Transfer to SmugMug for Fulfillment... Advice Needed

FamilyArtStudio

I have a site that helps users modify and create images. I would like to be able to add a purchase link that could be clicked to have the image uploaded the SmugMug purchase page. Basically skipping the gallery features all together. It would be like skipping to the "Buy" -> "This Photo" button from another website. I do not want the user to see other images that have been uploaded. I want to use the price list feature, so I can share in the revenue. The price list would be standard across all images.

I would think this must have come up before. Do people have ideas on how to achieve this? I was thinking I could create a private gallery for every image, but that seems excessive. Maybe this is functionality that I am not aware of.

Help please.


Thanks,

Gary

SamirD

I believe there is a direct purchase link available under the 'Share' button in the gallery. That's where you could get the link.

But the hard part is the image. You'd have to use the api to upload the image from a url, then generate a buy link from that uploaded image. Doable, but there's a bit of a delay since the upload isn't instantaneous.

FamilyArtStudio

Thanks for the reply.

I saw buy button and I am feeling like it could work. Another tricky part is that I would not want the users to easily explore each other's images. Here is what I am thinking:

1. Image is Created
2. Create new unlisted gallery
3. Upload Image
4. Use Buy Link under share

The worst part of this is creating a gallery per image which seems unnecessary, but I don't see a way to "hide" an image, expect from the Buy button. If you follow a buy link to a hidden image it gives a message that it is not available.

I would hope a large number of single picture galleries would not create an undue burden. I would create a gallery per user, but some of my users are anonymous.

SamirD

Seems like a doable workflow. One thing I'd look into is if you really need an individual gallery for each user. You'd only need this if all the images in the gallery are viewable via the buy link. Otherwise, just upload all of them to one gallery.

As far as burden--I have over 450,000 images on SM and literally thousands of galleries--and everything works fine. The only problem you start having is that a lot of the tools, like collect photo, were never designed for so many galleries so they become basically unusable.

FamilyArtStudio

The buy pop-up still presents itself in front of the gallery with the option to go "Back to Photos." So that is why I am thinking of a gallery per.

It is great to hear about the scale of your site and the number of albums\galleries.

I played around a bit yesterday and still need to figure out the api for the new album, but I am sure it will come. I am also thinking about a re-occuring clean up script since I think every time a image is accessed it will be a new gallery. I may want to clean up the old albums every 24 hours.

I will let you know how it goes.

Gary

SamirD

Ahh, then it's one gallery per image.

Hmmm...if it's going to create an album and a buy link each time the image is accessed, why not make it create everything once and then just hard-code it into wherever the image is posted? This way, the gallery is tied to the image and vice-versa. And since everything has already been created, there's no lag time.

FamilyArtStudio

I agree there is an an inefficentcy to this approach, but it would be simpler to implement and keep in sync. This would create a very modular process where any image passed to the script would be processed and I would not worry about the systems getting out of sync. It would also mean images created historically could take advantage of the functionality.

I tested the upload piece last night and was pretty impressed with the speed (only one image at a time). I could also give the user some message..."your image is being processed"

When I have something to show you, I will post it.

SamirD

Yeah, going back historically and having to change a lot of links would be quite cumbersome. How would you determine the time-out period on a gallery before it gets deleted? Would it be an x-day purchase window or something like that?

FamilyArtStudio

That is the other thing about real-time links (creating the album and upload on demand). I could remove the old ones every day and they would not be missed.

In my case the image would still reside in a gallery on my website for viewing... the solution we are discussing is only when a users wants to buy the image on canvas\merchandise.

SamirD

FamilyArtStudio wrote: »

That is the other thing about real-time links (creating the album and upload on demand). I could remove the old ones every day and they would not be missed.

I wonder if this could be an issue if the item is purchased. I know that the original needs to be sent to the processor and if it's not there, that could be an issue with daily deletions, or where there is not enough time to get the original to the processor.

But then again, since SM is unlimited, why even delete at all? Just keep everything in a single category or with sub-categories.

FamilyArtStudio wrote: »

In my case the image would still reside in a gallery on my website for viewing... the solution we are discussing is only when a users wants to buy the image on canvas\merchandise.

Ahh, makes sense.

FamilyArtStudio

Good point... If I ever implement the delete functionality I will set it to 30 days or something.

I have the first pass. The image url is passed to the image parameter (only jpg's are supported). After about 30 secs it redirects to the buy page.

http://www.familyartstudio.com/files/SM/order.php?image=http://www.familyartstudio.com/sites/default/files/photos_166.jpg

I want to add a timer and see if there is a way to know when the loading is complete.

SamirD

The hard part about a time is that you'll have to set a different delete date for each gallery, giving each one 30 days. Not too difficult, but a bit to keep track of.

I bet there's probably a way to know when the image is full processed since a gallery will automatically refresh when an image is finished processing. I don't know if that's an API thing though.

FamilyArtStudio

I was just thinking of a cron job that ran every day. If the album create date was greater than the sysdate-30 I would remove it.

I think I will add a "working" animated gif to the page and set the redirect to about 45 secs. Not ideal, but it will give the user a sense of what is happening. Like you mention it would be best to know when the image had been finished processing.

BTW... thanks for your input and ideas... it has help my thought process.

SamirD

I really like the cron job idea.

I'm glad I've been able to help. I really like to see unique uses for the API. It gives us all ideas.