Easier way to manage photos on site?

GadgetRick

There has to be an easier way to manage photos/galleries on my site. I'm trying to revamp the site but it's such a PITA I've been putting it off. Is there an easier way of moving photos into existing galleries or new galleries than what I'm seeing on the site? I'm forever having problems with trying to create a new gallery and then moving photos to that gallery. Not to mention the way the galleries are listed is RIDICULOUSLY confusing--not in alphabetical order and it lists ALL galleries (main and sub) in one long list. Ugh!!!!

Please tell me there's a better way!!!

SamirD

I think some of the third party tools have capabilities, but I've not tried them personally.

What exactly are you trying to do? If you're just trying to move some images from one gallery to another, be sure you've created a brand new gallery as it will appear at the bottom of the list. That always helps me.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

I think some of the third party tools have capabilities, but I've not tried them personally.

What exactly are you trying to do? If you're just trying to move some images from one gallery to another, be sure you've created a brand new gallery as it will appear at the bottom of the list. That always helps me.

I'm trying to revamp my site, which does include moving photos around.

I find (more often than not), when trying to create galleries/subs, it just doesn't work properly. Just had created a gallery and went to move photos to it and it wasn't there in the list.

Even if it does work properly, it's still a PITA to manage my site this way. I'd think they would have improved this by now.

Andy

GadgetRick wrote: »

I'd think they would have improved this by now.

So would I. Better organizing tools are pretty high on our list, but other important stuff seems to outweigh that right now. We will get to it, I'm sure.

SamirD

GadgetRick wrote: »

I'm trying to revamp my site, which does include moving photos around.

I find (more often than not), when trying to create galleries/subs, it just doesn't work properly. Just had created a gallery and went to move photos to it and it wasn't there in the list.

Even if it does work properly, it's still a PITA to manage my site this way. I'd think they would have improved this by now.

Whenever I upload/move images, I don't try to group the creation of the galleries step with the moving step. I'll create the galleries, and then go to my source gallery and start the moves.

If you're using multiple windows, it's important to choose to move images after you've created the new gallery and giving it a second or two to 'take'. The list of galleries in the move screen is generated on the fly, and if you're too quick, the new gallery won't be in the list. I've run into this problem a few times, but it's rare.

SamirD

I've also found the browser makes the world of difference. Try different ones. And to avoid having to install them all, check out the portable versions on portableapps.com. I have over half a dozen browsers at my fingertips.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

Whenever I upload/move images, I don't try to group the creation of the galleries step with the moving step. I'll create the galleries, and then go to my source gallery and start the moves.

If you're using multiple windows, it's important to choose to move images after you've created the new gallery and giving it a second or two to 'take'. The list of galleries in the move screen is generated on the fly, and if you're too quick, the new gallery won't be in the list. I've run into this problem a few times, but it's rare.

I'm with you and I haven't done/have tried all of this. Just don't understand why this is never fixed no matter how many, "upgrades," they do to the system. Gallery/photo management is a major problem, pops up all of the time yet it is never addressed with a fix.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

I've also found the browser makes the world of difference. Try different ones. And to avoid having to install them all, check out the portable versions on portableapps.com. I have over half a dozen browsers at my fingertips.

I'll have to try portableapps.com.

Thanks for the suggestion.

SamirD

GadgetRick wrote: »

I'm with you and I haven't done/have tried all of this. Just don't understand why this is never fixed no matter how many, "upgrades," they do to the system. Gallery/photo management is a major problem, pops up all of the time yet it is never addressed with a fix.

There's a lot of things like this at SM that haven't yet been address, mainly because I suspect it's a lot of re-doing the back end and how things operate there. I'm sure a bandaid could be made, but it wouldn't be the most elegant or long-lasting solution.

I feel your pain though. I have over 3000 galleries. The gallery picker tool for me is basically useless. Luckily, I rarely need to use it for anything critical.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

There's a lot of things like this at SM that haven't yet been address, mainly because I suspect it's a lot of re-doing the back end and how things operate there. I'm sure a bandaid could be made, but it wouldn't be the most elegant or long-lasting solution.

While I understand it, a bandaid can't be any worse than the way it works now.

SamirD

GadgetRick wrote: »

While I understand it, a bandaid can't be any worse than the way it works now.

Agreed, but when a bandaid takes 40% of the development resources of a permanent fix, why not just wait and do a permanent fix? That's the way I'd look at it as management.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

Agreed, but when a bandaid takes 40% of the development resources of a permanent fix, why not just wait and do a permanent fix? That's the way I'd look at it as management.

I'm with you but how long are you going to ignore the wound before trying to treat it? Not like this is a new problem. The features they've been adding have been great but I'd rather have basic functionality before I have many of the stuff they've added.

My site has needed to be revamped for quite some time. I've been putting it off because it's such a pain to deal with it. That hurts my business more than not having extra functionality.

HaraldE

Morning,

I had to redo part of my gallery structure some time ago. And I found the easiest way was as follows:
1/ Create all the new Categories and Galleries
2/ Upload all photos from PC to the new folders
3/ When all upload done, delete the old folders and categories

And the most timeconsuming part was actually to delete the old ones since this had to be done one by one

Regards, Harald

SamirD

GadgetRick wrote: »

I'm with you but how long are you going to ignore the wound before trying to treat it? Not like this is a new problem. The features they've been adding have been great but I'd rather have basic functionality before I have many of the stuff they've added.

My site has needed to be revamped for quite some time. I've been putting it off because it's such a pain to deal with it. That hurts my business more than not having extra functionality.

Well, I know they've had a lot of fish to fry, and unfortunately some of the others have been bigger than this.

I've been lucky that this hasn't affected my business as much as it has yours. But there's a point where if it's that bad, you have to look to other solutions, possibly from other providers. I almost left SM when I found Exposure Manager and their wonderful implementation of ftp uploading. But I was also trying to find a video solution, and when SM added one out-of-the-blue, I stopped development on EM and stuck with SM. I'd still like to see a native ftp uploader for SM. And apparently I'm not the only one as it's #6 on their feature request system.

GadgetRick

HaraldE wrote: »

Morning,

I had to redo part of my gallery structure some time ago. And I found the easiest way was as follows:
1/ Create all the new Categories and Galleries
2/ Upload all photos from PC to the new folders
3/ When all upload done, delete the old folders and categories

And the most timeconsuming part was actually to delete the old ones since this had to be done one by one

Regards, Harald

I'm with you. Just been putting this off as it's going to take me quite some time to do this.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

Well, I know they've had a lot of fish to fry, and unfortunately some of the others have been bigger than this.

I've been lucky that this hasn't affected my business as much as it has yours. But there's a point where if it's that bad, you have to look to other solutions, possibly from other providers. I almost left SM when I found Exposure Manager and their wonderful implementation of ftp uploading. But I was also trying to find a video solution, and when SM added one out-of-the-blue, I stopped development on EM and stuck with SM. I'd still like to see a native ftp uploader for SM. And apparently I'm not the only one as it's #6 on their feature request system.

I have been considering a move but that's about as much of a PITA as making the changes here.

There is a native application on the Mac for uploading files (MacDaddy). Unfortunately, it does nothing for re-arranging things once everything is there from what I can tell.

SamirD

GadgetRick wrote: »

I have been considering a move but that's about as much of a PITA as making the changes here.

Yep, I've been there too. :cry

If you haven't, go through every single third-party program that's available and see if anything helps. I've run into solutions to problems this way a few times when I wasn't looking.

GadgetRick

SamirD wrote: »

Yep, I've been there too. :cry

If you haven't, go through every single third-party program that's available and see if anything helps. I've run into solutions to problems this way a few times when I wasn't looking.

Just wondering what 3rd party solutions there might be on the Mac. I've got the MacDaddy program--which makes it easier (overall)--when uploading but there are no tools there to manage existing galleries.

SamirD

Here's a good list of most of them. There's some missing from here that you can pick up from a google search.
http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/84267