Share --> Get a Link --> Gallery Links : broken in several ways

pbandj

I'm using the Smugmug Gallery style on my galleries. Under the previewed photo, if I click "Share --> Get a Link --> and then choose the Gallery Links tab, I get some odd behavior:

1) the most egregious: under the "slideshow" choice the "copy" button gives me a link that goes to the old style legacy slideshow. Here's the link it gave me:
http://pattiandjeane.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=30904685&AlbumKey=LhGttn

It launches the "old" style slideshow even though this account has NEVER been in legacy smugmug (it's a new account I opened to play around with before migrating).

2) under the "Gallery" choice, the "copy" button gives me a link with no "persistent" key, so if I reorganize the site, that link will break. It just gives me a link that looks like this:
http://pattiandjeane.smugmug.com/Weekend-Fun/Red-River-Gorge-2013

3) under the "lightbox" choice, the "copy" button gives me a link that also doesn't seem to be persistent...if I move the gallery to a different folder that link breaks.

NOTE: I haven't tested the other options under "get a link", but Gallery Links are definitely broken.

Teach

Thank you for the great detail in your bug report. I am having our QA team take a deeper look into this issue to see what they can find out. Thank you for your continued patience as we dig into this issue.
Heather
SmugMug Support Hero

GRBlizz

I agree with pbandj. There needs to be a way to set a permanent link to a gallery page.

I think I understand the issue thanks to some help from Hero Wendy and a little experimenting.

The problem comes from the fact that the Collage style (both L and P) perform differently from the way that SmugMug and Journal styles perform. Along with half the universe, I have embraced those cool new collage styles, hence the problem.

In the SmugMug and journal style, the URL "galleryname/imagekey" returns the gallery page of the image associated with the key. This was the case with Legacy, and is also true in New. So if you're using one of those styles and make sure to capture the key when you share the URL, you're fine. A link to an image on the main gallery page has the same function as a link to the gallery.

The problem is, in Collage styles (and Thumbnails,) the URL "galleryname/imagekey" returns the lightbox view for that image, after briefly flashing on the gallery page. Users have to figure out that they can close the lightbox and see the full gallery.


Here's an illustration, using two galleries that have shortlinks to each other.

http://pictures.mtbethel.org/Ministr...anta/i-6gqzbgb - SmugMug style gallery, link goes to gallery page. Note that the URL of the lightbox associated with each image is galleryname/imagekey/A

http://pictures.mtbethel.org/Ministr...2012/i-p8j5bQv - Landscape Collage style gallery, link goes briefly to gallery page and then pops to lightbox page for that image. If you close the lightbox view and click on an image from the gallery page to go back to lightbox view, the resulting URL is galleryname/imagekey/A

I think Collage styles should function the same as the other styles, ie, galleryname/imagekey should return the gallery page containing the image, and galleryname/imagekey/A should return the page containing the lightbox image in all styles.

If not, then there needs to be a permanent "gallery key", just as each image has a key.

And as pbandj rightly said, anyone using the Get a Link feature to get a gallery link is just going to be very sad down the road, because the URL will break at the first reorganization.

GRBlizz

Slight update:

I just learned we can get the gallery key by looking at the "buy" link in Get a Link/Gallery. If you append that to the end of your URL, you will have a persistent URL.

The Hero who wrote me said that he put i a feature request to fix it that so that the Gallery Key shows in the rest of the Get a Link listings, too.

Personally, I think it's a bug fix, not a feature request, but hey, I'll take a fix whenever it comes, and use the workaround in the meantime.

pbandj

GRBlizz wrote: »

Slight update:

I just learned we can get the gallery key by looking at the "buy" link in Get a Link/Gallery. If you append that to the end of your URL, you will have a persistent URL.

The Hero who wrote me said that he put i a feature request to fix it that so that the Gallery Key shows in the rest of the Get a Link listings, too.

Personally, I think it's a bug fix, not a feature request, but hey, I'll take a fix whenever it comes, and use the workaround in the meantime.

This definitely seems like a bug to me, especially because Baldy commented in the other thread that when you "get a link" you should always get a persistent link.

pbandj

pbandj wrote: »

I'm using the Smugmug Gallery style on my galleries. Under the previewed photo, if I click "Share --> Get a Link --> and then choose the Gallery Links tab, I get some odd behavior:

1) the most egregious: under the "slideshow" choice the "copy" button gives me a link that goes to the old style legacy slideshow. Here's the link it gave me:
http://pattiandjeane.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=30904685&AlbumKey=LhGttn

It launches the "old" style slideshow even though this account has NEVER been in legacy smugmug (it's a new account I opened to play around with before migrating).

Any reason this isn't on the active bug list? Even if you don't want to fix the issue of "get a link" not carrying a persistent album key (see points #2 and 3 in my original post), I'm pretty sure it can't be disputed that a link that sends a user off to a legacy smugmug slideshow is a bug.

Darter02

This needs fixed.

southeasternphotography

Still Broken 09-19-13
This is still broken. I tested the slideshow one - got a link for it and used it in a Menu item. Yep, went straight to legacy system slideshow. HAHAHAHA! We should tell this to those folks who do not like the new slideshow and want to have the thumbs at the top of the page! hahahaha Probably there are other ways to exploit this bug besides using the link in a menu item.

This should absolutely be added to the Active Bug List (but guess they don't want people to know there IS a way to get the old slideshow on their New SM sites - at least for now).:lol4

Darter02

I found out on an older thread that the particular slideshow you refer to is for use on other sites. Not that that really means anything...

mbonocore

southeasternphotography wrote: »

This is still broken. I tested the slideshow one - got a link for it and used it in a Menu item. Yep, went straight to legacy system slideshow. HAHAHAHA! We should tell this to those folks who do not like the new slideshow and want to have the thumbs at the top of the page! hahahaha Probably there are other ways to exploit this bug besides using the link in a menu item.

This should absolutely be added to the Active Bug List (but guess they don't want people to know there IS a way to get the old slideshow on their New SM sites - at least for now).:lol4

We LOVE the old slideshow. I know this was reported, but I will find it in our system and add to the list.

GRBlizz

mbonocore wrote: »

We LOVE the old slideshow. I know this was reported, but I will find it in our system and add to the list.

Any news on the restoration of gallery permalinks? This is really becoming a hassle.