Plugin VS Web interface

pleblanc1

I have a Smugmug Pro site setup and have managed adding images by both sources. The web interface (Upload) and the Lightroom plugin. The images and Galleries that were created via the Web interface do not appear in my publish collections in lightroom.
Is there best practices for Setting up Top Level folders and galleries ? I would live to hear from you experts on the preferred method to keep everything in sync and running smoothly

If this is the wrong forum I apologize and please point me in the correct direction


Thanks

Ferguson

Hardly an expert but a big fan of the plugin to manage the web site.

You can sync hierarchy in the plugin and it should pull them in unless you had some odd structure. If they aren't under a top level folder I'm not 100% sure they will show up but I think so. There's a "sync now" on the plugin settings.

I try hard to have all my structure controlled from Lightroom, so I have a single version of the truth. I do have one (+/-) gallery where the photos are manually uploaded and I do not keep shots in LR at all, but I also try hard to keep every photo sync'd by only pushing from LR as well.

The only thing I'm doing now in terms of regular updates that I do from the web site are to manually sort galleries within a folder (I cannot find that being possible in the plugin), and updating menu structure and web pages. So a typical new gallery from me is do all the gallery creation in LR, then drop into the web to place it in a menu or link (only if needed) and position it in the folder at the top (you can't use any of the sort orders for chronological order as you might not always upload or update in that order).

I try to never, ever modify the metadata on Smugmug, but rather only in LR and push it up; again trying for one version of the truth. That's one thing that a lot of other people do the opposite, and manage metadata on Smugmug. Frankly I don't get it, but you can; I just would never recommend it.

One thing to be aware of if you use the drop down menus where it self-populates from sub-folder/galleries, or if you use breadcrumbs on the pages -- there is no requirement that your folder/gallery hierarchy follow your menu hierarchy. You can have cascading pull down menus which will follow the folder structure automatically, but you can also manually set them up any way you want. BUT if you don't keep the folder/gallery structure matching how you want navigation to occur, you can't use breadcrumbs, nor are there good tools for making the navigation (vs folder) structure visible to the user.

Smugmug gives you really easy ways to rearrange the folder/gallery structure EXCEPT that the URL's all change, so any you post or give out stop working (there are arcane ways to get permanent links to galleries posted around here that might serve as a mediocre workaround). And if you did rearrange you can resync lightroom easily - LR or not is not an issue here.

The bottom line of all that is try really, really hard to decide on your folder and gallery structure up front, and have it match the way you want people to navigate your web site. What it will look like 10 years from now with lots more galleries for example.

pleblanc1

I believe that I had my structure setup correctly but Lightroom was not seeing the new folders or galleries. How do I find the " Sync now" for the plugin. That maybe the step that I was missing.


Thanks for your quick reply

Ferguson wrote: »

Hardly an expert but a big fan of the plugin to manage the web site.

You can sync hierarchy in the plugin and it should pull them in unless you had some odd structure. If they aren't under a top level folder I'm not 100% sure they will show up but I think so. There's a "sync now" on the plugin settings.

I try hard to have all my structure controlled from Lightroom, so I have a single version of the truth. I do have one (+/-) gallery where the photos are manually uploaded and I do not keep shots in LR at all, but I also try hard to keep every photo sync'd by only pushing from LR as well.

The only thing I'm doing now in terms of regular updates that I do from the web site are to manually sort galleries within a folder (I cannot find that being possible in the plugin), and updating menu structure and web pages. So a typical new gallery from me is do all the gallery creation in LR, then drop into the web to place it in a menu or link (only if needed) and position it in the folder at the top (you can't use any of the sort orders for chronological order as you might not always upload or update in that order).

I try to never, ever modify the metadata on Smugmug, but rather only in LR and push it up; again trying for one version of the truth. That's one thing that a lot of other people do the opposite, and manage metadata on Smugmug. Frankly I don't get it, but you can; I just would never recommend it.

One thing to be aware of if you use the drop down menus where it self-populates from sub-folder/galleries, or if you use breadcrumbs on the pages -- there is no requirement that your folder/gallery hierarchy follow your menu hierarchy. You can have cascading pull down menus which will follow the folder structure automatically, but you can also manually set them up any way you want. BUT if you don't keep the folder/gallery structure matching how you want navigation to occur, you can't use breadcrumbs, nor are there good tools for making the navigation (vs folder) structure visible to the user.

Smugmug gives you really easy ways to rearrange the folder/gallery structure EXCEPT that the URL's all change, so any you post or give out stop working (there are arcane ways to get permanent links to galleries posted around here that might serve as a mediocre workaround). And if you did rearrange you can resync lightroom easily - LR or not is not an issue here.

The bottom line of all that is try really, really hard to decide on your folder and gallery structure up front, and have it match the way you want people to navigate your web site. What it will look like 10 years from now with lots more galleries for example.

Ferguson

pleblanc1 wrote: »

I believe that I had my structure setup correctly but Lightroom was not seeing the new folders or galleries. How do I find the " Sync now" for the plugin. That maybe the step that I was missing.

in lightroom, right click (or if mac whatever the context menu is) on the "Smugmug" banner under Publishing Services, do Edit, 3 panels down you can select what to sync (I usually avoid photos), then there's a button for Sync Now.

As noted, I have not tried it with top level galleries. If you have trouble, post though, and I will.

leftquark

You can also right click on any folder or gallery, under the SmugMug "Publish Service", choose "Edit Folder" (or "Edit Gallery") and check the "Sync Folders & Galleries" and "Sync Photos" buttons. Click Save and they should start syncing up.

Ferguson

leftquark wrote: »

You can also right click on any folder or gallery, under the SmugMug "Publish Service", choose "Edit Folder" (or "Edit Gallery") and check the "Sync Folders & Galleries" and "Sync Photos" buttons. Click Save and they should start syncing up.

Does that do all levels, or just the level you click on and below? I've wondered but never taken the time to experiment.

leftquark

Ferguson wrote: »

Does that do all levels, or just the level you click on and below? I've wondered but never taken the time to experiment.

Just the level you selected and below, as you would expect when syncing a specific folder and its contents.

Ferguson

leftquark wrote: »

Just the level you selected and below, as you would expect when syncing a specific folder and its contents.

Thanks. But then for the OP, he'd have to go to the top, I think.