Smart Gallery not keeping arrangement of its original gallery

WinsomeWorks · February 8, 2012

Yesterday, I set up a gallery here, under my "Nature" category: http://www.winsomeworks.com/Nature/Bi-Color-Magnolia-Tree/21379294_xj3PSV#!i=1703224042&k=zLsqj3v (it's unlisted, so that's the only way you'll see it) I then set up a Smart Gallery under my "Flowers" Category, with its feed coming from that original gallery. I did that essentially so that the identical gallery could appear under two headings, Nature & Flowers. Here's the Smart Gallery: http://www.winsomeworks.com/Flowers/Bi-Color-Magnolia-Hanover-PA/21379577_ZhDKTQ#!i=1703223969&k=fQzV5Kf Here's the problem: Whatever I do to the original gallery should also happen to the Smart Gallery. However, the Smart Gallery is not keeping the arrangement of its original. If I move a photo (manually arrange) on a page of the original gallery, it should move in the Smart Gallery (that's what has always happened in the past, & is obviously the desirable behavior). But it does not.

All other changes to photos in the original gallery are transferring over, as they should. For example, deleted photos are deleted from both. Color-corrections appear in both. Crops appear in both. Etc. etc. Something is amiss. Thanks for any help. I'm still working on this gallery; sorry for its ugliness! :wink

rnrjosh · February 8, 2012

You do have the ability to arrange photos however you want in a Smart gallery, even in a way that's different from the original gallery. So, technically, the manual arrangement of photos in an orignal gallery won't necessarily sync over to the Smart gallery. However, if you go to your Smart Gallery and click Tools > Gallery Settings > Make this gallery Smarter, and click the button "click to refresh preview", that should attempt to bring over all the images matching your Smart Gallery rules again, and that should function to bring them in in whatever order you've specified in the original gallery, in this case.

Changes to the photos themselves, like color effects, deleting, cropping, etc, always happen instantly in the Smart gallery, as the images in Smart galleries are basically "virtual" copies of the images in the original gallery. But, since the arrangement of the photos can be changed in any gallery, that won't update automatically in the smart gallery without refreshing the preview on the Smart gallery rules screen.

WinsomeWorks · February 8, 2012

rnrjosh wrote: »

You do have the ability to arrange photos however you want in a Smart gallery, even in a way that's different from the original gallery. So, technically, the manual arrangement of photos in an orignal gallery won't necessarily sync over to the Smart gallery. However, if you go to your Smart Gallery and click Tools > Gallery Settings > Make this gallery Smarter, and click the button "click to refresh preview", that should attempt to bring over all the images matching your Smart Gallery rules again, and that should function to bring them in in whatever order you've specified in the original gallery, in this case.

Changes to the photos themselves, like color effects, deleting, cropping, etc, always happen instantly in the Smart gallery, as the images in Smart galleries are basically "virtual" copies of the images in the original gallery. But, since the arrangement of the photos can be changed in any gallery, that won't update automatically in the smart gallery without refreshing the preview on the Smart gallery rules screen.

Ok, thanks, Josh-- that worked. I've never noticed that "Make this gallery smarter" thing before. However, something has definitely changed, and not just since the "new" ability to arrange photos in a smart gallery. I've made lots & lots of smart galleries, & in every other case, have arranged the original one & the smart gallery follows. I hope you're not saying I now need to go into "Settings" to refresh the preview every time I make a change to the original gallery! If so, then we should consider this a bug, as it's not the expected, desired, or original behavior. Even though we can now arrange in Smart Galleries, owners still assume that the Smart Gallery will copy the arrangement of the original. I'll try another arrangement & see if it "sticks" in the Smart Gallery. Hoping so... hoping this was a fluke. [ETA: Uuuggh, uh-oh, I just did this... tried another arrangement. The Smart Gallery is not following. Please report this! It already takes way too much work to set up a smart gallery -- i.e., we should be able to simply list a gallery under 2 categories w/o going to all this work to set up a whole new gallery & make it smart, etc. etc. But we can't. So... now if it's not even going to follow the "rules" without constant refreshing in Settings, it's even more un-handy. ]

rnrjosh · February 8, 2012

I can't say I've ever used Smart galleries in this exact way, so I don't know what the behavior was before, or when that behavior might have changed, but I will report your findings to our engineers, and we'll take a closer look. Thanks for letting us know! For now, refreshing the preview in the Smart gallery settings should provide a workaround.

Smart Gallery not keeping arrangement of its original gallery

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