Bulk Gallery Creation

oceanthrsty · October 15, 2013

Allow me to upload either a text list or folder structure and create all the corresponding folders and galleries. :bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow

Star Explorer did this VERY well. But now with the new version of SM it doesn't work.

Evolvephoto · October 24, 2013

Bulk Gallery Creation
I use smugmug to sell photos and display photos of events after the event is over. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to just grab a folder structure and drop into an uploader and have all the galleries automatically created and named based on the folder names and then populated with the photos in each folder. Currently, I have to go through the dialog in the html uploader to create a gallery (choose a name, folder settings etc) then browse to the folder in finder, command A to select all the files in that folder, drag and drop into the html uploader, then rinse and repeat. Some events have upwards of 300 folders like this with 50-200 images in each folder. The current workflow takes me 6-7 hours to upload an entire event. Most of this time is spent typing gallery names and choosing settings, then drag and dropping. (I have a gigabit fiber connection so upload speed is not the issue, all the busywork is the problem). What I would love is if the galleries inherited their name from the folder name, and the categories inherited their name from the root directory. For example, typical folder structure is something like this:

LVL 1 - "Event City Date" (Root Folder - Smugmug Folder)
LVL 2 - "Name of Routine" (Folder Name -> Smugmug Gallery Name)
LVL 3 "147477.jpg, 123777.jpg, etc etc" - (Photo Files)

What I would love to be able to do is to choose a category, set a master gallery setting and price list, then drag and drop that lvl 1 folder in to the uploader, and have smugmug auto create and populate those galleries. This would save me hundreds of hours of mind numbing labor every year. I would gladly pay double if smugmug offered this functionality either first party or through an api and 3rd party app. Also instead of uploading my events weeks or months after the fact, I could come home and start the upload in 10 minutes. Even if it took a full day to complete, photos would be up so much sooner then they are now. This would absolutely translate into more sales for me and more commissions for smugmug. A month after an event is over, the excitement and emotion is long gone and it becomes much harder to sell photos from that event. Please help me!!

Aduboboot · December 12, 2013

Let me heartily agree with the previous comments and the suggestion that SMUGMUG needs to find a way to do BULK UPLOADING.

I'm new to Smugmug (and this is actually my first post), I paid for the unlimited upload option and was thinking I was going to be able to just jump in, upload my entire library with ease through some sort of "sync" tool (such as one can do with JustCloud or other cloud storage sites do), and voilà !

I have been so frustrated trying to find options that would make it possible to not have to create 1000 albums individually. I got going just before SM changed to their new version, and I saw that with MACDADDY one could upload entire albums by going through iPhoto. So...I uploaded everything into iPhoto (which I don't usually use), and then launched the upload of dozens of "events" at a time into the various separate galleries (which worked, though there are very few options in MacDaddy as far as sorting, knowing where you were if it crashed, etc.). Then once they were in Smugmug I would just change the category of each and voilà !

Two weeks later SM launched their new version, and MacDaddy doesn't work anymore (don't even know if it is still developped). So...I downloaded the recent iPhoto "export to Smugmug" plug only allows you to upload one album at a time, which when you have over 1000 albums to upload... needless to say, who wants to have to sit there, create an album, pop the photos in, wait for 10 min the uploads, categorize... do it all again.

So I noticed that Aperture has the Smugmug plugin built and thought of buying it to simplify things. I saw on the web descriptions that it synchronises what you've already put into Smugmug with what you have in your library...but I don't get the impression it works the other way around. It still looks like a one-album-only upload thing.

AM I WRONG? IS THERE ANOTHER OPTION? This would really save me hours, allowing overnight uploading and such.

I admit, Smugmug people, I really don't understand,...why offer unlimited storage options and tons of other really pro options, and yet want to make it's clients go through external uploaders like Star Explorer and MacDaddy instead of offering a simple way to upload an entire library when one joins? PLEASE DEVELOP THIS - I will put this in the request section, but thanks for answering

jcdill · August 15, 2016

3 times a year we do a horse show with over 400 riders. 3 times a year we have to manually create 400+ galleries. This is insane. I have googled and not found any solution, but was led to this old thread. 3 years later, still no solution? Please tell me there's a solution I have overlooked.

SamirD · October 24, 2016

Hmmm...this is going to be a problem for me too once I get back to shooting regularly.

On the old SM, you could right click on the 'new gallery' (or whatever it was--I forgot now), and open that in a new window and it would have the new gallery screen. You could do this say 10 times and you'd have 10 windows (or tabs) you could fill out with your new gallery information and once you submitted the form the gallery was created.

On the new SM, there's no way to do this from what I tell because the exact url for gallery creation seems buried somewhere. If we could have the direct link for 'create new gallery' from the organizer or 'upload to new gallery' from the normal menu, then we could do the same thing. It wasn't elegant, but it was quick. I could create all my event galleries while my originals were copying to my archive drives. It made for a good workflow.

Allen · October 24, 2016

I opened the same folder in a bunch of tabs and looks like I can create a different gallery in each tab and up load to each.

leftquark · October 25, 2016

The web uploader launches as an overlay on your current page and isn't easily launched from a sharable link, though I'll double check with Engineering to see if there is a way. With that said, we're working to make uploading easier in a number of ways and have a few exciting projects in the works. Stay tuned.

SamirD · October 25, 2016

Allen wrote: »

I opened the same folder in a bunch of tabs and looks like I can create a different gallery in each tab and up load to each.

That's a solid workaround, but it does introduce some extra steps/clicks compared to the old way. What was nice about the old way was that you were already at the page to create the new gallery.

leftquark wrote: »

The web uploader launches as an overlay on your current page and isn't easily launched from a sharable link, though I'll double check with Engineering to see if there is a way. With that said, we're working to make uploading easier in a number of ways and have a few exciting projects in the works. Stay tuned.

Even if it is an overlay, it must have a url that launches it. It would be very, very nice if you could share that url.

Otherwise, someone well-versed in the new SM could find it--my html chops are just not up to the task at the moment or I'd do it.

Great to hear there's even more improvements in the upload process. Uploading has been one of the bottlenecks since the earliest days that I remember on SM, and it hurts everyone--photogs, clients, and SM--when images aren't up as fast as they can be. But you guys already know this.

SamirD · October 26, 2016

So I ran into the api again after not touching it for so many years, and there may be a way to easily bulk create galleries using a simple html form and the api. This should be trivial for someone to code that knows html and the api. I could probably do it, but it wouldn't be easy for me and I don't have the time to spend on it right now.

Bulk Gallery Creation

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