Create a Stock Website?

[davindhillon]

Hello all. I am looking at creating a basic (yes basic) stock website for clients to log in and search for keywords and bring up images for download.

I basically want to create a web page that I can upload direct from lightroom.

My requirments are:

Ability to search on keywords that I have added in Lightroom
Ability to download full resolution images
User friendly
Pasword protected login.

I am currently using LRG one for my basic website galleries for it's paypal feature and this is working quite well. However it doesnt offer the depth that I require. I have had a look at Fotoplayer 2.' for lightroom and it looks like this can only offer a search field in the IPTC section and not the regular keyworded sections.

Has anyone come accross a plugin that offers this?

Thanks Dav

 

[Denis Pagé]

I don't see any plugin (WebEngine) that can offer keyword search once the site is uploaded. Or you may set an account on some images servers providing the functionality you need.

But first check with Fotomoto to see if the keyword search is available there. If so, then TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is a no brainer...

 

[davindhillon]

Denis, Thanks for the reply. I'll look into the options you have suggested. I must admit, am surprised that there isnt a plugin that will offer a search option once it's on the site. But then I dont understand web design as well as I should I guess!!
Thanks again for taking the time out to respond.

 

[PatrickC]

Check out Photoshelter www.photoshelter.com. We've been using it for some time; until recently there were serious issues around VAT and licensing use for territories (eg North America, World excluding North America, Europe etc) but these have now been fixed.

There is a monthly fee and % charge per transaction completed through the site, but they aren't too high. I you can use the Photoshelter back office search/e-commerce/fulfilment system on a fully customised site like ours www.scphotographic.com or there are customisation templates - which came in after we set up our site.

Patrick Cunningham

 

[davindhillon]

Looks like a great alternative and it certainly does offer a search feature. But I am already paying for hosting at Godaddy, a portfolio is being hosted at Qufoto, and now another fee looks like 29USD a month if I go ahead with Photoshelter.

I was really hoping for an all inclusive option, but it's getting a little out of hand really.
I already have the paypal purchasing sorted through a lightroom gallery plugin.
All I want to do is add a site that people can search on.

I do appreciate your replies, please dont get me wrong, I am looking for an alternative to work in with my current setup.

Cheers
D

 

[johnbeardy]

Searching on criteria like keywords generally requires some sort of server-side processing.

Imagine you have a few thousand images on your site, each of which has a dozen or so keywords. If the searching through the keywords is done in the web gallery, as you "want", all the crunching through those keywords must happen in the visitors' browser. So the visitor has to wait for those thousands of images' keywords to download, and the web page itself would need code to do the clever searching - even more stuff to download. The searching is also very vulnerable to errors because you're reliant on the visitor's browser. That's why none of the built-in LR galleries do searching.

So it's better to do such searching calculations on the server, and then only send the visitor the relevant items. That means a service such as Photoshelter, which costs money, or you build something yourself using something like Coppermine or SlideShowPro Director - in which case you need web design and coding skills.

John

 

[davindhillon]

Well that makes perfect sense, I understand now.
I will take a look at the options you have suggested and see if there is something I can do with Godaddy (plugins e.t.c)
Cheers again
Dav

 

[sgoodno]

Hi, I went through about a year of discovery on this myself. I started with some clear requirements that were similar to your own, mucked around with hosting my own server and created a website using NetObjects Fusion and found I havent the time to build this myself (learned a lot though). I then moved to using Coppermine and tried to incorporate that functionality into my website, unsuccessfully....Then was looking at LR for gallery creation (pushing them to the same site). LR produces some nice and configurable pages out of the box. There are a number of 3rd parties like TTG - The Turning Gate, that make some very nice plugins for LR with Ecommerce capability. But finally I ended up at Alamy and Photoshelter. Alamy to sell and Photoselter as a gallery and to sell. Still messing around with sending my photos up to the site (via LR) but I really do like the options and the features and I think that they are improving upon these. I think I will continue to use Photoshelter as my gallery. Check it out. www.photoshelter.com

 

[theturninggate]

Expanding on johnbeardy's explanation above, keyword searching does indeed require a log of server-side processing. Typically this would include a large amount of PHP and a MySQL database to keep track of images and keywords. Limitations then parade through the discussion, being as Lightroom's Web module cannot manipulate or interact with PHP scripting, and cannot create new or tie into existing databases.

Ideally, what you would need is some type of content management system for your images. Blogging software like PixelPost could feasibly get the job done with the right configuration, but that's a separate thing from Lightroom. Otherwise, you would have to go with some of the above suggestions for online services. There March issue of Photoshop User magazine has a good article on these services if you're a NAPP member and receive it.