Smashly Community Forums » PhotoSmash Help » Close but no cigar for camera clubs

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  • Posted by chipcain 1 year ago. There are 4 posts. The latest reply is from byron.
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  1. chipcain
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Hi Byron,

    This is a suggestion really . . .

    I have been looking for some time for something very close to what you have built into PhotoSmash. I have spent the past couple of hours reading the many forum posts, change log and support videos yoy provide.

    It looks very exciting and way beyond anything else (incl Next-Gen), but unless I missed something it doesn't create a separate user galleries for each user uploading files and the users doesn't have the ability to delete their own pictures (unless they're an admin). Having everything uploaded to WP's media just won't work: we need better control of who gets to see what.

    These are two very big needs for camera clubs that wants something integrated into their WordPress site. In fact it is the reason some camera clubs haven't move to WordPress yet.

    Recently the camera club I belong to made that move but now we are currently stuck using an MS Access app on our old server (hosted by a club member) that won't run where our new site is hosted.

    In my reading I note you are hoping to (or are doing) rewrite the code for PhotoSmash. First is that still in the works and second, since I know others have asked do you plan to allow separate user galleries for uploading so that a user can see only his pictures when uploading/viewing/deleting?

    I hope I explained the need clear enough. I know there are a large number of camera clubs that would be grateful enough to ante-up a decent donation for this ability: my camera club has made donations for plugins my club is using.

    If interested our three week old website is http://www.harrisburgcameraclub.org
    But you will find it short on user's galleries because of the need described above.

    Respectfully,
    Chip

    PS I am very excited for what PhotoSmash is developing into and hopeful for camera clubs everywhere. I will gladly carry your torch is you can accomplish what we need.

  2. byron
    Key Master
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Hi Chip,

    Your requirements have been raised several times, but I haven't been able to get my arms around the per user galleries.

    Here's what you can do with the current version of PhotoSmash:

    1) Allow users to delete their own images when using custom layouts (added in last version or so)
    2) Show a gallery of a user's images on their author profile page like this: http://smashly.net/blog/author/byron/
    3) Turn off integration with WP Media Library (just go to PhotoSmash Settings and turn off "Add images the WordPress Media Library"...but don't turn off: "Use built-in WordPress upload functions." That is only there for legacy users
    4) You can show a particular user's images on pages that are not author pages using a shortcode like: [photosmash gallery_type=contributor author=2 no_form=true]
    5) You can set up an upload page with a dummy gallery where everyone uploads. Everyone's images would go into that gallery...you don't have to show that gallery anywhere. It's just a place to store the images. Then when you want to show the images by author, you can do that with the contributor virtual gallery, either in the author page (#2 above) or using a shortcode (#3 above). If you create a custom layout that has the [delete_button] in it, then when a user views their contributor gallery, they can delete their images (but not anyone elses)

    What it's not set up for is keeping certain people from seeing certain image. But this can probably be controlled using WP membership plugins that exclude people from seeing certain pages.

    If you can help me understand the use cases you're trying to accomplish, that would help me see the gaps and possibly how I can make doing those things easier.

    I think the thing most people don't make the leap to is the idea of virtual galleries (galleries that do not store their own images, but grab images based on certain criteria: tags, user ID, randomness, recentness, etc).

    To be honest, I've put the re-write on hold until I can get Geo-location (Google maps) and the iPhone app done.

    The iPhone app is still in the "what do I want this to do phase". It might wind up being 2 apps...One that lets people select a site and upload images to it, as well as view images from sites. And one that will give Admins notifications when they get new uploaded images and allow them to moderate them from their iPhones.

    The Geo-Location sort of needs to be in there because the iPhone app will be feeding the coordinates when people upload.

    Not to mention that I personally want those feature for my own sites ;-)

    So, that's where we are. I'm willing to do the per user galleries, but I don't understand what is trying to be accomplished with them that isn't already possible.

    Cheers,
    Byron

  3. chipcain
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Hey Byron,

    Thank you for the quick detailed response. It's possible the virtual galleries will work for our needs. Let me play with that for a bit and see how easy it will be for us to use. I think there will be some setup on our end to make that work intuitively enough for our users to be comfortable enough with it to use it.

    You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned most people don't make the leap. For us as a camera club, many of our users are whiz kids when it comes to Photoshop but ask them to sign onto a website and they're lost.

    I'll will get back to you on this once I've had time to play with your suggestion and see if tweaks might yet be needed. Give me a week or even two.

    Good luck with the iPhone app but also hope PhotoSmash doesn't become an orphan :)

    Thanks,
    Chip

  4. byron
    Key Master
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Cool...let me know if you have any setup questions.

    The iPhone app will hopefully keep PhotoSmash relevant in a "Post Web" world. My bet is that it will all be mobile within 3 years, with the web playing second fiddle.

    BB

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