The PhotoDeck blog

We've just made it easier for your customers to download files from your website!

In-place download option

When delivering files ordered by a customer, an email is sent as soon as the file(s) is/are packaged. For small orders, it can be very fast, so we now also give the customer the option to simply wait on your site for the delivery button to appear, instead of waiting for an email.

Play this video to see it in action:

To benefit from this new feature, you'll need to accept the website engine upgrade prompt in your admin space!

Easier delivery of large orders

The file delivery email includes download links.

Before

• a download link was included for every single image in the order.
• a zip archive for all files was included when the total order size was less than 3.8 GB.

Now

• no more individual image download link: for some customers images would open in their browser or email software, depending on their computer configuration, without prompting for a location to save the files. Now that even iPhones can handle zip files, individual links are not needed anymore.
• one or more zip archive download links, in all cases.

Larger orders, more easily

For large orders, the zip archive is now automatically split into several files. We've therefore been able to remove the 3.8 GB limit on total download size.

Similarly, the limit for the free Download All option in galleries has now been raised from 500 to 1000 files.

NEW!!! Quickly sending files to a customer

The best way to send files to someone is usually to create a protected gallery with download enabled. This way, the customer can see the images on your website, come back later on to the gallery, and for example comment on them or add a selection to his lightbox if you've enabled those features. Seeing a gallery in his own name makes the customer feel special and shows you care.

This interaction on your website is good for your own branding.

But sometimes the customer just needs some images, and fast. Perhaps it's just a single image or a couple of them. Perhaps the customer has lost the files or forgotten to download them, and you already deleted the initial order. Perhaps the order was misconfigured and downloads were not delivered.

For these cases we've built a brand new feature: select files in your admin space, hit the Send button, and email your customer a link to download the files, directly and without going through a gallery.

You can also send full galleries and lightboxes in this way. And as a bonus, you can also have the images/videos resized before sending!

Example: bib number search on a sport events photography website

Easily add search boxes from the content editor!

We've added a Search element to the new content editor. This allows you to add search boxes on your website everywhere you can enter your own formatted content: on custom pages, gallery introductions, and banner / background slideshows.

We've also created presets for a dedicated search page (when creating a new page) as well as for a banner slideshows with a search box (when creating a new slideshow for a page or a gallery), so adding those to your website could hardly be easier!

The suggestion hint in the search box can be customized directly from the editor. The button is now just a modern search icon, of the same style as the other buttons on your website.

Goodbye Advanced search, Hello search filters!

The search field in your design used to include a customizable advanced search drop-down with additional options. We've now removed it, and instead, your visitors can filter the search results directly on the search result page, which we feel is an improvement both in design and in ergonomics.

The search results also make it clearer when the results only include the current gallery (as is typically the case for protected galleries) and allows more easily to search throughout the whole site instead.

What filtering options you make available on the search result page can be adjusted under My Website / Setup / Advanced settings / Website search.

To benefit from this update, your desktop and mobile themes engines need updating, for example by accepting the prompt in your admin space.

Bonus tip: helping your customers find their (public) images

PhotoDeck allows you to group by default search results by gallery. It's a great feature when images to be found are meant to be in a single gallery, like for public events.

For example, sport event photographers can simply invite customers to enter their own bib number in the frontpage search (provided of course the bib numbers are in the images metadata). In case the same bib number matches different races, the customer only has to select the correct gallery / race to find his/her images. No need for a visitor to browse the galleries to look for the correct event!

Note: images in hidden / protected galleries are, by default, only searchable from that gallery to ensure privacy, so the above isn't useful for private galleries (in those cases customers access their galleries either via the password/link provided to them, or by login in, depending on how the gallery is configured). It is possible to force the inclusion of the images in the "public" search on your website (via the gallery's authorization panel) if you wish your customers to be able to search for their images from anywhere on your website -- just understand that anybody can then view the images from the search results.

Facebook has made some changes in the way they allow external applications like PhotoDeck to interact with authorized Facebook accounts. This affects PhotoDeck features that allowed to automatically share images from a PhotoDeck site to Facebook timelines and pages, as well as our "quick share" for images and galleries.

• Facebook has fully disabled the possibility for external apps to post on personal timelines.
• Facebook still allows publishing on Pages, but this now requires entering into a legal contract. Among other things, this contract would give Facebook the right to fully audit us, including accessing and analysing our member data. Without even considering the legality of such an arrangement under GDPR rules, you rightfully trust us to safeguard your personal data as much as possible, so we won't agree to that contract.

Therefore we will soon remove the integration to Facebook accounts. As a result, it won't be possible anymore to automatically publish new content neither on personal Facebook profiles nor on Facebook pages.

Nonetheless, it will still be possible to share images and galleries both from your website and your admin space, via a redirect to your Facebook account -- as preferred by Facebook.

Let us know if you have any question!

New editor for free content to provide ultimate flexibility

This is set to be our most significant upgrade this year.

PhotoDeck is optimized for photography and video websites: galleries are central to our designs. That's what allows PhotoDeck sites to feature hundreds of thousands of images without a sweat.

Today, we're also making custom pages first-class citizens, matching or exceeding popular generalist website builders' capabilities.

So our members get the best of both worlds, in a single place, and at no extra cost: optimized viewing experience and scalability for large image collections, AND great page design flexibility.

• A frontpage with images and texts, spread on multiple columns that automatically adapt to mobile phones? No problem.
• A call-to-action button on a header banner, in a fullpage slideshow or within a page? No problem.
• Integrating a Google map next to a contact form? No problem.
• Easily adding happy customers' quotes that look great out of the box? No problem.

Even better, this is not just for custom pages: the new content editor is available for gallery introductions too, and progressively, for all places where you've been able to add formatted text.

As for multilingual sites, it couldn't be easier: create / adjust a page in one language, switch to another other language, and the layout updates carry automatically -- all you have to do is translate the text.

'nough talk. Here's a little peak into your new editor:

No more PhotoDeck T&Cs on your website

Up until now, your customers had to accept PhotoDeck's terms and conditions (along yours) when opening an account or placing an order on your website, in order to provide a legal basis allowing us to store their account in our database.

Now, the GDPR provides that legal framework in a standardized way, and a positive consequence of that is that we've now been able to fully remove the PhotoDeck T&Cs from our members' websites.

So, when customers register or place an order on your website, the Terms and Conditions they need to accept are yours and only yours.

Terms now need to be accepted also on free gallery downloads

When a customer downloads all images in a gallery (i.e. when free "1-click" download is enabled and the "Download all" button available), he/she has to enter an email address for the ZIP file delivery, and behind the scenes, an order is placed and a customer account created to store that data.

If the GDPR applies to you, the Terms are a good place to put the mandatory mentions, so they now also need to be accepted in this scenario, ensuring that you can have a proper legal basis for that account's data.

Terms acceptance is now recorded

The GDPR also puts more pressure on you to be able to prove that you have a legal basis for your customers' data and to inform them. So we are now also recording when each customer accepts your Terms and Conditions, and you can see that information on each new customer record.

Don't have any Terms?

Terms and Conditions accepted by your customers are a contract that helps safeguard your business interest and for example, are a good place to provide mandatory information, or set boundaries on what your customers can do with the images they download. If you are subject to the GDPR, they are a good vehicle to comply (they provide a "contractual basis" for the data).

If you haven't defined terms and conditions yet, and especially if you sell goods or services through your website, we encourage you to learn more about this topic as well as the GDPR if it applies to you. If contacting a qualified legal counsel isn't practical, it is easy to find Terms and Conditions templates on specialized websites (make sure they apply to your location and the kind of products you sell, if any). The terms might be complemented with the information we provide on the data collected on your website and its location and on cookies.

Note: the information on this page does not constitute legal advice.