New: Client Area

leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
edited June 2, 2015 in SmugMug Product News
If you've ever wanted a special place on your SmugMug site to highlight your Clients' photos you now have that place: the Client Area. The Client Area takes our Private Sharing feature to the next level by consolidating the photos you’ve shared with a client in one easy-to-find location on your SmugMug website. No longer do they need to keep track of any links you email them.

Portfolio and Business account holders can see this new client area at http://nickname.smugmug.com/client. Just replace “nickname” with your SmugMug nickname. You can also add a link to the client area in your navigation menu.

Just like the 404, browse, popular, etc pages, the Client Area is fully Customizable.

To get started, invite your clients to view their gallery by Privately Sharing it with them. Once they accept the invitation they can view their galleries in your Client Area. This feature is commonly called "Client Login" but the Client Area is more than just a login, it's a home for your clients photos.

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For more information or help setting this up, visit: http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1963529-how-do-my-clients-find-photos-i-ve-shared-with-them-?b_id=1644
dGrin Afficionado
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations

Comments

  • photoclickphotoclick Registered Users Posts: 278 Major grins
    edited April 29, 2015
    This is a very interesting and unexpected (in a positive sense) implementation of the "Client Login". I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for this update.
    mike
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited April 29, 2015
    This is awesome!!! Finally!
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited April 30, 2015
    I LOVE the new client area however I am wondering if there is any way to get the functionality that we have with Events where the client can pick favourites?

    My use case would be as follows;
    1) I do a shoot for a customer
    2) I invite them to their photos
    3) They view the photos
    4) While viewing they do one of the following
    a) mark their favourites or
    b) rate the photos (a 5 star system like Aperture or Lightroom would be amazing) or
    c) use the like button
    to identify the ones they want retouched.
    5) Using Lightroom I sync and see the meta data from those selected pictures
    6) Filter to them and retouch photos
    7) Photos sync back to Smugmug from Lightroom

    I understand that this is out of scope however it seems weird that you can have favourites for events but not for your registered contacts.
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
    edited April 30, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    I LOVE the new client area however I am wondering if there is any way to get the functionality that we have with Events where the client can pick favourites?

    We had a little bet going regarding what the first Client Area question would be... I had my money on "can my clients favorite photos from the Client Area?!":) Excellent question!

    Site-wide favoriting is something we're very passionate about adding to SmugMug but unfortunately it's not available at this time and I cannot comment on when it would be added. I certainly want the same workflow myself so at least you have me right there with you on the workflow!
    dGrin Afficionado
    Former SmugMug Product Team
    aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
    Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
    My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited April 30, 2015
    I hope you won something! So in lieu of site-wide favouriting could we use comments to do the same? If the client adds a comment to the picture is it possible for that comment transferred to Lightroom?
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited May 1, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    I LOVE the new client area however I am wondering if there is any way to get the functionality that we have with Events where the client can pick favourites?

    ... it seems weird that you can have favourites for events but not for your registered contacts.

    deal.gifdealdeal.gif
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited May 1, 2015
    Ok I have another use case for you and I am running into a bit of a road block.

    I have customers that have been with me for several years. Lets say I have done 5 different shoots for this customer.
    1) A family shoot
    2) 2 fitness shoots
    3) Engagement
    4) Wedding

    Now I would like to have 1, 3, 4 be available in an Event and I would like to have all of them available when my client logs in to access her photos.

    Currently to do this I need to upload duplicate galleries for 1, 3, 4 such that I can assign those to be viewable by people I invite only so that my customer can see them when she logs in. I can then use the original galleries 1, 3, 4 for the event that she would want to share with her family.

    This seems like it would make more sense if I could just include a public gallery as a gallery that I also share with a specific person.

    Thoughts?
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited May 2, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    Ok I have another use case for you and I am running into a bit of a road block.

    I have customers that have been with me for several years. Lets say I have done 5 different shoots for this customer.
    1) A family shoot
    2) 2 fitness shoots
    3) Engagement
    4) Wedding

    Now I would like to have 1, 3, 4 be available in an Event and I would like to have all of them available when my client logs in to access her photos.

    Currently to do this I need to upload duplicate galleries for 1, 3, 4 such that I can assign those to be viewable by people I invite only so that my customer can see them when she logs in. I can then use the original galleries 1, 3, 4 for the event that she would want to share with her family.

    This seems like it would make more sense if I could just include a public gallery as a gallery that I also share with a specific person.

    Thoughts?

    I was wondering about this too. Is the Client page only for Private galleries?
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
  • leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
    edited May 4, 2015
    I was wondering about this too. Is the Client page only for Private galleries?

    Right now it's just for Private galleries however we'd love to improve the Sharing features to allow for Public galleries to be added to the Shared with Me Dashboard. This would facilitate adding sharable galleries to the Client Area. Unfortunately I cannot tell you when we would add this functionality but I did want you to know that we're listening!
    dGrin Afficionado
    Former SmugMug Product Team
    aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
    Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
    My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
  • agalliaagallia Registered Users Posts: 541 Major grins
    edited May 5, 2015
    leftquark wrote: »
    Right now it's just for Private galleries however we'd love to improve the Sharing features to allow for Public galleries to be added to the Shared with Me Dashboard. This would facilitate adding sharable galleries to the Client Area. Unfortunately I cannot tell you when we would add this functionality but I did want you to know that we're listening!
    SM Admin, Thanks for efforts to continuously improve SM features. I understand it is impossible to satisfy everyone and there are often conflicts about which features are wanted.
    Acadiana Al
    Smugmug: Bayou Oaks Studio
    Blog: Journey to the Light
    "Serendipity...the faculty of making happy, unexpected discoveries by accident." .... Horace Walpole, 1754 (perhaps that 'lucky shot' wasn't really luck at all!)
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited May 10, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    Ok I have another use case for you and I am running into a bit of a road block.

    I have customers that have been with me for several years. Lets say I have done 5 different shoots for this customer.
    1) A family shoot
    2) 2 fitness shoots
    3) Engagement
    4) Wedding

    Now I would like to have 1, 3, 4 be available in an Event and I would like to have all of them available when my client logs in to access her photos.

    Currently to do this I need to upload duplicate galleries for 1, 3, 4 such that I can assign those to be viewable by people I invite only so that my customer can see them when she logs in. I can then use the original galleries 1, 3, 4 for the event that she would want to share with her family.

    This seems like it would make more sense if I could just include a public gallery as a gallery that I also share with a specific person.

    Thoughts?

    Alternatively even if we could expose the "likes"
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • mrhonimrhoni Registered Users Posts: 173 Major grins
    edited May 13, 2015
    Sorry but I haven't figured out (or found instructions) the step by step of how to use the Client Area.
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited May 13, 2015
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
    edited May 14, 2015
    mrhoni wrote: »
    Sorry but I haven't figured out (or found instructions) the step by step of how to use the Client Area.

    Wow, Keith, I think I spent an hour on your site just going through all the puppy photos, with the Mrs. in the back saying "awwwww, puppies! No go back! Show me that one again!"

    Mark beat me to the help page: http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1963529 but here's a brief summary:

    1. Privately Share a gallery with your Client (it's in the gallery settings -> Security & Sharing -> Access -> "People I Choose"
    2. Have your Client accept the invitation it sends
    3. Point your client to http://www.mrhoni-photography.com/client. Once they login, they'll see the galleries you've shared with them.

    You can also add a "Client Area" link in your navigation "Menu" Content block.

    Let me know if you have any questions.
    dGrin Afficionado
    Former SmugMug Product Team
    aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
    Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
    My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited May 21, 2015
    I think that there may be a bug with this when there are capitals in the email. Aaron could someone take a look?
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
    edited May 21, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    I think that there may be a bug with this when there are capitals in the email. Aaron could someone take a look?

    Mark, thanks for reporting this. Can you describe the steps in a little more detail? Are you trying to invite someone via Private Sharing, and entering an email address that has capital letters? Does it give you an error message? Is there something else going on?
    dGrin Afficionado
    Former SmugMug Product Team
    aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
    Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
    My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited May 24, 2015
    I copied and pasted in an email that contained a capital. The person got the invite however when they had signed up and tried to look at the pictures I had shared with them the just saw a blank sharing area. To fix it I had to switch the folder I had shared with them back to a password security folder, save it then reset it back to a shared folder with the lower case email.

    Does that make sense?
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
  • leftquarkleftquark Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,784 Many Grins
    edited May 26, 2015
    markderry wrote: »
    I copied and pasted in an email that contained a capital. The person got the invite however when they had signed up and tried to look at the pictures I had shared with them the just saw a blank sharing area. To fix it I had to switch the folder I had shared with them back to a password security folder, save it then reset it back to a shared folder with the lower case email.

    Does that make sense?

    Hi Mark,
    I tried to recreate your issue but I couldn't repeat the issue you are having. I'd like to make sure I repeated your steps properly. I set a Gallery to be Privately Shared and then invited "Aaron+TestCaps@<myemail>.com". I received the email and clicked the link to accept the invitation and sign-up. I created a free guest account and was taken to the gallery I had been shared with.

    I did notice that the email address had been converted to lowercase letters during the account sign-up process: it was listed as "aaron+testcaps@<myemail>.com".

    Did i do anything differently from you?
    dGrin Afficionado
    Former SmugMug Product Team
    aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
    Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
    My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
  • markderrymarkderry Registered Users Posts: 68 Big grins
    edited June 2, 2015
    So after a lot of back and forth it seems that my client missed the confirmation. User error rather than a bug. Sorry for the trouble. A suggestion for future improvements may be to allow us to initiate the resending of the invite and confirmation?
    ______________________________
    Mark Derry
    markderry.smugmug.com
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