Smart galleries busted again?
rolette
Registered Users Posts: 223 Major grins
Looks like smart galleries are riding the short yellow bus again... I uploaded a couple of batches of photos earlier and they aren't showing up in the smart galleries.
If I go edit the "smart" settings and either refresh the preview or save them, then I get the photos I expect.
Not sure if it regressed back to the broken state it was in forever or if this is something new.
Jay
If I go edit the "smart" settings and either refresh the preview or save them, then I get the photos I expect.
Not sure if it regressed back to the broken state it was in forever or if this is something new.
Jay
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Not the only one by any means. As far as I can tell, it's all of the galleries in the "2011: Rock Volleyball" sub-category. The only ones that are accurate are the ones that I manually re-saved.
Jay
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Thanks,
Jay
Just remember, it's not 'instantaneous' updates - we do have to reindex things. Which means it could take minutes or longer, depending.
Thanks.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Thanks,
Jay
This has been an ongoing problem for over a year (actually pretty much since the smart gallery function was released - I've reported this multiple times since it's inception). Every year I create approx 80 albums for individual football players to be populated from the game albums via smart rules. So far this problem occurs every season (actually anytime I mass use this function). The albums are created, smart rules in place, photos uploaded in game album & coded in the keyword field to correspond with the smart rules. The keywords/smart rule data shows indexing and then indexed. However, I have to repeatedly go back in to 80 albums and re-save the smart rules & refresh to get the albums to populate. Occasionally they seem to populate a few photos and then sometimes they are indefinitely hung up until I refresh/re-save. This is incredibly time-consuming and frustrating. Kind of like that giant red "EASY" button -- I need a giant red "REFRESH" button so I don't have to do it for 80 albums over & over.
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1501677486_8CWJsGN
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/62-Breyun-Owens/19314955_9NJmZk#1505569944_9pd2zv3
Original report of problem with smart galleries in February 2010 -- still being discussed in April 2011 and now again in October 2011. Seriously!!!!! Can we get this fixed once & for all.
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=158660&highlight=smart
Thanks, Monica
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Monica,
FWIW, I'm not seeing the problem with my smart galleries. I'm not disputing that you are having issues with it, but the most recent bug they fixed on it hasn't regressed at least.
Regards,
Jay
I email Smugmug about once a week about this exact issue and when it will be fixed and get no concrete answers to when. Smart Galleries still have issues . Engineering is the one holding up the fixes now, I don't understand how anyone in the company sees this as great customer service..
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
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Never understood the concept of why it takes so long to fix something that has been broken so many times in the past year. The first time a problem is noticed sure but not the second or third time, that is not a very good way to do things..
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
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I agree Monica, it should not be taking this long, also wanted to note that I really like Player number galleries love your keyword impelentation, I use something similar for my Player Galleries. Good work, now if we could get this fixed finally..
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
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I know SM seems to be doing a lot of development/revamping, and this will happen when they're doing that on a live product. Of course, proper QA would prevent this issues, but SM has a different QA philosophy, and use us to find some of the bugs. I'm sure it's one of the way to keep their costs down and provide the services they do at the price they do.
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Hello,
Thanks for posting on the other thread about this, otherwise I would not have known
That being said, as far as I was aware this issue had been fixed. As you can see in the previous thread after I fixed it (which was no easy task), everyone reported things were working perfectly.
So, while I can appreciate your frustration, I'd rather just focus on the problem and trying to find a solution.
You mention this URL: http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1501677486_8CWJsGN
What specifically is the problem with this album? Can you show me the images you are expecting to show up that are not along with the gallery they were originally uploaded to?
Do keep in mind that these updates are "queued" and its a first-in-first-out queue. So expect some lag.
- Greg
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=10162
Even after SM keywords go from displaying "indexing 2011sgp75" for player 75 and then shows as indexed 2011sgp75 and no longer highlighted in the keyword field on the original photo. They are NOT always populating to the smart gallery. I see some populate OK. However, even a day later, I have to re-save/refresh the smart gallery rules to get them to populate. Sometimes, if I just access the smart gallery without re-save/refresh a few photos might populate.
Here is a current example of a photo not populating & it has been over 24 hours.
Main Gallery (SGP Vs Midlothian - Fall 2011) - http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1501677486_8CWJsGN
Image: http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1515882890_NLzwm52
Smart Gallery (#18 Terry Lightfoot) - http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/18-Terry-Lightfoot/19314269_vjxPn3#1505537793_NMFgvQb
I have not re-saved/refreshed the smart rules on the smart gallery to allow you the opportunity to see it as is. I did access the smart gallery twice & it still did not populate.
I am using Google Chrome, Windows 7 Vista if that helps to know.
Thanks, Monica
Thanks, Monica
Yeah, I have been talking with Steve about it recently.. But it seems hard to find an actual messed up example at this exact moment in time - but now that I have one I am going to do a bit of digging.. I will report back here in a little bit...
- Greg
Hello,
I need a bit more clarification here I think. So the gallery here:
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/18-Terry-Lightfoot/19314269_vjxPn3#1505537793_NMFgvQb
Has these smart gallery rules:
Include > My Photos > Keyword > 2011sgp10
Include > My Photos > Keyword > 2011terrylightfoot
The image here: http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1515882890_NLzwm52
has the keyword "2011sgp18" - I would not expect it to show up in that smart gallery.
Is there something I'm missing or did I click something wrong?
- Greg
You seem like you know a thing or two about software development. As such, I imagine that you understand the difficulty in working with a very large code base that is going on 12 years old. Much of the "development/revamping" is being done (at considerable expense) to modernize and simplify it. We have a large QA group that does fantastic work, but they can't catch everything - especially sporadic bugs.
I assure you that the world we are in is not so cynical as you are trying to make it sound.
And if you want to know why I do not spend my weekends and spare time frequenting Dgrin so much these days - its because I would really rather just not read this kind of thing.
.. I respect you and hope this gives you some food-for-thought...
- Greg
ok -- some more examples to play with:
Right NOW - 10-7 4:00ish Central Time
Test 1 (new smart gallery)
Uploaded a SM Test pic (final scoreboard) to the main gallery here:
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1515975417_X3864gz
Coded with the keyword: smugmugtestb4 (meaning I coded this b4 I created the smart gallery album)
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1517534674_jwLtgx8
Accessed different (by player) subcategory:
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player
Added a new album called SMUGMUG Test (After Coding):
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/Smugmug-Test-After-Coding/19404327_SBLNwn#1517534674_jwLtgx8
Entered the smart rule: smugmugtestb4
Immediately populated
Test 2 (existing smart gallery)
Same SM Test pic (final scoreboard) in main gallery here:
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1517534674_jwLtgx8
Keyword smugmugtestb4 already there
Accessed existing gallery (#1 Laquintin Bailey) under the subcategory by player for smart galleries
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/1-LaQuinton-Bailey/19311687_S3F8f7#1508868162_pnBpJDr
Entered the smart rule: smugmugtestb4
Immediately populated
Test 3 (new smart gallery) (keyword coding to be entered after)
Created smart gallery here with smart rule smugmugtestafter
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/SMUGMUGTEST-before-coding/19404443_RfNsp3
Entered keyword in main gallery here (smugmugtestafter)
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1517534674_jwLtgx8
DID NOT populate (even after keyword shows to be indexed)
Reaccessed smart gallery & resaved/refreshed -- Populated immediately
Test 4 (Entered keyword on test photo b4 adding smart rule)
Added smart rule to scoreboard pic here:
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/Football-2011/Football-2011/19244366_WVhCg6#1517534674_jwLtgx8
Added smart rule smugmugtest74 to the following existing smart gallery
http://www.monicamanning.com/Sports/2011-Football-by-Player/74-Kendall-Steward/19315114_wFHn4z#1517534674_jwLtgx8
Populated Immediately
Hmmmm -- could it be the semantics between creating your smart galleries & smart rules and then coding your keywords after the fact. Those seem to NOT populate immediately like the others. I usually do create all of my smart galleries by player, code them and then as I add photos to the main event, I add the keywords/smart coding.
Only occassionally do I add a main gallery and then decide to set up smart galleries after the fact.
Maybe it is something in the programming about what comes first - the chicken or the egg!
Thanks, Monica
Since you seem able to reproduce this so easily, can you do something to create the failure in Test 3 but not do anything to fix it? If you can post the same details here I would be most appreciative. This may take a few iterations, so bare with me, I will probably need to enable some logging once I find the right code and have you try it again.
As long as you are willing to hang in there with me, I will stay with this until we figure it out.
David: I know you are having the same (or similar) problem. If it is different feel free to let me know, I'm not trying to exclude you or anything. I just don't need a lot of examples, but I do really appreciate the help you've given so far on this.
- Greg
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-14/world/england.chicken.egg.riddle_1_chicken-crystal-structure-human-skeleton?_s=PM:WORLD
- Greg
Hi David,
I just had a lengthy discussion with Steve about this. This is not the same problem we were having before where the smart galleries are not getting updated (and Monica's "Test 3"). Since its different, I wanted to tell you what is going on and let you know we're thinking of a scalable solution to it.
So, when you upload images that are going to be placed in a smart gallery we clear out the DB row that tells the smart gallery which images are inside it. Then we update the images the next time someone accesses the smart gallery. This presents a problem when viewing the album (especially for a newly created smart gallery) because it will show "Empty Gallery" until someone clicks it.
I just want to make sure that this describes the problem you are having - do I have it right?
- Greg
I don't want to seem negative, but I can be just as frustrated as ever other user that is seeing an unacceptable turnaround time in bug resolution. To give you some idea how frustrated, I've actually very seriously looked at switching from SM twice this year when some bugs affected me. And I've never even thought of that since I joined in 2005. It's that bad on this end when things go wrong.
Look, I know you guys do amazing work. Just building SM into the company it is with what back in the day wasn't even close to the resources you have today is a testament to that. But no one looks at the brilliance that went into OS/2 or the NeXT computing platform--they only look at what didn't work. And unfortunately, that's the state of affairs when consumers look at software or applications. I try to be as understanding as possible, but I expect the same in return. And most of the time, I'm let down.
We work just as hard as you do--sometimes even more. I personally had my first day off in 4 months this last Sunday--and that was only because I was completely physically and mentally exhausted. Before that it's been 4 months, 100hrs+ a week, 7 days a week. Sometimes those of us that are on the other side feel like you guys don't see this.
I know we're all in the same boat, and sometimes it seems we're forgetting that the guys above deck are working just as hard as the guys below deck, and vice-versa.
Thank you for taking the time to check out dgrin, and especially taking the time to post to reply to me.
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My only issue: I take great exception to anyone who would say that SmugMug intentionally does a disservice to anyone in the interest of saving money.
I understand venting, I just think posts like this go a bit too far and piling on just doesn't help. Thats where my line in the sand is, if I'm going to spend my personal time helping out the users of this forum. I would rather not read dgrin then start to resent something I really enjoy doing.
- Greg
I'm glad to see you've proven me wrong. I still remember how you fixed the mass rotate issue. I'll never forget that.
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Yep that's my current problem.. I appreciate whats going on but for the life of me I cannot understand why posting on Dgrin gets development to work on said issues when I have been checking quite frequently with Steve and Andy hoping to get this resolved via email and nothing has moved. I honestly don't know how I am supposed to go about getting bugs fixed. It seems hit or miss most times.. Thanks for your help..
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=10162
How do you code your keywords?? I use photomechanic and code replacement before uploading. Do you keywords after uploading??
www.phabulousphotos.com
Sportsshooter.com Member
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Aww, you guuuys, you're gonna make me cry. :cry
I won't forget it either, that was some serious voodoo by Twoofy.
Malte