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Documentation & User Guides | Fotoware

Sharing an album

Learn how to share an album with coworkers or external users.

Video: Sharing an album

For an introduction to sharing albums, watch this video, or scroll below for written instructions.

Controlling access to the album

When you have created album you may want to share its contents with others. To do so, open up the album using the Albums link in the top banner and then click on the Share link in the top right corner.

To share the album with other FotoWeb users or groups, simply start typing the name of the person or the group you want to add. You can also give each person or group access to Contribute assets to the album, and/or to download files.

Notes:

A user may only delegate download rights if they have access to download files in the archives where the assets originate.

Through sharing and delegated downloads a user may access assets through a shared album that they would otherwise not have access to in an archive.

An example:

John adds assets from an archive News Feed to a new album Superbowl. John has permission to download assets from News Feed.
2. John shares the album Superbowl with Wanda. Wanda does not have permission to access archive News Feed at all. John gives Wanda download permission in the album.
3. Wanda can view and download the assets in the album Superbowl but has no other permissions on them. For example, Wanda cannot send them to an action or edit metadata.

Sharing with users who don't have a FotoWeb account

You can also invite people without a FotoWeb account to the album. Simply enter their email address and set their permissions as usual. They will receive an email containing a link with a special access token that grants them access to the album. An album owner can only do this if they have been granted privileges to share the album with guests.

Did  you know?  You can copy a whole list of contacts from an Excel sheet or Outlook and paste them directly into the album sharing dialog.

Private vs public sharing

When sharing albums with a registered user or group in FotoWeb, access is restricted to that user/group only - this type of private sharing requires user authentication for access to the shared resource and is the recommended way to share content securely. It is also required to make an invited user a contributor to the album.

Public sharing is used when an album invitation is sent to a person using his or her email address, where the recipient does not have a user account in FotoWeb. It also applies when generating a public link to the album or when showcasing an album on the homepage. Anyone in possession of that link can then access the album, but with read-only access. Additional download permission can be given when sharing an album publicly this way.

Setting access rights

You set access rights per user or group by clicking on the little triangle on each entry. By simply adding a user or group to the album access list but not ticking Contribute that user will only get view and preview permissions in the album.

Access right

What an invited user can do

Basic sharing permissions (no other permissions ticked)

Only Browse permissions

Contribute

View and Preview, plus:

  • Add new assets to the album (only available for Private sharing, see above)

  • Remove assets from the album (only available for Private sharing, see above)

  • Sort and reorder assets in the album (only available for Private sharing, see above)

Download

Allow the user/group to download files from the album

Notes about the Download permission:

  1. The owner of an album (the user who created the album) can allow other users to download assets from the album by sharing it. This requires a special permission set on the group level, namely delegate download rights. If this permission is given, the album owner sees a Download checkbox in the sharing dialog for each album. Download permissions can then be delegated when sharing an album, when getting a public link to the album, and when showcasing an album publicly on the FotoWeb homepage.
  2. When an album owner (let's call her Sue) shares an album and delegates download rights from the album, invited users (James) can also download assets from the album. However, this is only possible if Sue has download permission in the archive that the assets come from originally. In other words, Sue may not give James permissions to download assets which Sue herself cannot download.

Adding a message when sharing

If you want you can add a message to the album invitation. If no message is added, album invitees will receive a general email to inform them of the album access.

Other sharing options

When sharing an album, you can also create a public link that anyone can access, and it is also possible to showcase an album on the home screen of all users that access FotoWeb.