Family site security settings

eccoecco Registered Users Posts: 5 Big grins
Just setting up a family site with some photos I wish to keep to myself and some I want to share with family. Just wondering what settings have worked the best for others doing the same thing. I want to ensure my photos are private but easily available to family if I choose to share. I also need to keep it simple for the recipients to view and also keep my site uniform. thanks in advance.

Comments

  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,220 moderator

    @ecco said:
    Just setting up a family site with some photos I wish to keep to myself and some I want to share with family. Just wondering what settings have worked the best for others doing the same thing. I want to ensure my photos are private but easily available to family if I choose to share. I also need to keep it simple for the recipients to view and also keep my site uniform. thanks in advance.

    You can use a viewing password for the site as a whole.

    Any gallery that you set with a visibility of Private (Only me) will be visible only to you.

    See help pages Gallery, page, and folder privacy settings and Set a sitewide password.

    In the future please don't ask the same question in more than one thread, thanks!

  • eccoecco Registered Users Posts: 5 Big grins
    Sorry Denise, I am new to this forum and I had already posted the first query thinking someone in that first post might actually post a solution that has worked for them with their family.

    I am aware of the various security settings on the link you mentioned but there are numerous permutations of those settings, on both a site, folder and gallery level, and I was wondering what long time users had found to be the easiest for other family members to use. I was unsure whether the posters on the original thread would perhaps answer with their preferred combination of user settings. I will not be posting anything again on two threads.
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,007 Major grins
    edited November 26, 2018

    I have one site that is both public and family private.
    Any one going there will only see the public parts.
    I put everything "family" under one top folder and set a password for that top folder only.
    EVERYTHING, this top folder, and below has all fully public settings including all searches.
    It is a huge tree with anyone entering anywhere on the tree will be prompted for the password.
    Once entered, the PW is remembered for some time (30 days?) so they don't have to keep entering it.

    I tag every photo with persons names and /keyword page works. The pubic will not see these KW's.
    Only when the PW is entered do they show on the keyword page. The KW's can also be used for smart galleries.

    I have only one indication that there is a family section, in my menu. But it just brings up the password page. See my site.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • eccoecco Registered Users Posts: 5 Big grins
    Many thanks Allen. That's really helpful advice on your set up. I was worried about a couple of things ie: passworded folders and galleries being tiresome to use for family recipients but if passwords are saved for a while that's good. I did try inviting people to set up a smugmug account of their own but some family members could do it, an elderly aunt couldn't and I wasn't sure why but she lived in Australia and I am in New Zealand and it all got too hard!!

    I also wasn't sure about what happens when you set the top folder with a password and the underlying ones public but from what you are saying once the top folder is passworded and you make the sub folders public, people still can't access them without the top folder password. I'm about to try some settings on my husband and see how it goes. Thanks again. Much appreciated.
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,007 Major grins
    edited November 26, 2018

    Yes, the password flows down to all children.
    You can start a new/different password to flow down at any level, even somewhere under the top one.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • WinsomeWorksWinsomeWorks Registered Users Posts: 1,935 Major grins

    @Allen said:
    Yes, the password flows down to all children.
    You can start a new/different password to flow down at any level, even somewhere under the top one.

    Al, I see the questions / responses here are from a couple mos. ago, but all of this is something I've been meaning to do for a long time, so I'm (once again) looking into the useful methods of splitting up Public / Family photos on SmugMug. I did look at your site again & see there's a handy "hint" you can add to help family with inputting a password. That's good. One question I don't recall the answer to: Say I have a non-passworded, public Virtual Gallery (either a typical Smart Gallery, or one to which I've added "collected" photos). If photos from the passworded Family section end up in that public Virtual Gallery, do those photos simply become invisible to people who haven't entered the password? But visible to those who've gained access to the Family section? Or will they simply not populate a public gallery for any eyes?

    Maybe it'd be best to explain what need I've often had in the past, & you (or someone) could suggest the best way to accomplish it. I'd like to post a travel gallery open to the public, with art photos I'd like everyone to be able to see, strangers & family alike. But within it, say if it was a family trip, I'd like family to see some personal photos of themselves, etc. that the general public can't see. Assuming I had a structure like yours, Al, with a Family passworded structure containing public galleries & then another wholly public area, would I need to create some kind of virtual / smart gallery in the Public area to accomplish this? (I'd also like family to be able to purchase prints of those shots without my having a profit margin). Sorry, I think I've asked something like this before, but Idk where...

    Anna Lisa Yoder's Images - http://winsomeworks.com ... Handmade Photo Notecards: http://winsomeworks.etsy.com ... Framed/Matted work: http://anna-lisa-yoder.artistwebsites.com/galleries.html ... Scribbles: http://winsomeworks.blogspot.com
    DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,007 Major grins

    You could set this up and test it. Otherwise no idea.

    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • eccoecco Registered Users Posts: 5 Big grins
    Just some feedback for Winsome works. I have been trying different settings including having a passworded folder called Family with the password. The underlying galleries are set to public visibility. I've found that that works for preventing access to the underlying galleries in the Family folder as a password is required to get into any of the galleries.

    However if you have a folder (and underlying galleries) with a password and then galleries within that folder with a different password, that doesn't seem to work. The passwords get confused. I found that when I have two passwords set up, it asks for the top password not the one attached to the sub folder or gallery. I have to spend time testing my passwords in this case.

    I usually have my chrome browser open as well as Safari where I do all the smugmug changes. On the chrome browser I test the site in an unlogged on state to see how the passwords work. However once you have entered the password for a site, it is remembered for 24 hours I think, even if you are not the owner.

    On my site so far, my requirements are like you Winsome: I have a public folder called portfolio, with no password. But within that folder I have two sub folders that are set public/access with password. That seems to work for people I want to see my private photos. My site is photobooks.smugmug.com

    I think it's a matter of trying it out with two browsers open and getting friends to test out your links and ask them if they can get in. I also found the smugmug training session on Lynda.com helpful although it did not go into much detail on these security aspects. My local library has a free membership to Lynda.com to access the videos.
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