hide owner" too.

As you can tell my biggest complaints are the massively long URLs and the inclusion of the original filename in the URL to every single image. It's not the end of the world but hey, this is Smugmug where we're accustomed to having a lot of control over how our sites operate and how they display our work. I have no control over this latest change and, frankly - it's almost a deal-breaker.

Please fix it!

SunGlo · October 23, 2009

Sheaf wrote:

We released this again last night (it had some bugs before). It's a massive improvement to the SEO of all SmugMug images. We can certainly discuss having that extra feature on the share page though.

I had added a custom search to my website a couple of days ago...everything was working fine until I checked it this morning.

Suddenly, I have comment and rating boxes in the lower left side of the screen. I have both comments and rating turned off.

I removed the all of the custom search code from my footer. The comment/rate boxes were still displayed.

I added code to my CSS to NOT display comments and rating. The comment/rate boxes were still displayed.

It show's up everytime a gallery is accessed with my custom domain and is iffy with my smugmug domain.

There are other odd problems happening that begain back in August when you implemented "nicknames".

This is frustrating because we are modifying our sites and you are implementing new code that has the potential to affect our sites without notifying us. We then assume it's our code and have to do a lot of trouble shooting. It's hard to tell if it's something we've done or you've done.

Phil

www.sunglophoto.com
www.sunglo.smugmug.com

Andy · October 23, 2009

SunGlo wrote:

Suddenly, I have comment and rating boxes in the lower left side of the screen. I have both comments and rating turned off.

Can you link me to the gallery where this happens on your site?

Andy · October 23, 2009

SunGlo wrote:

Suddenly, I have comment and rating boxes in the lower left side of the screen. I have both comments and rating turned off.

I removed the all of the custom search

There's an error in your code, somewhere, but I'm not smart enough to find it

Put a new thread in the customizing forum so the experts can help. I know it's an error in your code, because if you switch a gallery to appearance=SmugMug, thus removing your customizing, the comment boxes don't show up.

SunGlo · October 23, 2009

Andy wrote:

Can you link me to the gallery where this happens on your site?

http://www.sunglophoto.com/Land-Sea-and-Air/Red-Sky-at-Night/92367_yebGk#544869407_EEjfP

SunGlo · October 23, 2009

Andy wrote:

There's an error in your code, somewhere, but I'm not smart enough to find it Put a new thread in the customizing forum so the experts can help. I know it's an error in your code, because if you switch a gallery to appearance=SmugMug, thus removing your customizing, the comment boxes don't show up.

How does that explain the fact that this problem did not appear until this morning? Also, I removed all of the custom search code and the problem remained.

Andy · October 23, 2009

SunGlo wrote:

How does that explain the fact that this problem did not appear until this morning? Also, I removed all of the custom search code and the problem remained.

I do not know - but there's some sort of error we have to find it in your customizing....

jfriend · October 23, 2009

SunGlo wrote:

http://www.sunglophoto.com/Land-Sea-and-Air/Red-Sky-at-Night/92367_yebGk#544869407_EEjfP

Your custom footer has some HTML errors in it that are at least causing part of the problem.

First, you are missing a </table> tag to close the table. This can cause things after the table to have weird undefined behavior and if Smugmug just recently changed any of the HTML after your custom footer, things could have changed. Usually when a benign change causes a big problem to show up, it's because there was a previous error that you were getting lucky with. I haven't studied your custom footer code in detail, but you should make sure that every start tag has a corresponding finish tag <table> with </table>, <div> with </div>, <td> with </td>, etc...

Second, you have <tl> tags in your table. I have no idea what those are. What are you trying to accomplish with them. <tr> is for a row if that's what you meant to use.

Third, if you validate your CSS here, you have a lot of CSS errors. I don't think they are responsible for this particular issue, but they may cause other problems now or in the future. In particular, you are using the background: attribute wrong by specifying only a color and you are using colors by name that are not universal standards. These issues occur hundreds of places in your CSS.

Allen · October 23, 2009

aerialphoto wrote:

...
Each image filename shows the entire path through my site to that image. If we're posting images on forums it conveniently shows everyone that I have multiple hidden galleries in a hidden category on my site. The fact that I just told the world that isnt the point but...yeah, I can manually rewrite each URL I post if I have to.

...
Please fix it!

Grabbing a photo link to use on forums and other external sites should not
expose the cat, sub-cat or gallery number/key. That is an invasion of
privacy if the photo is in an unlisted gallery, like giving out an unlisted
phone number. I use an unlisted gallery for links to forums and other
reasons and it has all kinds of garbage in it.

SunGlo · October 23, 2009

jfriend wrote:

Your custom footer has some HTML errors in it that are at least causing part of the problem.

First, you are missing a </table> tag to close the table. This can cause things after the table to have weird undefined behavior and if Smugmug just recently changed any of the HTML after your custom footer, things could have changed. Usually when a benign change causes a big problem to show up, it's because there was a previous error that you were getting lucky with. I haven't studied your custom footer code in detail, but you should make sure that every start tag has a corresponding finish tag <table> with </table>, <div> with </div>, <td> with </td>, etc...

Second, you have <tl> tags in your table. I have no idea what those are. What are you trying to accomplish with them. <tr> is for a row if that's what you meant to use.

Third, if you validate your CSS here, you have a lot of CSS errors. I don't think they are responsible for this particular issue, but they may cause other problems now or in the future. In particular, you are using the background: attribute wrong by specifying only a color and you are using colors by name that are not universal standards. These issues occur hundreds of places in your CSS.

Thanks John,

The close table statement was there originally, but somewhere in my cleaning up and trouble shooting it was deleted. That appeared to be causing the problem...why it didn't show up until this morning...who knows.

The <tl> was a typo, it should have been <tr>.

I knew about the color names and have been slowly changing them out in my spare time. Same thing with any other errors, as I discover them a try to fix them.

I have no formal training on this, it's all been reading and experimenting so yes, I will make mistakes and yes, I do get frustrated.

I apologize if I offended anyone and thanks for getting me back on the strait and narrow.

Phil

jfriend · October 23, 2009

Allen wrote:

Grabbing a photo link to use on forums and other external sites should not
expose the cat, sub-cat or gallery number/key. That is an invasion of
privacy if the photo is in an unlisted gallery, like giving out an unlisted
phone number. I use an unlisted gallery for links to forums and other
reasons and it has all kinds of garbage in it.

Yeah, this seems wrong to me and huge change in the the privacy of the image URLs obtained by either right-click or via the Share button. I've filed a bug report here.

Andy · October 23, 2009

SunGlo wrote:

I apologize if I offended anyone and thanks for getting me back on the strait and narrow.

Phil

How could you offend anyone by asking for help in a help forum

That's what we're all here for.

hyachts · October 23, 2009

jfriend wrote:

Yeah, this seems wrong to me and huge change in the the privacy of the image URLs obtained by either right-click or via the Share button. I've filed a bug report here.

I'll have to agree that this is a huge negative. I very much liked the ability to share a single photo from anywhere on my sight without exposing my structure or hidden galleries.

Andy · October 23, 2009

hyachts wrote:

I'll have to agree that this is a huge negative.

it's a bug. We'll fix it.

Andy · October 23, 2009

Andy wrote:

it's a bug. We'll fix it.

Fixed.

jfriend · October 23, 2009

Andy wrote:

Fixed.

That was quick. Nice response!

Erick L · October 23, 2009

It's not fixed here.

Andy · October 23, 2009

Erick L wrote:

It's not fixed here.

Link?

Erick L · October 23, 2009

Grab any image you want. They all show the whole path. I'm talking about right-clicking, not using the share button.

jfriend · October 23, 2009

Erick L wrote:

Grab any image you want. They all show the whole path. I'm talking about right-clicking, not using the share button.

Are you looking in an unlisted gallery - that's where I saw the change and expected the change? Public galleries are supposed to show the whole path.

Erick L · October 23, 2009

Well, in that case I don't like it.

Andy · October 23, 2009

Erick L wrote:

Grab any image you want. They all show the whole path. I'm talking about right-clicking, not using the share button.

Show me an unlisted gallery
http://www.borealphoto.com/Animals/Oiseaux-Petites-images-Birds/8040702_RjGiw#523322472_bc5aJ

Example, there are two unlisted galleries in /Animals - both when you right click and view the link, you get a non-nicename url

http://www.borealphoto.com/Animals

Erick L · October 23, 2009

Any way to opt out of nicenames for photos?

Andy · October 23, 2009

Erick L wrote:

Any way to opt out of nicenames for photos?

No, I'm sorry. But Unlisted, passworded galleries won't have nicename urls for photos. Our customers have overwhelmingly asked for better SEO and Google findability. This is part of it.

Erick L · October 23, 2009

Does that mean you'll remove your description about being the "ultimate photo sharing" from my site too?

jfriend · October 23, 2009

Erick L wrote:

Any way to opt out of nicenames for photos?

Just curious Erick. Why do you want to opt out of nicenames for photos?

Erick L · October 23, 2009

- I don't want people tracking the source, unlisted or not.
- I don't want filenames showing.
- URL will be lost if the photo is moved.
- URL is ridiculously long.

Path/URL to images has changed

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