New customization - Phase 1

[onethumb]

Phase 1 of the new and improved customization for smugmug is about to begin. Here's the email we're getting ready to send out:

---
Hi,

We're so very sorry to bother you with an email but we noticed that you customized your smugmug pages (excellent!). We're working on improvements to our header & footer and, try as we might, we can't complete the improvements without affecting some customized pages.

We've tested many of our customer's pages and most of them work the same as they did before our new design. A few of them, however, will need some tweaks. The most common problem is an alignment issue where they no longer align center.

We thought it best to let you know as soon as possible. The current plan is to roll out the changes this coming Friday at midnight unless we uncover something unexpected in our testing. We'll send another email 24 hours before rollout. We'll make sure we're standing by to help quickly with any (hopefully small!) issues.

This is the first step towards much easier & more powerful customization. The bad news is there will be another change like this in the near future; the good is, people who have seen the plans are salivating!

All the best,
The smugmug team
---

We'll answer any question and help solve problems here in this thread.

Don

[{JT}]

Because we switched to using DIVs for layout control, many of you that used TABLES to align your site to the center of the page will notice that everything is now left aligned. The easy fix is to wrap everything in a containing DIV:

<div align="center">

PREVIOUS CODE

</div>

Or you can simply assign the DIV an ID and set the styles in your CSS section.

[Frank]

Hi Don (and smugmug Team),

This is just typical smugmug...
...and that is a WONDERFUL thing.


I've spent most of my working life, dealing with telecom and computer companies and it has rarely been a pleasant experience. I guess I just never got used to being treated like an adversary rather than a client, and routinely being put out of service with no warning, reason, or even an apology.

Don't mean to get teary-eyed, but it is SO NICE to feel like we are on the same team.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks,

- Frank

[steelephotography.com]

I concur with Frank, great customer service with the heads up. It is not something you find very often..

DS

Originally Posted by onethumb

Phase 1 of the new and improved customization for smugmug is about to begin. Here's the email we're getting ready to send out:

---
Hi,

We're so very sorry to bother you with an email but we noticed that you customized your smugmug pages (excellent!). We're working on improvements to our header & footer and, try as we might, we can't complete the improvements without affecting some customized pages.

We've tested many of our customer's pages and most of them work the same as they did before our new design. A few of them, however, will need some tweaks. The most common problem is an alignment issue where they no longer align center.

We thought it best to let you know as soon as possible. The current plan is to roll out the changes this coming Friday at midnight unless we uncover something unexpected in our testing. We'll send another email 24 hours before rollout. We'll make sure we're standing by to help quickly with any (hopefully small!) issues.

This is the first step towards much easier & more powerful customization. The bad news is there will be another change like this in the near future; the good is, people who have seen the plans are salivating!

All the best,
The smugmug team
---

We'll answer any question and help solve problems here in this thread.

Don

[dcvoss]

I just made changes to my customization and I thought I'd share the code I used.

I used to have this code to center a header image at the top of my smugmug pages:

<table width="720" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" align="center" >

OLD CODE

</table>

I replaced it with:
<div ALIGN=CENTER>

OLD CODE

</div>

And it did the trick!

Dana.

[Baldy]

Originally Posted by Frank

it is SO NICE to feel like we are on the same team.

Thanks! We actually feel terrible when we run into the all-too-common scenario of 30% of people like it one way best and 70% another. Hard to tell the 30% that, erem, you lose...without feeling awful about it.

[Mac Write]

Will there be a full CSS tag guide or better yet all the CSS info already in the CSS file (or to download) so we know what to change? I joined Smugmug at the right time. Can't wait until this is all complete so I can write a very good review.

[Francois]

Hmmmm.. I think this is my first post here, after having used Smugmug for almost a year now.

Your email and message just deserves a THANK YOU, great service, been happy all the time so far and can't wait for further improvements. You have my support Thumbone and Team

Kind regards,
François

[{JT}]

Hah, here is was being all fancy with my code and a simple center did the trick! I updated my example code to reflect this, thanks!

Originally Posted by dcvoss

I just made changes to my customization and I thought I'd share the code I used.

I used to have this code to center a header image at the top of my smugmug pages:

<table width="720" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" align="center" >

OLD CODE

</table>

I replaced it with:
<div ALIGN=CENTER>

OLD CODE

</div>

And it did the trick!

Dana.

[{JT}]

There will be such a guide when the transition is complete to the new code. We will also be incorporating feedback from you guys when you play with the new design, so these first few weeks things will be very fluid. When the guide is ready, I will post here as well as the web tricks blog along with some new ideas on how you can get started in customizing the site.

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Will there be a full CSS tag guide or better yet all the CSS info already in the CSS file (or to download) so we know what to change? I joined Smugmug at the right time. Can't wait until this is all complete so I can write a very good review.

[Andy]

if i go to williams.smugmug.com and log in, i do not get my cobranding.

if i go to www.moonriverphotography.com and am logged out, the cobranding is there.

[{JT}]

I see the cobranding at both locations andy :)

We have not touched the site yet (as far as the upcoming changes are concerned). So everythign should look like normal for everyone.

Originally Posted by andy

if i go to williams.smugmug.com and log in, i do not get my cobranding.

if i go to www.moonriverphotography.com and am logged out, the cobranding is there.

[dsdee]

Originally Posted by {JT}

I see the cobranding at both locations andy :)

We have not touched the site yet (as far as the upcoming changes are concerned). So everythign should look like normal for everyone.

actually, i'm seeing the same thing, JT. When I saw Andy's post, I brought up my page, d2photos.smugmug.com and it had my little face in the lower-right corner (BTW, thanks, Andy, for the idea :) ). At that time I was logged in.

I logged out... face still there.

I logged back in... Face was gone.
I logged back out, and in again; face still gone.

well, now that's odd; after the login, if i re-enter my topmost url, d2photos.smugmug.com, the face re-appears.

Is it a problem with the cobranding, or maybe some of the javascript/css stuff, not being put into the page right after a login takes place ???

--d2

[{JT}]

Or ... perhaps you put your photos for your cobranding in a protected gallery and you see them when you are logged in.

Originally Posted by dsdee

actually, i'm seeing the same thing, JT. When I saw Andy's post, I brought up my page, d2photos.smugmug.com and it had my little face in the lower-right corner (BTW, thanks, Andy, for the idea :) ). At that time I was logged in.

I logged out... face still there.

I logged back in... Face was gone.
I logged back out, and in again; face still gone.

well, now that's odd; after the login, if i re-enter my topmost url, d2photos.smugmug.com, the face re-appears.

Is it a problem with the cobranding, or maybe some of the javascript/css stuff, not being put into the page right after a login takes place ???

--d2

[dsdee]

the photo is in a 'private' gallery, not in a password protected gallery; it's direct access to the jpeg, so i don't need to be logged in for that. the image http://d2photos.smugmug.com/photos/19470321-Ti.jpg works regardless of logged in or not.

I checked again (just logged out, and logged back in), and the face at the bottom right is gone; as soon as i change pages (select an image/gallery), it reappears.

Again, the problem only seems to appear on the first page after authentication has succeeded.

Originally Posted by {JT}

Or ... perhaps you put your photos for your cobranding in a protected gallery and you see them when you are logged in.

[Matthew Saville]

Hey, what made me laugh was the part where you apologize for emailing us. I LOVE hearing from you guys! I'm not kidding. And sometimes, (correct me if I'm wrong!) it seems like you guys slip in a neat-o adjustment or something and it doesn't get posted in my control panel's "Smugmug News" or sent to me in email notification form. Send me more emails, my inbox is so desolate!

-Matt-

[BBJ]

Thanks Don and smugmug team, for the forewarning on work to be done, that will be saturday for us in Australia but i am sure any improvments are welcomed.

Ok Now for me the big dummy at this sort of thing but this cobranding has really got me stumped, i would love to make an image and so on fo rthe top on my pages but not sure where to go from there or where to put it. Maybe Andy or 1 of troops might try point me in the right direction, i am not a html freak.
Cheers
John
BBJ

[grannyrobin]

Originally Posted by BBJ

Thanks Don and smugmug team, for the forewarning on work to be done, that will be saturday for us in Australia but i am sure any improvments are welcomed.

Ok Now for me the big dummy at this sort of thing but this cobranding has really got me stumped, i would love to make an image and so on fo rthe top on my pages but not sure where to go from there or where to put it. Maybe Andy or 1 of troops might try point me in the right direction, i am not a html freak.
Cheers
John
BBJ

Hi John,

Have you seen this help page with instructions on inserting a custom header? http://www.smugmug.com/help/create-photo-album

I followed these instructions, and they worked for me. (Of course I didn't have a custom header worth keeping up, but at least I know I can insert one whenever I choose. I don't know much html; I just followed along.)
-Robin

[BBJ]

Thankyou Robin, i might have looked at this but i will have a look again and see if i can get my head around it. I only know how to use my camera!! LOL and i use a webeditor program and it does it all for me anyhow i will go have a read.

Thanks again
Cheers
John

[BBJ]

Robin, i have had a look and looks like things might have changed since i last looked and seem to be more understanding.
Thank you again.

Cheers
John
BBJ