Another Client Area example

This demonstration site shows how you can use a WSPP plug to create a client area that may be appropriate for a commercial photographer. In this case we'vse used Filmstrip WSPP, but any plugin in the series will work.

In this example the client area is completely hidden from the public interface. You'll need to give your clients the direct URL to their specific area.

For this example you can visit a client gallery by clicking this link:

http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/wspp/clientareademo2/clientarea/client1

Both the username and password are "client1".

Note also that these galleries have been set to be viewed as contact sheets, and that the optional download arrow has been enabled.

How was it done?

The public galleries for the portfolio are created as usual (in this case we just have one).

We then created a gallery set called "Client Area" in which to place our client's galleries. This set was configured as follows:

• The URL tag was set to "clientarea" (you can choose any name though).
• The gallery set was hidden from the main index so that it didn't appear in the portfio (this setting is in the Privacy tab for the gallery set).
• The gallery set was made "Inaccessible" for reasons that will be explained below (this setting is also in the Privacy tab for the gallery set).

Once we had a set to hold our client areas we created a gallery set for each client, and gave it a password.

Note that the URL for a client's area is composed of the address to get to the main site + "clientarea" (the tag chosen above) + the URL tag that we chose for the client's set. This is supplied to the client.

When then placed the individual shoots for that client inside the client's set. All the shoots are protected by the password that was applied to the set itself. Even if you know the URL for a specific gallery, you'll still need the password for the set.

Here's what the hierarchy looked like in the Publish Service.

It's worth noting that we made the "Client Area" set inaccessible - that means that it can't be accessed directly, so twisted minds can't see a list of your clients. Try it:

http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/wspp/clientareademo2/clientarea/

This setup may be a little bit unnecessarily complex for photographers that only shoot once for any given client - as is the case with wedding photographer's for example. Fear not, we've created another example with this in mind.