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Photo Sharing
From KickApps Documentation
Overview
The KIT Cloud Social Photo Sharing application lets you and your site’s members add photos to your site through their web browser.
Site members can add as many photos as they wish, and you have the ability to review, approve and reject all user-submitted photos before (or after) they appear on your site.
Photos can be organized by categories or tags, and each photo’s title and description are indexed by your site’s global search engine (which makes all of your site’s content findable by keyword).
Each photo “page” has a unique URL (“permalink”), retains your site’s global styling and navigation (including your header, main navigation, background and footer), and is wired up for social interaction via comments and ratings, “favoriting,” sharing with friends, etc.
Enabling and Disabling the Photo Sharing Application
The KIT Cloud Social Photo Sharing application can be enabled or disabled in Affiliate Center on the Configure > Settings > Add/Remove Apps page. (You can get to the Affiliate Center by clicking the “manage your site” link near the top of all your site’s pages.) When you enable this application, your site’s members will be able to upload and edit their own photos, and view photos added by other members.
Note: If you disable this application after photos have been submitted to your site, all of those photos will become unavailable on your site and people who try to view them will see a message that the photo has been removed. Re-enabling the Photo Sharing application will make those photos viewable again.
Configuring the Photo Sharing Application
When members add photos to your site you can automatically approve the content or you can specify that the content must be manually approved by a site administrator or editor before it goes live on your site.
You can configure this setting in the Affiliate Center on the Manage > Media page. If auto-approvals are not enabled for the photo sharing application, each new photo will immediately be placed in your site’s Pending Queue, where it must be manually approved by a site administrator. Click here for more information on managing your site’s media in the Affiliate Center. (Note: you can designate specific members of your site as “trusted contributors,” which means that even if you have auto-approvals turned off, any photos added or edited by these members will be automatically approved.) Click here for more information on managing your site’s members in the Affiliate Center.
Regardless of which auto-approval setting you choose, a “flag as inappropriate” option appears on every photo page, which allows site visitors to notify administrators if they see a photo that should be reviewed or removed from the site. When this link is clicked, a window appears where you can enter details about why you think the photo is inappropriate. When this form is submitted, the site Webmaster receives an email notification containing a link to the photo in question and the explanation from the person who flagged it. By setting your site’s “flag threshold,” you can automatically pull a photo down off the site (and into your site’s Pending Queue) after it has been flagged a certain number of times.
When the photo sharing application is enabled, you can specify a default icon to represent photos throughout your site (on search results pages, for instance). This icon is used in rare occasions, like when the photo is being processed by our system. You set the default icon for photos in the Affiliate Center on the Configure > Settings > Default Icons page.
On the Configure > Settings > Site Settings page in the Affiliate Center can configure your site to allow your members to submit “private media” to your site.
When this option is selected the photo upload page is modified to include an option for the contributor to specify that “only their friends” can see the photo. If this option is selected during the upload process (see below), a link to the “private” photo will only be visible on the contributor’s profile page, and only their friends inside your site will be able to see it. (Note: Private photos do not show up in your site’s search results or RSS feeds – they are essentially “invisible” to everyone in the world except the contributor, the contributor’s friends and the site administrators. If an unauthorized user tries to view a private photo they will see a message indicating that the photo is only visible to friends of the contributor.) The visibility of a photo can easily be toggled from public to private at any time, as described below in the “Editing Photos” section of this document.
As the site administrator, you can choose to include a few other optional meta data fields on your photo upload page. These include geo-location fields (country, city, state, zip) and an “email your friends” field. You can enable these fields individually in the Affiliate Center on the Configure > Settings > Site Settings page.
The photo sharing application has a few default text strings that you can modify in the Affiliate Center in the Configure > Language section. The “Language Editor” allows you to not only localize the photo sharing application to another language (Italian, French, Spanish, etc.), but it also allows you to re-position the photo sharing application as any type of user submitted text application. Click on the edit button after you activate your particular language to access the individual labels associated with the Photo Sharing application.
Adding Photos
You and your site’s members can add photos by clicking the “Add a Photo” links which appear in a few places on your site, including the “Get Active” section of each member’s myHome page, the sub-nav section of the main Photos page and in the “interaction module” beneath each photo on your site. Clicking any of these links will bring the user to the photo upload page.
Up to twenty five photos can be uploaded at once by clicking “Add multiple photos” link on the upload page. Photos can be uploaded in JPEG, PNG, or GIF format (no progressive JPGs or animated GIFs). There is also a 100 MB limit.
Optionally, members can fill out the title, description, tags and category fields on the photo upload page in order to make the photos more easily findable on your site. (Note: if the “title” field is left blank, it will automatically be populated with the filename of the original photo that was uploaded.)
If you chose to include additional meta data fields on the upload page for the Photo Sharing application (see, “Configuring the Photo Sharing Application,” above), those optional fields also appear in this section of the upload page.
If you have the “media privacy” feature enabled for your site, the photo upload page contains an option for the contributor to specify that “only their friends” can see the photo once it’s live on your site.
If the KIT Cloud Social Sets application is enabled for your site, the photo upload page also contains a few additional optional fields where the contributor can add the photo(s) to sets they have already created, or they can create a new set. If the new photo is being added to an existing set, the photo will be the last item in the set. If the new photo is being added to a new set, the video will be the first item in the new set. Click here for more information on the KIT Cloud Social Sets application.
If the KIT Cloud Social Groups application is enabled for your site, members will see a list of groups that they belong to on the photo upload page (if they belong to any). The photo that gets uploaded will be added to all of the groups that the member checks (if any). Click here for more information on the Groups application
When a photo is successfully uploaded to your site, the KIT Cloud Social system automatically converts it into a JPG format and generates multiple different re-sized versions of the original, to be used throughout your site, as follows:
- 48x48px = thumbnail used on profile pages and group pages where a list of user’s most recent photos and favorite photos appear.
- 100x75px = thumbnail used in “most recent” modules on site homepage and myHome page.
- 160x120px = thumbnail used on search results pages.
- 320x240px = this image is not currently used on platform pages, but is still created in our system.
- 420x315px = image rendered on the photo details page.
- 730x550px = image rendered on the photo details page when the user clicks to “View enlarged photo.”
When photos are resized by our system, the following rule is applied: We only scale images down from their original size, we never scale images up to create different versions. So if a user uploads an original photo that is 101x76 pixels, we will generate a 48x48 and 100x75 by scaling the original image down to those sizes, however we will not scale the original image up to generate the larger image sizes. We also store a copy of the original photo that was uploaded and make that photo available on the “view photo” page, described below.
Editing Photos
Photos can be edited by the site administrators, as well as the member who added the photo. If you are the member who posted the photo, clicking the “Edit Photo” link in the area beneath the photo will take you to the “Edit Photo” page where the title, description and other meta data associated with the photo can be modified. If you are a site administrator, clicking the “Edit Photo” link will take you to the Affiliate Center, where all of the photo’s meta data can be edited, or the photo can be deleted or rejected (which puts the photo into your site’s “Pending Queue.”
Finding Photos
Each photo that gets added to your site is immediately indexed by your site-wide search engine and is made available on the site within a few minutes after it is created. When you enable the photo sharing application for your KIT Cloud Social-powered site, a “Photos” tab is added to your site’s global navigation strip. Clicking the “Photos” tab will display the most recent photos that have been added to your site, with options to sort the list by most views, most comments, most favorites, etc. In addition to the “Photos” tab in your site’s global navigation strip, a “Photo” checkbox is added to the Advanced Search form on your site, so that users can perform keyword searches against only your site’s photos. Click here for more information on the KIT Cloud Social Search application.
Viewing and Interacting Photos
Each photo in your site has a dedicated page at a URL that is automatically created by the KIT Cloud Social system, based on the title of the photo. The page which hosts each photo contains the title of the photo, a description and the photo itself, as well as information about who added it, and when it was added. Beneath the photo is an interaction module where other members can rate the photo, leave comments, add it to their favorites, add it to a set, share it with friends, tag it, etc. There is also an option to view an enlarged version of the photo. To the right of the body of the photo, beneath the information about the member who added it is a list of related photos. This list is comprised of other recent photos that have similar tags, titles and authors.
The KIT Cloud Social Sets application allows your site’s members to create “sets” or collections of related media assets that belong to your site. If you have enabled the Sets application for your site, the photo page might contain a “set navigator” module beneath the photo, which allows you to quickly see which other items are in the set, and navigate through a set of related items quickly. This module will only be present if the photo currently being viewed belongs to a set. In addition, below each photo is a link which allows any member to add the current photo to any of their sets, provided the photo contributor selected the option to allow other members to do this. Click here for more information on the Sets application
As mentioned above (see, ‘Configuring the Photo Sharing Application) , there is a “flag as inappropriate” option on every photo page, which allows site visitors to notify administrators if they see a photo that should be reviewed or removed from the site. When this link is clicked, a window appears where you can enter details about why you think the photo is inappropriate. When this form is submitted, the site Webmaster receives an email notification containing a link to the photo in question and the explanation from the person who flagged it.
Managing Photos as a Site Member
Your site’s members can see all of their photos in one place by clicking the “Photos” tab, and then the “My Photos” tab in your site’s global navigation strip. From this page, members can view, edit or delete any of their previous photo uploads
Managing Photos as the Site Administrator
As a site administrator (Webmaster, Admin or Editor), you can view and manage all of your site’s photos in the Affiliate Center in the Manage > Media section. The advanced search form allows you to look for photos by specific members, within specific categories, posted between specific dates, among other filtering criteria.
Clicking the “details” link next to any photo will allow you to view and edit the photo, including the comments, tags, ratings and other meta data fields. Changes that you make here are permanent.
Syndicating Photos
Your site’s photos can be syndicated in the Affiliate Center’s App Studio > Feed Builder section. To create an RSS feed of your site’s photos, click the “create” button on the Feed Builder main page, then select “photos” as your “Media Type.” From there you can sort and filter the results using the standard sorting and filtering options available in the Feed Builder tool, to produce a feed containing just the items matching your criteria. (For instance you could create a feed of photos submitted by a certain member, or group of members, sorted by most recent, or most viewed, or most comments, etc). Note: you don’t have to use the Feed Builder tool to create RSS feeds containing your sites photos. Advanced users can also manually construct an RSS feed URL containing the “mediaType=photos” parameter in our RSS Feed API. Click here for more information on the RSS Feed API
In addition to syndicating all of your site’s photo posts via RSS Feeds, you can also syndicate the photos of any individual member by clicking on the RSS icon located at the bottom right of any photo play page.
Reporting on Photos
Usage of the photo sharing application is tracked along with the rest of your site’s content in the Reporting section of the Affiliate Center. You can see how many photos were added, and how many times your site’s photos were viewed in aggregate for any date range. Click here for more information on KIT Cloud Social Reporting.
Photos on Profile Pages
There is a section on each member’s profile page where hyperlinked titles of their most recent photos are displayed. When members add photos to your site, this section of their profile page is automatically updated with links to the recent photos.
There is also a section on each member’s profile page where links to their favorite photos are listed. When a member of your site adds a particular photo post their “Favorites,” this section of their profile page is automatically updated with a link to the photo. Click here for more information on the KIT Cloud Social Social Networking application.
Photos on Your Site’s Homepage
You can configure your site to include a pre-configured “community home page” which contains a bunch of modules that feature the most recent content that members have contributed to your site. When a new photo is added to your site, the “Most Recent Photo” module is automatically updated with a link to the photo. Click here to learn more about configuring your site to include a pre-configured “community home page.”
Photos in Your Site’s Activity Feeds
Your KIT Cloud Social-powered site comes with a number of “activity feeds” that are constantly updated as members interact with each other and with the content of your site.
- There is a “community activity feed” on your site’s login page which contains a running feed of all member activity across your site.
- There is a “member activity feed” on the profile page for each of your site’s members which contains a running feed of each particular member’s activities.
- There is a “my friends and my news” feed on your members’ myHome page which contains a feed of their friends’ activities and the also the activities of the people they are following.
- Lastly, there is a “group activity feed” on each group page which contains a feed of activities that have happened inside that particular group.
Each time a new photo is added, edited or interacted with (rated, commented on, added to someone’s favorites, etc), the appropriate activity feeds are automatically updated with a link to the member who performed the action, as well as a link to the photo that was acted upon. Click here to learn more about the KIT Cloud Social RSS API.
Below is an illustration of a member activity feed on someone’s profile page:
Photos and Points
The KIT Cloud Social Points & Levels application allows you to automatically award points to your site’s members when they perform certain activities on your site. If you have enabled the Points & Levels application for your site, you can configure the application to award points when your members add photos, and when their photos are interacted with. Click here for more information on the Points and Levels application
Photos and Groups
The KIT Cloud Social Groups application allows you to create “micro-communities” within your site that members can join to share and interact with others in a more granular context than your entire site. If you have enabled the Groups application for your site, each group has a “group page” with a section featuring the most recent photos that have been added to the group. Click here for more information on the Groups application
Advertising on Photos
There are a few different types of pages on your site associated with the KIT Cloud Social photo application. Clicking the “Photos” tab in your site’s global navigation strip reveals a “list page” containing your site’s most recent photos. From here, you can click on an individual photo, which is rendered on a “play page.” If you click to edit or add a new photo, you are taken to a “profile management” page.
Each of the three types of pages mentioned above have “ad slots” in them that you can populate with whichever content you want. You can configure these ad slots in the Affiliate Center on the Configure > Advertising page. Click here to learn more about configuring the ad slots on your site.
System-Generated Emails
The Photo Sharing application sends email notifications to site administrators and members when certain events occur. The contents of these notifications can be modified by editing your site’s Language settings, as described above (see, “Configuring the Photo Sharing Application”). Below is a list of the email notifications that get sent from the Photo Sharing application, including the “trigger events” which cause the notifications as well as the contents of each notification.
| Trigger | Recipient | Notes |
| Photo Approved |
Member | N/A |
| Photo Rejected |
Member | N/A |
| Photo Tagged |
Member | Administrators can optionally send this email from the Affiliate Center |
| Photo Commented On |
Member | from an Photo play page |
| Photo Flagged |
administrator | from an Photo play page |
| Photo Auto-unapproved due to Flagging |
administrator | from a Photo play page |
| Photo Forwarded to Friends |
member’s friends | from an Photo play page |
| Tell Friends |
member’s friends | from a Photo play page |
API Support for the Blogs Application (for Developers)
This document is intended to provide an in-depth look at the Photo Sharing application on the KIT Cloud Social hosted platform, to help you understand how the application can be enabled, configured and managed on a day-to-day basis.
If you prefer to host all of the photo pages on your own web servers, or if you’d just like to use bits and pieces of the photo sharing application, we offer a complete set of REST API calls which allow you to construct whatever kind of user interface you can dream up.
Regardless of which front-end deployment option you choose, the functionality of the photo sharing application (and the content created by it) is managed in the Affiliate Center as described above. Click here for more information on the REST API
Related Tutorials and How-to Articles
Uploading Media from Your Mobile Device
Photo & Video Sharing With KIT Cloud Social
Make a Category Required on Photo Upload
Make a Category Required on Photo Upload
- This page was last modified on 22 June 2012, at 19:57.
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