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When I try to add media by add media button, I put in some category and tag/description along with image upload. However after publication and running a cron job the data is lost and the media is found in the Media tab with draft signage. I again have to add the categories, tag/description and everything else. Is this the way Symbiostock work, or is it mis behaving. I tried fresh install as well. problem persists.
Hi resourcebucket,
The upload page serves only to upload your image – you cannot add/edit details until after the image has been added. So the best way is to first upload images, then once they are processed add the metadata.
Metadata is specific to data that is stored within the image prior to upload. Symbiostock reads and writes this.
Symbiostock 2.0 which will be released soon makes this process a lot clearer so this sort of confusion does not arise.
So, to recap, when you upload a file, you cannot add any details to it. You can only edit details once the file has been added to your Symbiostock media list.
Hi Robin,
Thanks for your prompt response. I was very much coming to the same point. Actually I was trying to play with symbiostock to convert it into marketplace for small photographers who cannot make their own site or go to big agency which give only a fraction of sale. I combined symbiostock with wc vendor to make contributor model, but if the data is not getting passed on to system post cron job, then it becomes a little difficult to identify the contributor and the data. Also manual entry post cron job becomes tedious as well.
Any suggestion or solution that comes to your mind.
If you like I can show you a rough demo of site that I am trying to build.
Hey resourcebucket,
Sure, you can PM me details and I’ll look into it.
With the new Symbiostock 2.0, the product entry is completely separate from the uploading system. This way, you can create products parallel to Symbiostock.
An easy way for us to solve your issue is to allow users to upload files that are meant to convert normal products into Symbiostock products. So, for example, if someone were to create a product called ‘Black Bears’ and add all the metadata and what not to it, then they could upload a file with the matching filename which is meant to update it. Symbiostock will read that filename and recognize it, updating it.
Would this suffice?
Well, may work but not exactly what I am hoping for. I am actually trying to give fellow photographers in particular locality a stock photography market option. Where once approved as vendor/contributor they add photos with custom title, categories (pre curated list – they just have to select few), and custom tags and description. Which when comes to Site Curator (approver), he can approve or modify. However, currently the details gets lost post cron job and so also the detail that who uploaded the file (vendor/contributor name).
The only way I can do this, with the current setup is giving him a secure ftp client for upload along with excel form to create a CSV file for above details, which post cron job, curator has to manually update (each image one by one). If somehow, based on upload these details can be passed, then curator only has to give glance to details and publish.
You can say, I am trying to mimic big stock website with wordpress for small community.
BTW, do we have a preview of Symbiostock 2.0 and any likely release date for the same.
Some preview entries for 2.0 are here:
http://www.symbiostock.org/forums/topic/symzio-network-widget-preview/Although there is a lot more stuff implemented that we will be previewing as well. Release date is not set, but we are looking to get it out there within the next couple of weeks.
I’ve actually received a few requests to port Symbiostock into a system that permits multiple individual logins for users to provide precisely what you are looking for, but overall that isn’t really the direction it is going towards. If you look at Symzio, for example, which is coming out in 2.0, we are going to be networking individual Symbiostock sites together, and in the future will be expanding Symzio’s functions to be even larger.
However, what you are suggesting is really not that difficult – an easy way to solve most of your dilemmas comes from metadata. Have your users use the EXIF metadata within images rather than a CSV and they can then upload it to Symbiostock with all that data embedded. It should then be a simple case of tweaking the cron job to use this metadata to identify who is uploading what. Then your curator can decide whether to publish it or not.
Again, I don’t know if this will work with your current infrastructure, but it is also an option.
First things first, the preview and Syzmio looks great. Second, I hope that video functionality eventually find its way to Symbiostock plugin, as user like me despite of all their willingness cannot be plus users as I have explained earlier – what I am trying to do.
Also, I understand, but I am trying to connect to photographers, who cannot have their own symbiostock website may be due to low volumes or some other reason. Lastly, I mull that option of getting everything in meta and then upload but discounted because of two reason;
first- the curator if find the image to be good but the description not what it needs has to rewrite the meta after modifying/editing the earlier written.
second- more often than not, customer prefer unaltered/untouched image (that is reason why even after cron job I am not writing categories and other data to file but in database).
Anyway, shall workout something and eagerly awaiting for Version 2.
Not to mention many thanks for great support and prompt response. I really appreciate it a lot.
first- the curator if find the image to be good but the description not what it needs has to rewrite the meta after modifying/editing the earlier written.
The metadata populates the WordPress fields – you can override that all you want. In essence, the metadata can be used exactly in place of a CSV. It is read by Symbiostock, populates the product fields, then can be edited by the curator.
more often than not, customer prefer unaltered/untouched image (that is reason why even after cron job I am not writing categories and other data to file but in database).
You mean you don’t want metadata to be sent with the image to the customer? That can easily be stripped.
Can you explain a little more about stripping metadata before sending the download link to customer. Can it be programmed in symbiostock, or is there is already there?
As far as I understand, Symbiostock creates a random dynamic link after resizing the image as per license and keep it in separate download area for security purpose (in an event of hack the main database remains untouched). Can you explain how we can strip the metadata in the resize image but not from the main database image and still achieve the security. I may sound completely idiotic here, as this is one of many parts that I don’t understand. I am also not a programmer/developer, but just like to tinker.
If you can provide some solution, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance…
The image is delivered via code – it’s not a hard link that the customer gets access to. In fact, the original location of the image is perpetually obfuscated and used only as a reference for Symbiostock to access. Since Symbiostock acts as a gateway to all your original files, it can do anything it wants to the image before it is delivered to the customer.
This includes resizing, watermarking, etc.
One thing it can easily do is strip metadata as long as you are using Imagick. In fact, this is an option in Symbiostock 2.0 that you can enable or disable.
To understand what I mean by metadata, you need to create two distinctions: metadata, and database data. Metadata is information physically stored in the actual image file. Database data is not stored in the file – it is stored on the server and references the file. So if you only had database data, your image file would have no keywords or anything attached to them.
This is why my suggestion regarding using metadata is good – your users submit an image with metadata, which Symbiostock converts into database data. WordPress uses database data for everything. You can change database data all you want and it has nothing to do with the image’s metadata. Symbiostock permits you to alter the image metadata too, but for your purposes this isn’t purposeful.
Accordingly, we can easily strip the image of all metadata before delivery and this won’t affect database data, which is what is used to display your image in WordPress.
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