Can Share Pages be Customized?

tomoscott

It appears not, at least to me. The "Customize" link at the top of the page takes you right to the Manage Sharegroups page.

If this is really the way it is, then I think SmugMug should fix it. Share groups work well for Client Galleries that are not open to the public, but they should look like the rest of the site.

Lindy

Hi Tom,

You are completely correct. Sharegroups cannot be customized, but provided they're not hide owner galleries, they should match the rest of your site.

I hope this helps!
Lindy
SmugMug Support Hero.

tomoscott

Lindy wrote: »

Hi Tom,

You are completely correct. Sharegroups cannot be customized, but provided they're not hide owner galleries, they should match the rest of your site.

I hope this helps!
Lindy
SmugMug Support Hero.

That really presents a problem. Here's the situation I have. I have a folder, called "Share", that is the container for all client galleries. There are 11 galleries there. I have two ShareGroups. ShareGroup 1 has access to 3 of the galleries, and ShareGroup 2 has access to 11 galleries. All of the galleries are set to unlisted. They don't require a password, since you can't get to the Share folder without entering the password.

The first problem is that when you log in, the gallery thumbnails forget the sort order you have set up in the Organize section. When I'm logged in, the galleries are all in the right order. But when I log out and try to access them as a client, the gallery thumbs are unsorted.

The gallery thumbs themselves go right to edge of the pages, unlike the way it looks when I'm logged in. When I'm logged in, the page has 4 thumbs in each row. When I'm not logged in, that layout is dropped, and it's simply a float:left arrangement filling the page. Moreover, when I'm logged in, the folder has the name of each gallery below the thumb; when I'm not, the name is inside the thumbnail.

Now, let's suppose a client wants to look at more than one gallery. Well, that doesn't work. The breadcrumb on the gallery might read "Share > Miscellaneous", but if you click "Share", you won't go back to the page you started on; you'll just hang there with a blank page that has the header and nothing else. Not exactly user friendly for your client!

That means that the only way a client can see a different gallery than the one they have access to is to log in all over again. Worse, since there is no ability to customize the Share page, I can't remove the breadcrumb or insert my own HTML to give the client navigable options.

Am I missing something here? I sure hope so, because it seems to me that it's pretty bad if you have to give your clients all sorts of instructions on what to do because your site is broken and you can't fix it.

I am paying for a Pro account, so that's not the problem.

I don't know what I'd do if I were a wedding / event photographer with multiple clients. This would be driving me crazy.

Please tell me I've got this all wrong and simply am not organizing things right!

rainforest1155

Sharegroups can't be specifically customized at this point. However, they should make use of your "entire site" customizations. Looking at your two sharegroups logged in / logged out, I'm not able to see what you describe. I would suggest that you contact us Heroes on the HelpDesk with details, like the browser version and operating system you're using and screenshots of your whole screen showing the logged out / logged in view side by side so we can see what you're seeing. Also include if you're using any extensions / add-ons in your browser and if so, which.

Allen

tomoscott wrote: »

... They don't require a password, since you can't get to the Share folder without entering the password....

If it was me I'd create a folder at the top level for these or in a top level folder named something like
"Clients". Use that password already assigned or a new one for each folder. The PW assigned to a folder
will flow down to the containing galleries.
Make the galleries and folders "public" not "unlisted" and the breadcrumb will work.

tomoscott

Allen wrote: »

If it was me I'd create a folder at the top level for these or in a top level folder named something like
"Clients". Use that password already assigned or a new one for each folder. The PW assigned to a folder
will flow down to the containing galleries.
Make the galleries and folders "public" not "unlisted" and the breadcrumb will work.

Thanks for the suggestion, Allen. Question -- If I do that, though, don't all clients have to have the same password? I was hoping to have one consolidated folder where I can put all client galleries, and when the client logs in, they have access to any one of their galleries. Would something like that work under your scheme?

Allen

There are different scenarios to consider.
Do you want all your clients to open a page showing all your client galleries? Or names with no thumbs?
If so, put one PW on the opening folder for all. Then each client gets their own PW going into their galleries.

Allen

Legacy had a hack where the client would log in and be redirected to their galleries. Haven't seen this
on NewSmug yet, probably because javascript if not allowed.

tomoscott

Allen wrote: »

There are different scenarios to consider.
Do you want all your clients to open a page showing all your client galleries? Or names with no thumbs?
If so, put one PW on the opening folder for all. Then each client gets their own PW going into their galleries.

No, I want them to see just the name of the galleries they have access to.
If customization on sharegroup pages were allowed, I could develop a workaround, but the way things seem to be now, I'm at a loss.

Allen

What's the difference of creating a sharegroup for each client or folder? You would have to send
them the direct link and their password in either case. The folder would be much easier and fully
customizable.

tomoscott

Allen wrote: »

What's the difference of creating a sharegroup for each client or folder? You would have to send
them the direct link and their password in either case. The folder would be much easier and fully
customizable.

Actually, I have a custom menu that links directly to the Sharegroup folder, so I don't have to give them the URL. Sending URL's isn't a great solution anyway; it's much easier and more consistent to send them to my site, and simply have them click on the "Clients" menu link.

I guess I'm hoping that sooner rather than later SmugMug will make the Sharegroup folders customizable, just like all the other galleries.

AceCo55

???????? Maybe I'm not understanding what your problem is, but most people seem to do what Allen suggested.
Top level: Clients (with menu link on nav bar)
That goes to a page with all the different client folders (eg 20 different clients). Each one has their own unique password.
Once they enter the correct password they have access to all the sub-folders and galleries within that one client folder.
All of it customisable.
But I have been known to misunderstand stuff before.

tomoscott

I was hoping to avoid that middle step, i.e. have the menu item go to a client login, and a php function determine a correct url to deliver a page with only the galleries or that client. That way, a client never sees the galleries they can't get into, which is the way it should be.

However, until SM allows customization on ShareGroup pages, it looks like I'll have to do it the way you and Allen are suggesting.

Jtring

tomoscott wrote: »

... That way, a client never sees the galleries they can't get into, which is the way it should be ...

That, it seems to me, is the critical difference between the private galleries approach and unlisted galleries/sharegroup approach to limiting access.

I too would vote bringing the sharegroups fully into the new SmugMug by allowing display customization. Basic control, like on the /search page, would be a start. There, at least, one can add content blocks and apply CSS mods. I recognize that would take some class redefinition. More ability to control the thumbnail display (aspect ratio, caption location, etc.) would be welcome too.

Jim Ringland
jtringl.smugmug.com

Allen

On legacy I could customize individual sharegroup pages by adding the html/CSS into the sharegroup description.

<html>
<style type="text/css">
.notLoggedIn .boxTop,
#breadcrumb {visibility: hidden;}
#altViews {visibility: visible;}
</style>
<table width="100%">
<tr>
...
...
</tr>
</table>
</html>

I have everything organized by month so I had to span two months using a sharegroup.
http://www.photosbyat.com/share/aK3yoCu8wKJ2Q
This total description was added.

tomoscott

Jtring wrote: »

That, it seems to me, is the critical difference between the private galleries approach and unlisted galleries/sharegroup approach to limiting access.

I too would vote bringing the sharegroups fully into the new SmugMug by allowing display customization. Basic control, like on the /search page, would be a start. There, at least, one can add content blocks and apply CSS mods. I recognize that would take some class redefinition. More ability to control the thumbnail display (aspect ratio, caption location, etc.) would be welcome too.

Jim Ringland
jtringl.smugmug.com

Yes, I think SmugMug has to decide what it really wants to be -- a competitor to Fllickr, Instagram, etc., or a competitor to Shopify, ZenFolio, etc. I used to be on Shopify, and moved everything here because there were just to many photographer-specific features to pass up. But SM could learn a thing or two from Shopify, too.

For example, Shopify has a completely integrated blog. Now I have a blog on my site, too, and it's all within SM, but it takes a LOT of steps to get everything right, including navigation links. It's a far cry from just posting to a Wordpress site.

Shopify, if you pay for a premium store, doesn't make a fuss about what you do to the pages. The whole bruhaha over the "Photo Sharing by Shopify" link in the footer is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Come on, if you're paying $30 a month for a premium site, then you should have FULL control over what that site looks like. After all, this is what any sane person would interpret the following line from SM's home page to mean:

"Engage your inner control freak and sculpt every detail of your design." [emphasis mine].

In my opinion, SM would be a lot better off encouraging users to modify their sites to their heart's content, including eliminating SM's logos, links, etc. When they try to enforce a ridiculous policy, how many customers will go on Reddit, for example, and encourage other people to give SM a try?

Finally, Shopify, through a scripting language, Liquid, lets you modify every detail of your site, without exception. I have no argument with SM not using something like Liquid -- it's not an ideal solution. But if they promise full control over every detail of your design, then they should deliver what they promise.

AceCo55

I think this is the only work around at the moment:
http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/Client-login-system

girardimages

I've had this problem for years with Smugmug. I want to give my clients a link that shows them several galleries without using a password, and without those galleries being open to 'everyone' who goes to my site. The only way you can do this is via sharegroups, BUT THEY ARE SO UGLY. i'm sorry, i hate them. I can't center any of the galleries or make the names of each one appear as they should. They are just clumped to one side. I dont know why Smugmug is ignoring customization on these pages. I really feel that for the money we are now paying as pro users, we should have more flexibility here.

rainforest1155

As a Business user, you can also look at the event marketing feature. Events can be set to unlisted and also allow clients to (optionally) register to be able to select favorites.

If you don't wish to use events or sharegroups, your only option would be to set up a folder with a password and to add all your galleries to that. The folder would have to be public as that's the only way visitors would be able to browse its content.

sarasphotos

I just stumbled across this problem myself. Set up a Sharegroup with a couple of galleries and was shocked to find an incredibly ugly page that I couldn't customize. Ugh. What I found particularly disturbing is that after I'd view a gallery and want to come back to the overview, the breadcrumb takes me back to an empty page. Is this because the galleries are unlisted and password protected? I reckon that my security settings are not entirely correct, but since I can't customize the look it's irrelevant - I won't be using this feature.

Since Sharegroups was one of the reasons I signed up for Smugmug, it's a major irritation that it's really not usable.

Cheers, Sara