CE4 Client Response Gallery supports various deployment types, with the type of deployment determining the availability and behaviors of some gallery features. As there seems to have been some confusion about this, this article aims to clarify matters.
CE4 Client Response Gallery (CRG) may be used on its own, by exporting and uploading galleries from the Web module; or you may publish galleries using CE4 Publisher and Lightroom’s Publish Services. For many reasons the latter is preferrable, as we will discuss below.
When using CE4 Publisher to manage your client response galleries, you then have the option of deploying galleries as “standalone” or “managed”.
We will discuss each of these three deployment types in depth:
- Galleries exported from the Web module
- Published, standalone galleries
- Published, managed galleries
1. Galleries exported from the Web module
Image galleries created by CE4 Client Response Gallery, and exported and uploaded from the Web module, are very similar in functionality to the previous generation CE3 galleries, albeit with improvements.
- Galleries may be password protected.
- Galleries may be paginated.
- Gallery feedback may be submitted any number of times, by any number of visitors.
- Gallery feedback may be reviewed via email, or within the TTG BE admin area.
- Gallery feedback cannot be saved between sessions; clients should submit their feedback before leaving the gallery.
- Gallery filters offer limited functionality; see below.
- The client must enter his or her details (name, email, etc.) for each individual submission; see below.
Client Handling
The client must enter his or her details (name, email, etc.) for each individual submission, and each submission is treated as a separate client, and not matched in any way with previous submissions.
Filtering
By clicking the selection count in the gallery’s status bar, visitors may isolate their selected images, removing unselected images from view. Using this deployment type, however, the unselected images are removed only from the grid view, using CSS and Javascript. Unselected images will still appear in the large-image slideshow when navigating images. Also, in a paginated gallery, the filter will only show selected images on the current page. For improved filtering, see the other deployment types.
Saving
Because these galleries cannot be saved, any feedback entered into the gallery will be lost when the browser is closed.
2. Published, standalone galleries
Combining CE4 Client Response Gallery with CE4 Publisher, new functionality becomes available. Broadly speaking, two things occur when publishing an album:
- The images are logged into a database, allowing us to store and process information relating to each image.
- Galleries are rendered through the TTG BE framework, allowing us to make use of the databased information when rendering or reloading the gallery.
When publishing a new album, select the Integration tab, and set Client Management as “Standalone”.
Galleries deployed in this way can do everything described above for galleries exported from the Web module, but enjoy greater functionality in filtering.
- Galleries may be password protected.
- Galleries may be paginated.
- Gallery feedback may be submitted any number of times, by any number of visitors.
- Gallery feedback may be reviewed via email, or within the TTG BE admin area.
- Gallery feedback cannot be saved between sessions; clients should submit their feedback before leaving the gallery.
- Gallery filters offer full functionality; see below.
- The client must enter his or her details (name, email, etc.) for each individual submission; see below.
Client Handling
The client must enter his or her details (name, email, etc.) for each individual submission, and each submission is treated as a separate client, and not matched in any way with previous submissions.
Filtering
Rather than simply hiding unselected images from the grid, enabling the filter to show only selected images will now reload the page, excluding unselected images entirely. Navigating the large-image slideshow will now include only the selected images. For paginated galleries, images selected on multiple pages will be coralled into the filtered view for easy comparison.
Saving
Because these galleries cannot be saved, any feedback entered into the gallery will be lost when the browser is closed.
3. Published, managed galleries
To get the most out of CE4 Client Response Gallery, you will want to combine it with CE4 Publisher and use client-managed galleries.
When publishing a new album, select the Integration tab, and set Client Management as “Managed by CRG Admin”.
Client-managed galleries are private and require the visitor to log in before the gallery can be viewed. To make this possible, the photographer/administrator should first create a client account via the CRG Admin console in the TTG BE admin area, then assign one or more galleries to the client.
Clients may access their assigned galleries in either of two ways:
- By visiting a managed CRG gallery, the client will be prompted to log in. After logging in, the client will be redirected to the gallery.
- By visiting /ttg-be/crg/ on your server. After logging in, the client will be presented a list of galleries to which they have been assigned access. In the case that only one gallery has been assigned, the client will be redirected directly to that gallery.
Taking advantage of the latter case, you may wish to create a “Clients” menu item in your site navigation, targeting yourdomain.com/ttg-be/crg/.
Client-managed galleries offer the full suite of CRG functionality.
- Galleries are always password protected.
- Galleries may be paginated.
- Gallery feedback is saved in real-time. The client may log out of the gallery, and resume their work at a later time; see Saving below.
- Gallery feedback may be closed after submission, preventing subsequent submissions from the same client; see Submission Status below.
- Gallery feedback may be reviewed via email, or within the TTG BE admin area.
- Gallery filters offer full functionality; see Filtering below.
- The client does not need to enter their details for submissions, as this information already exists in the client's account.
Saving
Image selects, ratings, options and comments are saved in real-time as the client works through the gallery, allowing the client to log out of the gallery or quit the browser, then to return to the gallery at any time to continue their work. This is made possible by having the gallery tied into the database, and by associating the input with the client account.
Submission Status
After a client submits their feedback for a gallery, the gallery will be given the “closed” status for that client, preventing subsequent submissions. This is intended to prevent the client sending feedback piecemeal. The photographer/administrator may reset the gallery’s status to “open” via the CRG Admin console, allowing the client to submit again.
Filtering
As with published, standalone galleries, client-managed galleries enjoy full filtering functionality. When enabling the filter to show only selected images, then only selected images will be shown in both the image grid and the large-image slideshow. In a paginated gallery, selected images from all pages will be gathered into the filtered gallery view.