Managing Visibility and Download Permissions

PhotoShelter provides an extremely flexible and powerful set of tools to control how your website visitors and clients may interact with your images. You may control who may see your images, as well as who may download them, at what size they may be downloaded, until when, and more. 

• If you'd like to configure the visibility settings for your galleries and collections, check out our detailed Gallery/Collection Visibility: Who Can View Your Images? tutorial. 
• If you'd like to configure or enable downloads of your images,  check out our detailed Gallery/Collection Access: Who Can Download Your Images? tutorial. 

Understanding Visibility & Access Settings

Visibility determines whether or not end users can see a Collection/Gallery on your Website. Visibility is also influenced by whether or not your galleries and collections are Listed or Unlisted. Visibility can be set to one of the following:

•  No one but me 
  This Collection/Gallery is only visible in the Library by you. If it is Listed, the container will be visible on your website behind a lock that only you can access when logged in as the owner of the account.
• Those with permission
  Only people you've invited will be able to view the contents of this Collection/Gallery on your website if it is Listed. This is also true for Listed containers with passwords set. Unlisted containers can also have those with permission settings but need a direct link.
• Everyone 
  Anyone who visits your website will be able to view this Collection/Gallery and the files inside. This means the gallery or collection will be publicly visible. Unlisted containers can also be public but users would need a direct link.

Download permissions determine whether or not end users can download from a Collection/Gallery on your Website. Here are the different types of permissions you can apply:

• No One but Me - Only you as the logged in owner of the account can download from this container on the website. This is the default for new containers made in your library unless otherwise set at the time of creation.
• People/Group - Grant access to specific people (login required)
  Invite individuals to a Collection/Gallery via their email address or share content with groups of clients in a User Group in the Address Book (Clients). Their name and contact information will appear in your download reports.
• Password - Create a password
  Require end users to enter a password before they can view (or download) a Collection/Gallery. Only the user's IP address will appear in download reports.
• Public - Grant access to anyone (anonymous downloads)
  Allow anyone who visits your website to view (or download if download access has been explicitly given) a public Collection/Gallery. Only the user's IP address will appear in download reports.

IMPORTANT: Our system determines what website users can search on your website by looking at one thing:

1. Searchability - Files that are marked as searchable can be searched on your website and external search engines. 

If images are not marked as searchable in the library, they cannot be searched on the website or found by external search engines.

What can be downloaded by users is determined by the download settings given to galleries and collections. If users are invited by an email address to have visibility or download permission, they will need to log in with that email address to gain access.

For the download methods outlined in this article to work, you will need to make sure your "Download" buttons appear in your website's Archive pages to allow clients to download. To ensure they are visible:

• Visit your Archive Page Settings
• Make sure "Display download links" is set to "Yes."
• Click "Save Settings."

Your download buttons will appear in the All Galleries section of your website (the archive), but only users who you have explicitly given access (using one of the three methods outlined below) will be allowed to download.

Share Icons & Website Settings

In Lumen, the Visibility & Access icons in the Library tree have been updated to match our new UI. We refer to these new icons as the Share Icons. They help you see the Share settings on a Gallery or Collection at-a-glance, and make working in the Library easier and faster. The eye icon indicates Visibility settings, while the download icon indicates Download access. These settings are controlled in the Share modal by clicking Website Settings in the right pane 

or by clicking the Share icon in the top navigation.

Files, Galleries and Collections can have either a View, Download or Inherited (shared with parent) permission.

Each permission can have a status of Publicly Shared (visible to everyone who visits your website*, Invited users/Clients only, or Private (visible to only you). 

* Note that publicly visible containers can be navigated to from your built in "All Galleries" link if it is part of your website's navigation, while unlisted public containers will require a direct link to be seen. Unlisted public containers will otherwise not need permission. Read more about Listed and Unlisted here.

In the Library tree, you'll see these icons side-by-side next to each Collection/Gallery. See the example below:

• The Everyone collection is both visible and downloadable by any public users who visit the website (assuming the Gallery or Collection is featured)
• The No one but me collection is private; only you can see it in the Library
• The Those with Permission collection is only visible and downloadable by users with either a People/Group permission or a Password

To manage Website Settings:

1. Select a Collection/Gallery in the left pane
2. Open the Share modal and click Website Settings 
3. Click the gear icon next to View and/or View and Download to change the access type
4. Change the access type to either Invited only, Password or Public

In the Share modal, you can also use the Copy Link button to copy the website link to the container to share externally.

Note: When Website Settings says Invited Only AND no permissions have been given (password or email address) then that container is using No one But Me permissions and will have an empty (white) circle in the left pane of the library.

Permission Inheritance 

Every Collection and Gallery in the Library has native permissions. Native permissions apply whenever a Collection/Gallery does not inherit permissions from the Collection in which it's contained. In the example below, the container that inherits permissions has faded visibility and access icons whereas the non-inheriting container does not. 

To adjust inheritance, navigate to the parent Collection and click Share, then toggle off inheritance.