Need help on protected / unprotectded setup

Malte

Hey guys!

I need some help setting my site up for use with both protected and unprotected photos. I'm a hobbyist and I use Smugmug to share photos of family and friends with family and friends. I want these photos protected since I wouldn't feel right posting pictures of people on the Internet without their consent. : Right now I have the whole subdomain password protected in part because I didn't think I'd ever want an unprotected area, and in part because it seems to be the only real protection. :huh Now I want an unprotected area for storing pictures that I link to from my blog, preferably hidden from regular browsing.

How would you guys set this up?

How will the site behave if I password protect all but the one gallery? Will my visitors be prompted for the password again and again when browsing from gallery to gallery, assuming I use the same password for all? If not, will the "Protected" icon dissapear for all albums once it's been entered for one?

How do categories work? Can I use a category to apply settings to everything in it, like a folder? :scratch I wouldn't think so, that seems to be more of the gallery's role.

It'd be super sweet if I could set permissions per photo and have them just not show if the visitor hasn't entered the password. You know, like how private galleries dissappear when I log out of my account.:clap

Thanks guys!

Malte

Andy

Malte wrote:

Hey guys!

I need some help setting my site up for use with both protected and unprotected photos. I'm a hobbyist and I use Smugmug to share photos of family and friends with family and friends. I want these photos protected since I wouldn't feel right posting pictures of people on the Internet without their consent. : Right now I have the whole subdomain password protected in part because I didn't think I'd ever want an unprotected area, and in part because it seems to be the only real protection. Now I want an unprotected area for storing pictures that I link to from my blog, preferably hidden from regular browsing.

How would you guys set this up?

How will the site behave if I password protect all but the one gallery? Will my visitors be prompted for the password again and again when browsing from gallery to gallery, assuming I use the same password for all? If not, will the "Protected" icon dissapear for all albums once it's been entered for one?

How do categories work? Can I use a category to apply settings to everything in it, like a folder? I wouldn't think so, that seems to be more of the gallery's role.

It'd be super sweet if I could set permissions per photo and have them just not show if the visitor hasn't entered the password. You know, like how private galleries dissappear when I log out of my account.

Thanks guys!

Malte

Hi Malte, and welcome to Dgrin! One way, which is what I do, is have all your family stuff in private galleries, and then share with sharegroups:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/private-albums
http://www.smugmug.com/help/share-groups

You can password protect none, some, all of your galleries, and your site will behave the same. If galleries are PUBLIC they will appear on your homepage.

For you blog stuff, just make a gallery, "Blog Photos" and set it PRIVATE. Nobody will see it but you.

Here's how categories work:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/upload-photo

There are no photo-based permissions, sorry.

Holler back with your questions, we'll be glad to help.

ivar

On a related note, maybe it helps. I wanted to protect a whole category or sub-cat at first. But I have 3 galleries that i have password protected. I used the exact identical password for all 3 of them. Wheneven i log into one, i can just switch between the 3, without re-typing any password. That was really what i wanted to achieve, so that is my solution.

Malte

Thanks for your replies guys!

Andy:

"...have all your family stuff in private galleries, and then share with sharegroups:"

I get that this is good for you, beeing a pro and all, but to me the family stuff is first class citizen so I need another way. I want my URL to take my peeps directly to the album. I'm not really familiar with sharegroups (SM is down for maintainence so I can't read up just now) but I assume it's a link to a virtual share http://malte.smugmug.com/linktoshare ? Does this mean I have to send out new links whenever I add more galleries? Since I'm sharing with family and friends of all ages and computer literacy, I need to make it dirt simple and consistent to access my photos. Another important thing is privacy. From what I've read on DGrin there doesn't seem to be any "real" security other than maybe protected site. Galleries can be made private (invisible) or protected from access from the site or linking, but if the photo's URL is pasted into a browser it will display. Am I getting that correctly?


ivar:

That sound promising! Did the protected icon get replaced with the gallery thumbnail in the home page view once you had entered the password for one of them? Do you know if the featured photo function overrides protection and displays a gallery thumbnail of a protected galley?

Thanks again guys!

Malte

Andy

Malte wrote:

Thanks for your replies guys!

Andy:

"...have all your family stuff in private galleries, and then share with sharegroups:"

I get that this is good for you, beeing a pro and all, but to me the family stuff is first class citizen so I need another way. I want my URL to take my peeps directly to the album. I'm not really familiar with sharegroups (SM is down for maintainence so I can't read up just now) but I assume it's a link to a virtual share http://malte.smugmug.com/linktoshare ? Does this mean I have to send out new links whenever I add more galleries? Since I'm sharing with family and friends of all ages and computer literacy, I need to make it dirt simple and consistent to access my photos.

Set up a sharegroup, and the sharegroup lives as long as you want it to. You could have one called "family" for example. When you add new galleries, you add that gallery to the sharegroup. And voila, they see it. There's no need for them to hunt around.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/share-groups

Malte wrote:

Another important thing is privacy. From what I've read on DGrin there doesn't seem to be any "real" security other than maybe protected site. Galleries can be made private (invisible) or protected from access from the site or linking, but if the photo's URL is pasted into a browser it will display. Am I getting that correctly?

Real Security? Hm. Password protected galleries are not real for you?
http://www.smugmug.com/help/private-albums

A photo's URL will ONLY display in a browser if you've allowed access and have external links turned ON.

I hope this helps,

Andy

Malte

Andy wrote:

Set up a sharegroup, and the sharegroup lives as long as you want it to. You could have one called "family" for example. When you add new galleries, you add that gallery to the sharegroup. And voila, they see it. There's no need for them to hunt around.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/share-groups



Real Security? Hm. Password protected galleries are not real for you?
http://www.smugmug.com/help/private-albums

A photo's URL will ONLY display in a browser if you've allowed access and have external links turned ON.

I hope this helps,

Andy

Thanks for you reply Andy!

Sharegroups are looking better and better. Is there a way for me to influence the naming of the URL though? http://malte.smugmug.com/share/4P9YPN28J6U6U isn't an address you spontaneously go to without a favourite or link.

Malte

bwg

Malte wrote:

Thanks for you reply Andy!

Sharegroups are looking better and better. Is there a way for me to influence the naming of the URL though? http://malte.smugmug.com/share/4P9YPN28J6U6U isn't an address you spontaneously go to without a favourite or link.

Malte

check out vanity url's!

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20011

Malte

bigwebguy wrote:

check out vanity url's!

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20011

Thanks bigwebguy! Cool stuff.

I'll definitely use this if I go the sharegroups route.

Malte

Malte

I've gone the way of protecting all galleries individually instead of the entire site. I chose against sharegroups to keep the URL consistent. I'm pretty much happy so far except for one thing, the little padlock icon beside the galleries. Can I get them to dissapear once the visitor has been logged in? Or make them dissapear all together? They would make sense if they were only there before entering the password but I wouldn't miss them if they were to go away.

Thanks!

Malte

dogwood

photo releases
I know the OP is not asking about this in particular, but the truth is, you should always ask permission from your subjects before posting their photos on a website. Yeah, yeah, it's just family and friends... but it's still good to ask. Family and friends can still get upset over something like this. I get signed releases (even from friends and family) and tell them why-- I want to post their photos on my website. It's weird to ask them to sign the release at first, but gets easier.

There's a lot of info at ASMP (american society of media photographers).

Anyway, again, I know the original post isn't addressing this issue in particular-- but releases are something to consider in case you do start taking photography to a more business oriented level.

Malte

I don't quite follow you there Dogwood, I password protect all galleries I would otherwise feel the need to ask permission for posting. The reason I changed from protecting the site to protecting the galleries was to be able to use the site for unprotected photos as well, like this http://malte.typepad.com/malte/2006/03/usability_proje.html . Asking permission or getting signed releases would be great but alot of work and I don't see the need since the photos aren't public. Do you get signed releases from everybody per photo?

Malte