Does moving galleries to a new folder break external links?

toadlet

Will moving galleries to another folder break external links that I share on an external blog? For example if I had a gallery named "cats" in a folder called "animals" but then decided to move the "cats" gallery into a new folder, would this break external links?

Hikin' Mike

Yes.

thenickdude

Yes, that will break external links. In legacy SmugMug, it used to be that URLs would have a gallery ID and gallery key on the end of them like so:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/Dgrin-Challenges/Dgrin-Challenges-Gallery-of/The-Dgrin-Challenges-Gallery/167709_Q78H9S

That ID (167709_Q78H9S) allowed SmugMug to locate the gallery wherever it might be moved in the hierarchy, since the ID doesn't change when you move it around. In fact you could edit the link to include a folder that doesn't exist, and since it has this ID on the end, it'll still work:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/Completely-made-up-link/167709_Q78H9S

If you've got a bunch of these legacy links to your galleries around, those will continue to work in the new SmugMug after you unveil your new site (since the links have the ID number on the end), so pre-unveil is an excellent time to reorganise your site.

New-style links from New SmugMug, which don't have the ID number on the end, can't locate your gallery if you move it, so your visitors will get a "404 error" page instead.

There isn't currently a "get a link" capability for our galleries in New SmugMug that includes these IDs to make the links robust to moving the gallery around. But if you're really, really keen, you can assemble these by hand. Let's take my Insects gallery for example, whose link is:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/

Go "view source" on the gallery page and search for "albumId", you should find a section like this:



Now I take that albumId, and that albumKey, separate them with an underscore, and add it to the end of my gallery link:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/11199703_VVcTJf

If you visit the link, you'll get redirected to the gallery without that ID on the end. Now if the gallery moves, the link can still find it:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Made-up-folder-doesnt-exist/11199703_VVcTJf

toadlet

Interesting, as I cleared the cache and the links still seem to work externally.

thenickdude

toadlet wrote: »

Interesting, as I cleared the cache and the links still seem to work externally.

What gallery did you move, and to where? What is the link?

Do you mean a link to an image file? Those links actually survive no matter where you move their containing galleries, since they contain the id number of the photo in them. e.g. this link:

http://n-sherlock.smugmug.com/Animals/Wildlife/i-7PvcV4p/0/X3/827C1024-X3.jpg

And this link:

http://n-sherlock.smugmug.com/Completely-made-up-link/Could-have-moved-from-this/i-7PvcV4p/0/X3/I-made-up-the-filename-too-X3.jpg

will indeed find the same photo, so photo links don't break.

Allen

Lamah wrote: »

...
Now I take that albumId, and that albumKey, separate them with an underscore, and add it to the end of my gallery link:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/11199703_VVcTJf

If you visit the link, you'll get redirected to the gallery without that ID on the end. Now if the gallery moves, the link can still find it:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Made-up-folder-doesnt-exist/11199703_VVcTJf

When posting a link in a Dgrin forum that you want seen complete, ellipses (...) usually show up in the middle of long links.
I bold/italic the : and . to break the link so viewers can see the whole link. See red.

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/A...1199703_VVcTJf
http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/11199703_VVcTJf

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/M...1199703_VVcTJf
http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Made-up-folder-doesnt-exist/11199703_VVcTJf

This makes it much easier for viewers to see the whole link. The displayed link is not clickable but can be copied.

guy

Lamah wrote: »

There isn't currently a "get a link" capability for our galleries in New SmugMug that includes these IDs to make the links robust to moving the gallery around. But if you're really, really keen, you can assemble these by hand. Let's take my Insects gallery for example, whose link is:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/

Go "view source" on the gallery page and search for "albumId", you should find a section like this:



Now I take that albumId, and that albumKey, separate them with an underscore, and add it to the end of my gallery link:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Animals/Insects/11199703_VVcTJf

If you visit the link, you'll get redirected to the gallery without that ID on the end. Now if the gallery moves, the link can still find it:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Made-up-folder-doesnt-exist/11199703_VVcTJf

Thanks for this tip, I'll start doing that when I make new galleries now, it's a shame we have to do this manually now though :^(..

WildWorld

This raises two important questions in my mind. Is SmugMug advising everyone that moving galleries to a new folder breaks external links? If not, how will people know? And what will the tens of thousands of people with legacy SmugMug sites who don't have a lot of computer experience do about this issue when they switch to the new SmugMug? If the solution to these kinds of problems is not very simple they won't be able to do it.

thenickdude

If you switch to New SmugMug, all of your old links from legacy will continue to work, even if you shuffle around all of your galleries.

Honestly, even if a link to a gallery gets broken, it'd only be the work of a minute to browse to its new location.

WildWorld

Lamah wrote: »

If you switch to New SmugMug, all of your old links from legacy will continue to work, even if you shuffle around all of your galleries.

Honestly, even if a link to a gallery gets broken, it'd only be the work of a minute to browse to its new location.

Thanks for replying Lamah :-)

toadlet

I find the process of transition confusing to the new smugmug regarding links. I can change the gallery name to another name, and when I click on a link to an external blog that was made years ago it still redirects me to the page. And this is without the old URL having the image link, just a link to the folder.

What I know think is happening is that possibly because I haven't transitioned over to the new smugmug, that when I give the link to users that they are seeing the old smugmug?

thenickdude

toadlet wrote: »

What I know think is happening is that possibly because I haven't transitioned over to the new smugmug, that when I give the link to users that they are seeing the old smugmug?

Your old-style SmugMug gallery links (with the random number and letters on the end) will continue to find your galleries, even if you rename or move them, and even when you switch to New SmugMug .

The new-style SmugMug gallery links no longer have the random numbers on the end, so they are not resilient to a rename or gallery move.

Allen

Lamah wrote: »

Your old-style SmugMug gallery links (with the random number and letters on the end) will continue to find your galleries, even if you rename or move them, and even when you switch to New SmugMug .

The new-style SmugMug gallery links no longer have the random numbers on the end, so they are not resilient to a rename or gallery move.

In the page source of the NewSmug gallery the legacy gallery number and key XXXXXXXX_xxxxxx is there. This even works for new galleries created on NewSmug.