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Setting Up WidePhotoViewer for Print Ordering

Starting with Version 7, WidePhotoViewer has a photo-selecting feature: You tap and hold on a photo until a green star appears, and then you can save the list of selected photos and even email them. Lightroom (with a plugin) and Photo Mechanic can automatically import those selections. (More info here.)

Version 7.1 takes this further: You can arrange for an order form to appear so the user can indicate quantities and print sizes (or any products of your choosing). The resulting order can be saved and emailed just like the more-limited selections that were in Version 7, and also imported into Lightroom and Photo Mechanic.

Ordering is not a premium feature, so your clients can order prints from you from the free version of WidePhotoViewer.

Here's what you do step-by-step:

1. Export the photos to Flickr, SmugMug, or to your Dropbox, or FTP them directly to the device where you'll run WidePhotoViewer. If you're going to take advantage of automatic import of selections into Lightroom or Photo Mechanic (see the link above for more on that), make sure the exported photos have the filename preserved.

   For Photo Mechanic, this means that the photo must be a JPEG in Photo Mechanic, because otherwise the filename won't match exactly. For Lightroom, this doesn't matter—it's OK to export a NEF, say, as a JPEG; the extensions will be different, but the plugin will still make the match.

   Flickr doesn't maintain filenames, but WidePhotoViewer can pick up the filename if you put in in square brackets at the end of the title or description. (It must be at the end, not within the title or description.) If you're exporting from Lightroom, set up the description something like this in Jeffrey Friedl's Flickr plugin:

   

2. Edit the gallery (also called set or folder) description to include special HTML entities that tell WidePhotoViewer about the available products. Each product must be on a line by itself that begins with these two entities:

   • 

   You can do the editing on the website (Flickr or SmugMug) or within WidePhotoViewer (if you have the premium in-app upgrade). The products you list apply to the entire gallery. Here's an example for SmugMug:

   

   After you save your edits they look like this on the SmugMug site:

   

   You have to get the "• " part exactly right, with no embedded spaces.

   If you're using Dropbox or FTP, there's no obvious place to put the folder description. Put it in a text file named "description.txt" (without the quotes), and put that file in the folder along with the JPEGs.

3. If you want to include an email address for WidePhotoViewer to use when it sends the order to you, include that in the description using the HTML mailto notation, like this:
   

   The "mailto:" part is essential. If you just type "Send orders to orders@basepath.com", WidePhotoViewer won't see it.

4. If you have several galleries, it's inconvenient to put the list of products and prices into each, especially if you want to make a change later. You can instead put the list (including a possible email) in a separate HTML file on a website somewhere and just refer to it from each gallery's description. The name of the HTML file must end with "WPVconfig.html". These examples are OK:

   http://basepath.com/WPVordering/WPVconfig.html
   http://sunrisephotography.com/galleries/SpecialPricing-WPVconfig.html

   But these are not OK:

   http://basepath.com/WPVordering/WPVconfig.htm
        (extension has to be "html")
   http://sunrisephotography.com/galleries/WPVconfig-SpecialPricing.html
        (doesn't end with "WPVconfig.html")

   Here's the SmugMug description modified:

   

   Note that the "<a>" HTML tag wasn't used, because SmugMug doesn't handle it right. The rules for Flickr may be different. If you're providing a "description.txt" file in your Dropbox or FTP folder, you can't use HTML at all (other than "&bull;&emsp;" entities).

   The referenced HTML file can be as elaborate as you like, as long as it has the required "&bull;&emsp;" lines. This is what's in the HTML file used in this example:

   

   With this scheme all you have to do is change one file when products or prices change, and all the galleries that reference it will reflect the new configuration.

   You have to have a website where you can store the HTML file; one isn't supplied by WidePhotoViewer. You'll probably find that your internet service provider (ISP) provides a website that you can use.

5. That's all you have to do to set things up. When the gallery is viewed in WidePhotoViewer, an "Order Prints" item will appear on the grid-view action menu. Tapping it brings up the order form, with the selected images or, of there were no selections, with all the images:
   

6. Tapping Next automatically saves the order to the Dropbox/WidePhotoViewer folder and to the Documents folder on the device running WidePhotoViewer, from which it can be retrieved with iTunes or FTP. Then a menu appears that allows you to view the selections on the the device (as an HTML file in a browser view) or to email them. Choosing to email switches you to the Mail app on the device:
   

   You'll need this email when it arrives, as the quantities and products ordered aren't imported into Lightroom or Photo Mechanic—only the selections are.

7. Save the email as text, start up the WPV-Selector Lightroom plugin, and then the selected photos will be colored and keyworded as you've specified in the plugin dialog. In this case, a smart collection has been set up to show the most-recently-selected photos:
   

8. Since all you have is the email, reply to it asking for confirmation of the order, payment, and a shipping address. Then with the email as a guide, print the ordered products and send them off.