Deadline for Old Smugmug

MomaZunk · March 18, 2015

Is there a deadline for using the old smugmug?
I am helping out a non-profit, and they are currently still using the old smugmug.
I wanted to find out if there was a deadline for conversion of old to the new smugmug site?

Thanks,

owilliams · March 18, 2015

Hi Dee,

Oliver here from SmugMug.

While we do not have a hard date set yet for a forced conversion into the new SmugMug, I can tell you that eventually it will happen. I would recommend at least experimenting with the new system so that you are familiar with the tools and functions.

Let us know if you need any assistance getting things set up and we'll be happy to help.

Best,
-Oliver
SmugMug Support

MomaZunk · March 18, 2015

My personal site is already transitioned over. It is just a matter of convincing several other folks to move forward with the referenced non-profit site, and for someone (probably me) to spend the time getting it transitioned.
I was hoping for the drop dead date to help set a priority.

Thanks,

jerryr · March 25, 2015

Hi - good question. I am asked that a lot as well. Believe it or not, some people I speak too are not even aware the old SmugMug will eventually go away.
Perhaps a friendly reminder from SmugMug to the legacy Smuggers might help the migration process (it has been 19+ months).

I like the information cited in this post :
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=252371

There are some many advantages to the new SmugMug vs. the Legacy SmugMug - too many to list.

Change is good - any this is a good change ! Keep us posted - jerryr

PeterD-2009 · March 28, 2015

Converting to New Smugmug - Where do I start?
I have very little time available to convert my site to new Smugmug. I spent absolutely ages to get my current site (imageinuk.com) to a fashion I could live with. I just do not know where to start with all the html links, dropdown menus customised pages etc.

Best wishes Peter

Teach · March 28, 2015

Peter

Send us an email at help@smugmug.com and the Support Heroes will help walk you through the process of switching over to the New SmugMug. We will make it as painless as possible.

Alameth · March 28, 2015

owilliams wrote: »

Hi Dee,

Oliver here from SmugMug.

While we do not have a hard date set yet for a forced conversion into the new SmugMug, I can tell you that eventually it will happen. I would recommend at least experimenting with the new system so that you are familiar with the tools and functions.

Those of us whose photography is primarily volunteer / supporting non-profits would appreciate a date. We're much more sensitive about time and timing windows than professionals.

rainforest1155 · March 29, 2015

Alameth wrote: »

Those of us whose photography is primarily volunteer / supporting non-profits would appreciate a date. We're much more sensitive about time and timing windows than professionals.

Once a date is set, we'll make sure to announce it accordingly. Until a date is set, I can only repeat what Oliver suggested that you already familiarize yourself with the New SmugMug using the Preview mode we're offering to all users still on the Old SmugMug. That's especially important if you're not the only one managing the site.

Furthermore, the New SmugMug also makes managing the content of the site much easier with it's all new organizer. So it can save you and the other managers of the site time and effort to start using it now rather than when we force the remaining accounts over to the New SmugMug.

forsooth · April 26, 2015

I haven't spent much time here in the last couple of years but I suppose I better get busy and try out the new smugmug. I do a lot of non-profit photography and I was debating whether to trim down my photos on my present smugmug site or dump them completely and get to work on a new site. I have a new domain name but I am going to stay with smugmug. The alternative is to keep the old one and add the new one as well but be very selective about what I post. The biggest complaint I get is that I shoot too much....I'm a music junkie, what can I say?

forsooth

MomaZunk · April 26, 2015

Peter - I have a couple of suggestions:
1. Keep/modify your dropdown menu for the first page. The new SM menus are not index-able by Google, so SEO is better with a dropdown menu Google can read. A compromise is to just have this on the first page. This is something I plan to do for my own, but have not got to it yet. (and what I put on the front page will just be some photos with links to the different pages, not a replacement of the standard menu up top.)
2. You can start working on your new SM design, and still keep the old up until you are ready. You can work a little at a time, and not be panicked at the last minute (whenever that is).
3. For your custom pages: Save the html to a text file. You may be able to use it directly in an html/CSS block.

Keep in mind the biggest drawbacks for the new SM are:
1. No iframes in html code. (This is important for me with embedding Google 360 tours, and Google Maps. I have to use a separate blog to handle those, which is less than ideal.)
2. No ability to create the paypal shopping cart in the captions. While there is a workaround (http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/SmugMug-for-Chrome/PayPal), it is less than ideal compared to the old.
3. If you have a blog that is matched to your website, this will take quite a bit of time to match the headers with the new. Mine is still off, but it is good enough for now.

In general, I like the flexibility of the new design, and being able to move things around. The lack of iframe and forms support has been a real issue for me. If not for the hundreds of back-links to my SM site and the extra time and money to get it done, I would look at a standalone wordpress with a SM plug-in as a replacement.

PeterD-2009 · April 26, 2015

MomaZunk wrote: »

Peter - I have a couple of suggestions:
1. Keep/modify your dropdown menu for the first page. The new SM menus are not index-able by Google, so SEO is better with a dropdown menu Google can read. A compromise is to just have this on the first page. This is something I plan to do for my own, but have not got to it yet. (and what I put on the front page will just be some photos with links to the different pages, not a replacement of the standard menu up top.)
2. You can start working on your new SM design, and still keep the old up until you are ready. You can work a little at a time, and not be panicked at the last minute (whenever that is).
3. For your custom pages: Save the html to a text file. You may be able to use it directly in an html/CSS block.

Keep in mind the biggest drawbacks for the new SM are:
1. No iframes in html code. (This is important for me with embedding Google 360 tours, and Google Maps. I have to use a separate blog to handle those, which is less than ideal.)
2. No ability to create the paypal shopping cart in the captions. While there is a workaround (http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/SmugMug-for-Chrome/PayPal), it is less than ideal compared to the old.
3. If you have a blog that is matched to your website, this will take quite a bit of time to match the headers with the new. Mine is still off, but it is good enough for now.

In general, I like the flexibility of the new design, and being able to move things around. The lack of iframe and forms support has been a real issue for me. If not for the hundreds of back-links to my SM site and the extra time and money to get it done, I would look at a standalone wordpress with a SM plug-in as a replacement.

Thank you Dee

.

I can see that you too have struggled with the new SM. It has had a devastating impact on my old SM and I certainly could have done without the changes which have been introduced. I have gone round in circles deciding how I am to tackle the changes necessary and to plan the work needed. I shall have a go at your suggested changes and see how that looks. Many thanks for this.

Andy · May 1, 2015

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

It has had a devastating impact on my old SM

I looked at your site - it's Old SmugMug - in fact the out-dated look on it detracts from your images

There's tons of help available, there are sexy cool new templates, and your site isn't that complicated.... you can do it!

PeterD-2009 · May 1, 2015

Andy wrote: »

I looked at your site - it's Old SmugMug - in fact the out-dated look on it detracts from your images

There's tons of help available, there are sexy cool new templates, and your site isn't that complicated.... you can do it!

Good morning Andy,

Thanks for your reply. I had created the custom pages and menu system years ago and due to a number of commitments stopped adding to the site for a couple of years but I am now am back in the fold and wanting to create the changes needed. How do I get my drop down menu system on the main gallery page in new SM? I have looked at the various video's available but they seem to cover new users rather than existing users.

Best wishes

Peter

denisegoldberg · May 2, 2015

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

I had created the custom pages and menu system years ago and due to a number of commitments stopped adding to the site for a couple of years but I am now am back in the fold and wanting to create the changes needed. How do I get my drop down menu system on the main gallery page in new SM? I have looked at the various video's available but they seem to cover new users rather than existing users.

There really isn't a difference from a customization standpoint.

When you migrate your site to new smug your photos, galleries, and folders (created from categories and subcategories) are moved but your customization is not. You will need to rebuild your menu.

See the Create a Dropdown Menu section of the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1222523.

I just had a quick look at your site. It looks like you used custom pages (I assume HTML-only galleries) for the entries under HOME PAGES and for the entries under Site Info. I'd recommend starting to work on your site in new smug. Create the header you want to use for all of your pages and create the home page. Next create the menu for your site areas. Then take one of your customized pages and create the equivalent page in new smug. Once you do that I think it will be relatively easy to create new pages for each of your previously customized pages following the same steps.

You also may decide to drop some of the pages that are on your legacy site. For example, your Site News pages shows a last updated date of 02 April 2012. If you are not going to update that page you might consider removing it.

--- Denise

PeterD-2009 · May 2, 2015

denisegoldberg wrote: »

There really isn't a difference from a customization standpoint.

When you migrate your site to new smug your photos, galleries, and folders (created from categories and subcategories) are moved but your customization is not. You will need to rebuild your menu.

See the Create a Dropdown Menu section of the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1222523.

I just had a quick look at your site. It looks like you used custom pages (I assume HTML-only galleries) for the entries under HOME PAGES and for the entries under Site Info. I'd recommend starting to work on your site in new smug. Create the header you want to use for all of your pages and create the home page. Next create the menu for your site areas. Then take one of your customized pages and create the equivalent page in new smug. Once you do that I think it will be relatively easy to create new pages for each of your previously customized pages following the same steps.

You also may decide to drop some of the pages that are on your legacy site. For example, your Site News pages shows a last updated date of 02 April 2012. If you are not going to update that page you might consider removing it.

--- Denise

Hi Denise,

Thanks for your reply and link. The menu system under new SM is a flat affair without drop downs. This is far too compact for the range of topics I use on the website. I very much prefer the drop down style which aids navigation and is present on my current site. I have created an additional menu item but, from what I have found, will force me to recreate the website virtually from scratch. I am beginning to think that I should change to a wordpress site where I can control the content and changes necessary. I am sorry but I do not appreciate being forced to start over again. BTW, the last entry in Site News was when I found I had no time to develop my website further (due to serious illness in the family I still do not have the time available). I had intended to bring this up to date when converting to new SM.

Best wishes

Peter

denisegoldberg · May 2, 2015

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

The menu system under new SM is a flat affair without drop downs. This is far too compact for the range of topics I use on the website. I very much prefer the drop down style which aids navigation and is present on my current site.

While I don't use dropdown menus they are available on new smug, and they are available for multiple levels. When you build your menu entries you need to indicate that you want sublinks and you need to drag the menu items to the right to create a dropdown. I'd recommend taking another look at the help page I linked above and experimenting with the steps in the Create a Dropdown Menu section.

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

I am sorry but I do not appreciate being forced to start over again.

Actually I believe we were lucky that Smug decided to move our photos and folder structure to the new smug. I believe there were other vendors who made updates and forced their customers to reload their photos.

It's funny, I had the opposite reaction. My site was heavily customized in legacy smugmug because I never accepted the tiny thumbnails in legacy as a reasonable entry to a photo site. I was delighted when I saw the new capabilities of new smug. While it did take me a while to touch every single gallery on my site and remove the custom breadcrumb I had created to jump to my html-only galleries instead of the standard smug category/subcategory pages (with the very tiny thumbs) it took very little time to create the overall structure of my new site (with very little customization at the CSS level needed).

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

BTW, the last entry in Site News was when I found I had no time to develop my website further (due to serious illness in the family I still do not have the time available). I had intended to bring this up to date when converting to new SM.

Illness and not having time are good reasons not to update that page. I still believe it makes sense to remove the page from your site now, at least until you have the time to update it. Seeing dated pages on a web site usually trigger me to decide not to spend any time there since I assume the site has not been updated since that date.

It's your site and your decision.

--- Denise

PeterD-2009 · May 2, 2015

denisegoldberg wrote: »

There really isn't a difference from a customization standpoint.

When you migrate your site to new smug your photos, galleries, and folders (created from categories and subcategories) are moved but your customization is not. You will need to rebuild your menu.

See the Create a Dropdown Menu section of the help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1222523.

I just had a quick look at your site. It looks like you used custom pages (I assume HTML-only galleries) for the entries under HOME PAGES and for the entries under Site Info. I'd recommend starting to work on your site in new smug. Create the header you want to use for all of your pages and create the home page. Next create the menu for your site areas. Then take one of your customized pages and create the equivalent page in new smug. Once you do that I think it will be relatively easy to create new pages for each of your previously customized pages following the same steps.

You also may decide to drop some of the pages that are on your legacy site. For example, your Site News pages shows a last updated date of 02 April 2012. If you are not going to update that page you might consider removing it.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg wrote: »

While I don't use dropdown menus they are available on new smug, and they are available for multiple levels. When you build your menu entries you need to indicate that you want sublinks and you need to drag the menu items to the right to create a dropdown. I'd recommend taking another look at the help page I linked above and experimenting with the steps in the Create a Dropdown Menu section.

Actually I believe we were lucky that Smug decided to move our photos and folder structure to the new smug. I believe there were other vendors who made updates and forced their customers to reload their photos.

It's funny, I had the opposite reaction. My site was heavily customized in legacy smugmug because I never accepted the tiny thumbnails in legacy as a reasonable entry to a photo site. I was delighted when I saw the new capabilities of new smug. While it did take me a while to touch every single gallery on my site and remove the custom breadcrumb I had created to jump to my html-only galleries instead of the standard smug category/subcategory pages (with the very tiny thumbs) it took very little time to create the overall structure of my new site (with very little customization at the CSS level needed).

Illness and not having time are good reasons not to update that page. I still believe it makes sense to remove the page from your site now, at least until you have the time to update it. Seeing dated pages on a web site usually trigger me to decide not to spend any time there since I assume the site has not been updated since that date.

It's your site and your decision.

--- Denise

Thank you again Denise,

I have just printed my old SM customization which is 16 A4 pages with a font size of approx 5pt.. The big problem I have is that I REALLY do not know where to start because I have forgotten how to construct the old customization and I am totally confused with the new SM structure despite watching the videos. I am NOT just trying to build a site for photographs but much more.
I have tried to adjust the menu with drop downs and ended in a real mess despite trying to follow the instructions you gave me. I shall now have to remove my modifications to the new SM menu system. The big problem appears to be my customised pages. If I had more time to play with this I reckon I would figure it out but time is a luxury I do not have. Sorry to appear negative but I am using ALL the time I can to try and CONFORM.

denisegoldberg · May 2, 2015

PeterD-2009 wrote: »

Thank you again Denise,

I have just printed my old SM customization which is 16 A4 pages with a font size of approx 5pt.. The big problem I have is that I REALLY do not know where to start because I have forgotten how to construct the old customization and I am totally confused with the new SM structure despite watching the videos. I am NOT just trying to build a site for photographs but much more.
I have tried to adjust the menu with drop downs and ended in a real mess despite trying to follow the instructions you gave me. I shall now have to remove my modifications to the new SM menu system. The big problem appears to be my customised pages. If I had more time to play with this I reckon I would figure it out but time is a luxury I do not have. Sorry to appear negative but I am using ALL the time I can to try and CONFORM.

The customizations from Legacy smug won't work as is in new smugmug - but I believe you should be able to build your pages without the same level of CSS and HTML that you used in legacy smug. The first thing I would recommend doing is looking at the available content elements on new smugmug and try to build your custom pages without any code.

For an example, look at the Kaleidoscope page on my site. The top block is a Folders, Galleries, and Pages block. I've selected the galleries or folders I want to be shown in that block. The next block is an HTML/CSS block. I chose to use this instead of a text block because I wanted to use a small bit of CSS to alter the font size of the text. The last block is a search block. There is minimal code on this page. The About page on my site is similar in structure. In legacy smug both of these were HTML-only galleries supported by chunks of code. I much prefer the little-or-no-code world.

My Legacy smug site had lots of code. My New smug site has almost no code. I prefer not to need to maintain code - and the available content elements from smug satisfied my needs.

I'd recommend that you start a thread in the New SmugMug Customization forum with explicit questions. Name the thread something like "PeterD's customization thread" and use it for all of your questions. That way you will have a single thread to go to.

Work through one issue at a time. Tell us what you are trying to do, and what you tried that did not work. Someone should be able to walk you through each issue.

--- Denise

leftquark · May 4, 2015

There's some excellent discussion here and thanks to everyone for chiming in!

As the Support Heroes have mentioned, we have no set date for the end of Legacy SmugMug at this time. We'll be sure to let you all know when that time does come and we'll give you plenty of time and lots of help in Upgrading to the New SmguMug. We have some things in the work, like Webcast's where we will do a Live Upgrade of customers sites from Legacy to New SmugMug. Stay tuned in the future for these.

Peter (and anyone else looking for help): our Support Heroes are always here, as well as the amazing DGrin community. Feel free to ask any questions here and we can help you out. Your Drop-Down menu is easy to reproduce in the New SmugMug once we've shown you how powerful the new Menu Content Block is.

jerryr wrote: »

Perhaps a friendly reminder from SmugMug to the legacy Smuggers might help the migration process (it has been 19+ months).

All Legacy SmugMuggers see a weekly reminder when they login to their site, have a link to Preview the New SmugMug at the top of their pages, and have been receiving reminders in the monthly Email Newsletters (only Legacy users will see it). We're working on spreading the word!

jerryr wrote: »

There are some many advantages to the new SmugMug vs. the Legacy SmugMug - too many to list.

We like to think so too and can't wait for all of our customers to take advantage of the many new tools / features / designs in New SmugMug!

Alameth · May 5, 2015

leftquark wrote: »

We like to think so too and can't wait for all of our customers to take advantage of the many new tools / features / designs in New SmugMug!

I hate to keep beating this drum, but all the new tools / features / designs aren't compelling when the features we need only exist in the old. (Never mind that the new is vastly harder to use. I didn't even create a DGrin account until I tried migrating to New Smug, because until that point I didn't have any questions that weren't handled by the Heroes and the help pages.)

leftquark · May 5, 2015

Alameth wrote: »

I hate to keep beating this drum, but all the new tools / features / designs aren't compelling when the features we need only exist in the old.

As we work towards upgrading everyone from Old to New SmugMug, the goal is to have all of the features that you need in the New. I'd love to know what you're missing so we can discuss how to implement it in the new Smugmug.

PeterD-2009 · May 5, 2015

leftquark wrote: »

There's some excellent discussion here and thanks to everyone for chiming in!

As the Support Heroes have mentioned, we have no set date for the end of Legacy SmugMug at this time. We'll be sure to let you all know when that time does come and we'll give you plenty of time and lots of help in Upgrading to the New SmguMug. We have some things in the work, like Webcast's where we will do a Live Upgrade of customers sites from Legacy to New SmugMug. Stay tuned in the future for these.

Peter (and anyone else looking for help): our Support Heroes are always here, as well as the amazing DGrin community. Feel free to ask any questions here and we can help you out. Your Drop-Down menu is easy to reproduce in the New SmugMug once we've shown you how powerful the new Menu Content Block is.

All Legacy SmugMuggers see a weekly reminder when they login to their site, have a link to Preview the New SmugMug at the top of their pages, and have been receiving reminders in the monthly Email Newsletters (only Legacy users will see it). We're working on spreading the word!

We like to think so too and can't wait for all of our customers to take advantage of the many new tools / features / designs in New SmugMug!

Thanks for this reply. I was asked to create a new topic: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1996679#post1996679
If you read through this topic you will see how confused I am. Thankfully Allen understands where I am coming from in migrating. All the previous help has been to introduce New Smug which frankly is NOT helpful without knowing exactly the changes between it and legacy Smug. I am trying to get on with the migration which is already taking considerable time with a mountain to climb yet.

MomaZunk · May 5, 2015

>>>Leftquark
Two things that are not available in the NEW SMUGMUG, that are a REAL ISSUE for me.
1. The ability to use iframe's so I can embed my Google Virtual Tours for my portfolio
2. The ability to use javascript for paypal dropdown menus and shopping carts ( needed for my sports team photography packages)

AND THE LATEST ISSUE CAUSED BY FACEBOOK that is rocking my world
3. I need a work around for the links to photos in my gallery when publishing to Facebook. I recommend an easy fix a bulk editor to add this to the caption independent of the Facebook publisher.

leftquark · May 6, 2015

MomaZunk wrote: »

1. The ability to use iframe's so I can embed my Google Virtual Tours for my portfolio

Would you be able to send me a few links to some of your Tours so I can look into this further?

MomaZunk wrote: »

2. The ability to use javascript for paypal dropdown menus and shopping carts ( needed for my sports team photography packages)

If I understand this request it sounds like the bigger issue is that our implementation of packages doesn't cut it for your needs and you've turned to alternative payment options (paypal) to solve them? If we updated our packages system would that solve the problem? Could you expand on this one for me so I can fully understand how an update to our packages could serve your needs?

MomaZunk wrote: »

AND THE LATEST ISSUE CAUSED BY FACEBOOK that is rocking my world
3. I need a work around for the links to photos in my gallery when publishing to Facebook. I recommend an easy fix a bulk editor to add this to the caption independent of the Facebook publisher.

This one was tough for us: Facebook updated their mechanism to allow us to publish from SM to Facebook and as a result, no longer allowed us to automatically include links to the photos. We wanted to make sure we were in compliance with their policies and adding this functionality back in is on our radar.

MomaZunk · May 6, 2015

Here is a link to my tours: 360.deezunkerphotography.com

The PayPal issue is really to address 2 issues:
For sports Team and individual packages:
1. I need to be able to self fulfill the packages and deliver to the team all at one time.
2. You do not currently offer all the products I provide.
Here is a gallery where I have my sports packages:
http://www.deezunkerphotography.com/Lacrosse/2015-Pin-Oak-Lacrosse/2015-Pin-Oak-Lacrosse-5-6

For Facebook, I think you guys can create a workaround.

leftquark · May 6, 2015

MomaZunk wrote: »

Here is a link to my tours: 360.deezunkerphotography.com

Thanks! You've done a great job on your site, by the way. Your use of additional menu bars was a breeze to follow when I looked at the 360 work you do.

MomaZunk wrote: »

The PayPal issue is really to address 2 issues:
For sports Team and individual packages:
1. I need to be able to self fulfill the packages and deliver to the team all at one time.
2. You do not currently offer all the products I provide.
Here is a gallery where I have my sports packages:
http://www.deezunkerphotography.com/Lacrosse/2015-Pin-Oak-Lacrosse/2015-Pin-Oak-Lacrosse-5-6

Thanks for this information as well. If I'm understanding correctly it sounds like your real request is for the Self-Fulfillment features (which is one of the most requested features from our Pro's and we're hearing loud and clear).

MomaZunk · May 6, 2015

Thanks for the compliment.

Yes Self Fulfillment is a BIG deal and has been even before New Smugmug.
But it is even a bigger deal with New Smugmug because the custom PayPal javascript shopping cart workaround went away.
When I say self fullfillment, I also mean, I do my own printing as well: Especially for my fine art and team sports.

leftquark · May 6, 2015

MomaZunk wrote: »

When I say self fullfillment, I also mean, I do my own printing as well: Especially for my fine art and team sports.

Yes, as you can imagine Self Fulfillment is a huge task and one that we want to do right.

Deadline for Old Smugmug

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