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Any solutions for uploading to multiple galleries?
dwterry
Registered Users Posts: 209 Major grins
I am desperately in need of a utility which would allow me to upload to multiple galleries at once.
For example, when I shoot a wedding, I will have separate galleries for portraits, dancing, candids, etc. I need to be able to "queue up" all of my images at once, with each image going to its appropriate folder.
The reason for the need to queue everything up at once, is due to the slow upload speeds on my network. I don't want to have to stay close to the computer to start each new upload to each gallery. Queueing them all up at once lets me walk away (or even go to bed) and come back when EVERYTHING is done.
Currently Smugbrowser is my tool of choice. As a current Firefox user I am dismayed that smugbrowser hasn't been updated to support Firefox 3.0 and that it appears that the author will not be able to update it for some time yet. (I really don't want to abandon smugbrowser, but I *do* need a solution)
So my question is ... is there an alternative out there that would let me upload to multiple galleries at once?
For reference, some of the things that I like about smugbrowser are:
- It lets me "queue up" as many images as I want to upload.
- I can upload from multiple directories (on my PC) into a single gallery on smugmug
- Or I can upload into multiple galleries without having to wait for one to finish before queuing up another
- If I have to resume an upload, I can visually see which files are already in the smugmug folder (smugbrowser shows the thumbnails), which lets me know that I'm in the right folder and where to resume my upload (i.e. which images are already uploaded and can be skipped)
- it uploads multiple files at once and does so very efficiently (taking full advantage of the bandwidth available to me)
I don't use smugbrowser's ability to create smugmug folders... all I really need is the ability to upload to multiple galleries at once.
Thanks!
For example, when I shoot a wedding, I will have separate galleries for portraits, dancing, candids, etc. I need to be able to "queue up" all of my images at once, with each image going to its appropriate folder.
The reason for the need to queue everything up at once, is due to the slow upload speeds on my network. I don't want to have to stay close to the computer to start each new upload to each gallery. Queueing them all up at once lets me walk away (or even go to bed) and come back when EVERYTHING is done.
Currently Smugbrowser is my tool of choice. As a current Firefox user I am dismayed that smugbrowser hasn't been updated to support Firefox 3.0 and that it appears that the author will not be able to update it for some time yet. (I really don't want to abandon smugbrowser, but I *do* need a solution)
So my question is ... is there an alternative out there that would let me upload to multiple galleries at once?
For reference, some of the things that I like about smugbrowser are:
- It lets me "queue up" as many images as I want to upload.
- I can upload from multiple directories (on my PC) into a single gallery on smugmug
- Or I can upload into multiple galleries without having to wait for one to finish before queuing up another
- If I have to resume an upload, I can visually see which files are already in the smugmug folder (smugbrowser shows the thumbnails), which lets me know that I'm in the right folder and where to resume my upload (i.e. which images are already uploaded and can be skipped)
- it uploads multiple files at once and does so very efficiently (taking full advantage of the bandwidth available to me)
I don't use smugbrowser's ability to create smugmug folders... all I really need is the ability to upload to multiple galleries at once.
Thanks!
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See StarExplorer. It has many wonderful features, but THE feature that I got it for was queuing up an upload to 30 different galleries which I can then launch when I go to bed and it will go all night and be done in the morning. Since I shoot a lot of events (track meets, soccer games, softball games, etc...) and I believe that viewers enjoy that galleries much more when their images are easily classified such that they can look at the 30-50 images they care about rather than the 800 images I took at the event, I tend to divide up my event images into logical galleries and then upload all of them at once.
The other thing that StarExplorer has which is incredibly useful in large uploads is that it has a persistent upload queue. Not only will it continue trying to re-upload an image when it encounters an error during transmission, but it will also remember (persistenly on disk) any images that it was unable to upload, letting you resolve the issue manually when you get back to the computer. There's nothing worse than launching a huge upload overnight, coming back to the computer, seeing some errors occured and then wondering what actually got uploaded. That can take hours to sort out in a large upload. StarExplorer's persistent upload queue will even survive a system crash or a system reboot.
I use StarExplorer for creating 30-50 galleries at once all with the same settings too. I know you can do that in other products, but it's really easy in StarExplorer and I've already got it.
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Nitro is a really nice looking application.
Here's how I tested. I'm in the middle of processing a wedding. To fully take advantage of limited upload speeds, I try to keep my uploads running while I'm processing images. To that end, I started an upload. When I noticed it had finished, I went back to my folders to look for what new images (recently processed) there were to upload. Then, since I couldn't remember where I left off with the upload, I looked at Nitro to determine where to begin again.
I couldn't see, in Nitro, what was finished. Perhaps I'm missing something ... I was hoping to find some kind of log or status to indicate which files were successfully uploaded in order to figure out where I left off.
The screen continued showing what images were in the folder when I started and didn't automatically refresh when the upload finished. (and not only that, as I moved around my folders, it didn't refresh the folder either, it still only showed the original set of files)
So here I am clueless as to what I've already uploaded and where to begin the next set. I could go to my website ... but that seemed a little redundant. So I shut down Nitro and moved on to the next app.
Star*Explorer seems nerdy/functional (I'm a programmer, in some ways this app fits my style better). So I continued uploading where I left off with Nitro.
Star Explorer wouldn't show me what was already uploaded in the folder on it's on ... but clicking on the folder name automatically opened my browser right to the page that had the images. I suppose that will work fine. It's not an integrated view like Nitro or Smugbrowser ... but gets the job done.
So, I start my next batch of uploads while I'm processing images.
At one point, I'm ready to take a break from processing ... while Star Explorer is still uploading. So I decide to "add to the upload queue". Maybe I'm dense, but I can't figure out how to add to the upload queue. It gives me a circle with a line thru it as the mouse cursor when I attempt to drag files over to the window.
So that shuts down Star Explorer as a possibility ... because I can't sit around waiting for uploads to finish before starting the next batch. I need to be able to add to the queue and walk away.
So neither of these apps are giving me what SmugBrowser is giving me.... the ability to add as many images to the queue at any time, keeping track of what has already been uploaded, and walk away and let it finish the upload automatically.
Any hints on what I've done wrong ... or suggestions for other applications?
The author of StarExplorer hangs out here. I'm not sure I understand everything you are looking for so perhaps it's better to just ask him. I believe his email address is also on his web-site and in the product if you want to try that. Posting in the forum may also get help from other users.
I don't know how to add more images to the upload queue while it's uploading. Worst case, you'd stop the upload, add some more images (which I just use drag/drop for) and then start it up again. Maybe there are other ways.
I don't use anything else because I haven't found anything else that has bulletproof reliability for uploads and keeping track of what has and hasn't been uploaded, even through app crashes and system reboots. After I've spent a few hours organizing which images go into which galleries and started the upload, the last thing I want to do is have to repeat that work because the app conked out or my DSL went down or Smugmug had some maintenance or Windows flaked out... A persistent disk-based queue and good error handling around upload failures given S*E this. If you have different priorities, there might be a better tool for you.
I'd suggest asking Nikolai your questions over in the Star*Explorer thread and see what he says. In the past, some things I've asked about have been added to the product.
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Sounds like you're already using what I would have recommended.
When I shoot a dance recital its 30-45 galleries that need to be uploaded. SmugBrowser is great, I can drag and drop routines a directory/gallery at a time and then go to bed while it uploads the 1500 pictures.
Free is just icing on the cake.
My only complaint is that its not supported in FF3.
Yeah, that's the problem I'm trying to solve. I need to upgrade to FF3 soon, but Smugbrowser is holding me back.
I played more with Star Explorer last night. I was unable to just "stop the transfer and add more to the queue". I had to actually exit Star Explorer and relaunch it. Doing so then allowed me to add more files to the queue. Plus it remembered where it had left off. Kind of a pain (having to exit and relaunch), but it worked.
Thanks!