Web gallery

Since the 2.4.0.0 version, Photobone Studio contains a new web gallery that is unified for both online and offline use. This article is devoted to its configuration and features.

Web gallery in Photobone Studio can work in two modes, both modes can even be enabled simulatneously:

• Web gallery can be operated online on a webhosting. Internet connection is required for this mode.
• Web gallery can also be operated locally. In this case, customers connect to a custom wi-fi network and access a gallery that is hosted directly on the photobooth computer. This gallery works even when there’s no internet connection, but configuring it requires certain technical knowledge (or you can buy a specially configured router from us) and customers have to join your special wi-fi network to access it.

Both galleries are identical and offer the same functionality:

• It is possible to download photos from the galleries.
• It is possible to queue reprints and sending photos via email. This can be allowed either to the wide public (might not always be a good idea) or it can be locked behind a password (and you can allow it for example only on your tablet).
• It is possible to connect to the galleries from a tablet and perform reprints from it.
• It is possible to view counters (how many photos printed etc.) from the galleries.
• To access a gallery, the application can be configured to display a QR code on the last customer screen (Settings → Web galleries → Common settings → QR code).
• Customers can be allowed either to view the entire gallery (the gallery can be accessible from the gallery list or only through a link) or to only view photos from their session.

Online gallery

Online gallery is run on your own webhosting under your own domain (and thus address). The gallery can contain multiple projects – multiple photobooths can use the same gallery simultaneously, provided each photobooth is set to a different project; you can also keep photos from previous events accessible for some time. It is possible to delete projects after signing in as an adminstrator. Name of a gallery is identical with the name of the project in Photobone Studio.

Installation

To run the online gallery, it has to be installed on your webhosting. The webhosting has to support PHP in version 7 and htaccess/mod_rewrite. The web gallery has to be installed on a dedicated subdomain or domain. It is only necessary to run the installation once (and sometimes after software update).

You can contact our technical support and it will assist you with the gallery installation. Before contacting us however, please prepare FTP access credentials for your webhosting. You can also install the gallery on your own:

1. In Settings → Web galleries → Online gallery press the “Gallery source files” button. It will open a folder with gallery source files that have to be copied to the webhosting.
2. Open an FTP client, connect to your webhosting and copy the files from the folder. The files should be copied to a directory representing a dedicated subdomain or domain. If your web domain is for example “photo-fun.com”, you can upload the files to the “g.photo-fun.com” subdomain. The directory structure and exact location of such folder differs between webhostings, so it is not possible to provide specific instructions in that regard.
3. Visit the gallery webpage. It should show the gallery on an initial setup screen. The setup asks you to enter a password that will be used for pairing Photobone Studio with the gallery and for obtaining administrator privileges in the gallery (for example to perform reprints or send emails). Do not enter a password that is used anywhere else! The password is not stored in a safe manner, it can be viewed from the application settings and you might want to share it with other photobooth operators.
4. In Photobone Studio in Settings → Web galleries → Online gallery, enter the address of your web gallery installation (for example “g.photo-fun.com”). Also enter the password you’ve set up for the gallery on the same page.
5. Check “Enable online gallery” and press “Apply settings”.

Local gallery

The local gallery is hosted on the photobooth computer. If you connect the computer to a Wi-Fi, other people on the same Wi-Fi can connect to it using the computer IP address (we recommend bringing our own wireless router, option to connect to other people computers can be disabled on public Wi-Fis). You can view the IP address of the photobooth computer in Settings → Web galleries → Local gallery → Available addresses.

The computer can have multiple IP addresses assigned when it is connected to multiple networks simultaneously. It is necessary to use the IP address for the network used by the customers to access the gallery. If the customers are trying to access the gallery from a smartphone, they might be required to turn off their mobile data in order to be able to connect.

It is possible to purchase a specially configured router from us that makes running the offline gallery easier. The router also makes the local gallery accessible on the “gal1.cz” domain (it is still necessary to be connected to the router Wi-Fi), so the customers are not presented with an ugly IP address.