Multiple users

mikkelmand · 2018-03-09 20:35:59

We are a photo studio with 4 different locations spread all over the country. We are looking to use Backlight and the client selection function. We are using it today in one location with no problems. We use Lightroom to publish the galleries for client selection.

Are we getting into trouble with four different instances of Lightroom publishing to the same Backlight instance? Or is that perfectly normal?

Kind regards, Mikkel

rod barbee · 2018-03-10 00:57:53

I can only speak to the feasibility of this, not the licensing aspects.

You can easily do this. All four locations would be able to access the Backlight back end to add clients, assign albums to clients, create and update templates etc.

The limitation comes with publishing the albums. Each location could publish to the site, but since Publisher instances are catalog specific, and presumably each location is using a different catalog, each location could only control albums which it published.

Location 1 would have no control over what Location 2 published, for example (well, anyone with access to Backlight would be able to delete albums from the Backlight interface).

Matthew · 2018-03-10 17:58:09

To Rod's point, I would advise publishing to separate target folders. By default, you'd normally publish to the 'galleries' folder, setup like this:

/backlight
/galleries

With content flowing in from different locations or catalogs, I'd recommend each catalog have it's own folder:

/backlight
/studio1
/studio2
/studio3

... and so on. This would allow you to run from a single site, without interfering with each other's uploads, if such an organization structure would work for you.

Regarding licensing, we typically allow you to run Backlight on any website(s) owned by you, regardless of the number of computers you're connecting from. So there shouldn't be any licensing conflict with your multiple locations uploading to the same website.

mikkelmand · 2018-05-05 15:37:28

Thanks Matthew and Rod for the reply.

Sounds really great that this is possible. Yes, we are using different catalogs, we each have our own LR-catalog. The fact that we can´t change each others material through lightroom is only good news.

I´m always totally confused by the fundamental structure of this. Is there any way one of you could explain how to achieve this, in baby steps, just explain like I was a child, if you wouldn´t mind?

Best regards, Mikkel

Matthew wrote:

To Rod's point, I would advise publishing to separate target folders. By default, you'd normally publish to the 'galleries' folder, setup like this:
/backlight
/galleries
With content flowing in from different locations or catalogs, I'd recommend each catalog have it's own folder:
/backlight
/studio1
/studio2
/studio3
... and so on. This would allow you to run from a single site, without interfering with each other's uploads, if such an organization structure would work for you.
Regarding licensing, we typically allow you to run Backlight on any website(s) owned by you, regardless of the number of computers you're connecting from. So there shouldn't be any licensing conflict with your multiple locations uploading to the same website.

rod barbee · 2018-05-05 21:46:02

Using FTP, create the necessary folders in the root of your site. They should be at the same server level as the backlight/ folder, as Matt has illustrated above. For the folder names, use only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.

Each Studio then needs to set up Publisher (in Lightroom) to use its folder as the the Top-level gallery. Then each studio needs to create an album. You don't need to include images at this point.
http://backlight.theturninggate.net/doc … irst_album

Backlight will create the necessary files in the folder, just like when you initially published to the galleries folder.

Someone will then need to log in to Backlight and go to Publisher > Top-level galleries. You should see the new top-level galleries for each studio that has published to their folder.
Click on one of the new top-level galleries and edit its properties to assign an album set template and add any studio specific copy to the page.

Matthew · 2018-05-07 09:58:23

It might not be necessary to create the folders first using FTP. Publisher might just be able to do it for you. I cannot recall for certain whether this is the case, but give it a try.

mikkelmand · 2018-05-07 14:59:00

Great, thanks - I think I´ve got it now then, thanks to both of you.

Just to be 100% sure:

We all use Backlight to proof towards different customers. So in this case, we each will be publishing multiple collections to our own instance of backlight every week. That will work right?

Another thing I was wondering: would it be possible for each of our studios to publish to the same gallery folder from different LR-catalogs? I think you mentioned earlier that this was not possible?

Best regards, and thanks again!!!

Mikkel

rod barbee wrote:

Using FTP, create the necessary folders in the root of your site. They should be at the same server level as the backlight/ folder, as Matt has illustrated above. For the folder names, use only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.
Each Studio then needs to set up Publisher (in Lightroom) to use its folder as the the Top-level gallery. Then each studio needs to create an album. You don't need to include images at this point.
http://backlight.theturninggate.net/doc … irst_album
Backlight will create the necessary files in the folder, just like when you initially published to the galleries folder.
Someone will then need to log in to Backlight and go to Publisher > Top-level galleries. You should see the new top-level galleries for each studio that has published to their folder.
Click on one of the new top-level galleries and edit its properties to assign an album set template and add any studio specific copy to the page.

Last edited by mikkelmand (2018-05-07 14:59:30)

rod barbee · 2018-05-07 22:25:09

mikkelmand wrote:

Just to be 100% sure:
We all use Backlight to proof towards different customers. So in this case, we each will be publishing multiple collections to our own instance of backlight every week. That will work right?

Do you mean an instance of Publisher? Multiple instances of Backlight would mean multiple sites.
Either way, the answer is yes.
If you're using Client Response, then all client responses will be sent to the email address set up in Backlight's email settings.
This means if your company is publishing to one site, all Client Response emails will be sent to one email address.

If you need Client Response emails sent to the studio that created the album, you'll probably want to set up a site for each studio. This would be easy to do using sub-domains. Each would have its own installation of Backlight.

mikkelmand wrote:

Another thing I was wondering: would it be possible for each of our studios to publish to the same gallery folder from different LR-catalogs? I think you mentioned earlier that this was not possible?

Each studio could publish to the same top-level gallery folder. You just would not be able to add to or remove from albums or album sets that other studios create.

For example, your site has a galleries/ folder in the root of the site. Each studio could set up an instance of Publisher in Lightroom to publish to this folder.

But:
Studio 1 publishes an album (or album set) for Client A. No other studio would be able to add to or remove from that Client A album. Only Studio 1 would have any control over that album from Lightroom.

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2018-03-09 20:35:59

Multiple users

#2 2018-03-10 00:57:53

Re: Multiple users

#3 2018-03-10 17:58:09

Re: Multiple users

#4 2018-05-05 15:37:28

Re: Multiple users

#5 2018-05-05 21:46:02

Re: Multiple users

#6 2018-05-07 09:58:23

Re: Multiple users

#7 2018-05-07 14:59:00

Re: Multiple users

#8 2018-05-07 22:25:09

Re: Multiple users

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