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Print a photo == donate 1.8 cents!
Submitted by bharat on Sat, 2002-12-14 01:45
Gallery has been using Shutterfly as a print service for over a year now. However, recently we managed to strike a deal with them where we raise the price of photo printing marginally, and that extra money gets donated back to the Gallery project. If you're using Gallery 1.3.2 or newer, you'll find that the price of printing photos has gone up by 2 cents (US). For more details on where this money goes, and how to disable it (if you don't want to donate) read on.
In general, Gallery users have been very supportive. And we really appreciate it. However, Gallery users are website owners and are paying a premium just to host their website with the Gallery on it. By raising the price of photo printing marginally, we hope to pass a little bit of the load onto your users so that they can get involved also. Here's how it works.
When your users print a photo on your website, the image gets sent to Shutterfly, marked as having come from Gallery. Shutterfly adds two cents to the price of each photo. When the photo is printed, they then take 10% of the extra money made, and send the remaining 1.8 cents to us here at Gallery central. They only send us this money once a quarter, provided it exceeds $200. So it will take approximately 11,000+ printed photos before we see a dime. Anybody want to start a pool on how long that will take?
Gallery is a free product. It's not our intention to charge you to use it. We should have announced this change in policy in big letters all over version 1.3.2 when it shipped, except that when push came to shove I forgot to add it to the release notes when I shipped 1.3.2. My apologies. If you decide that you don't want to pass this extra cost on to your users it's a very easy patch to disable it. Edit view_photo.php and change these lines:
To:
Next time you print a photo, it should return to the normal Shutterfly pricing.
Update: version 1.3.3-cvs-b5 available from here has a configuration option that allows you to disable this donation without changing the code.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. This is as good a place as any to leave comments and tell us how you feel about this change.
regards,
Bharat
Gallery Dev Team
In general, Gallery users have been very supportive. And we really appreciate it. However, Gallery users are website owners and are paying a premium just to host their website with the Gallery on it. By raising the price of photo printing marginally, we hope to pass a little bit of the load onto your users so that they can get involved also. Here's how it works.
When your users print a photo on your website, the image gets sent to Shutterfly, marked as having come from Gallery. Shutterfly adds two cents to the price of each photo. When the photo is printed, they then take 10% of the extra money made, and send the remaining 1.8 cents to us here at Gallery central. They only send us this money once a quarter, provided it exceeds $200. So it will take approximately 11,000+ printed photos before we see a dime. Anybody want to start a pool on how long that will take?
Gallery is a free product. It's not our intention to charge you to use it. We should have announced this change in policy in big letters all over version 1.3.2 when it shipped, except that when push came to shove I forgot to add it to the release notes when I shipped 1.3.2. My apologies. If you decide that you don't want to pass this extra cost on to your users it's a very easy patch to disable it. Edit view_photo.php and change these lines:
To:
Next time you print a photo, it should return to the normal Shutterfly pricing.
Update: version 1.3.3-cvs-b5 available from here has a configuration option that allows you to disable this donation without changing the code.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. This is as good a place as any to leave comments and tell us how you feel about this change.
regards,
Bharat
Gallery Dev Team
Considering how much time and effort you all put into this program, and that we all use it (I have 2 sites so far), this is probably the LEAST we could do to contribute. I haven't used Gallery's shutterfly link to print, but I'm totally cool with that donation when I do.
this is a great idea... its really genius when compared to Charging us (the webmasters) for the script.<br />
As the Gallery community grows so will your profits and i hope that it makes you tons <br />
<br />
additionally, what someone else said is right... we gotta give back to you cause this script is so sweet...nothing else compares.
I also agree that this is an easy way to help with the cause. With Shutterfly's prices as cheap as they are, 2 cents still leave a very inexpensive way to get a print. Actually even 5 cents would be fine. Is there any way to specify the amount, or do they only do 2 cents?
Have you seen a shutter fly print in person? Is it clear?
Yes I have. Of course, all depends on the quality of the photo submitted. The wife used shutterfly to print out pics for our Chirstmas cards (and some other pics) that we took with a 2-mega pixel camera. Came back looking spectacular.
I have no problem with this at all... except for the fact that using ShutterFly from Australia is kinda awkward.<br />
<br />
How approachable were they? Is it worth my talking to a few print providers locally to see if they would be willing to provide an interface into their system? Is it worth it - how many other Gallery users have a target market in AU?<br />
<br />
There are a couple of processing sites I use; if people think there is a demand for it I'm happy to talk to them and see what can be worked out...<br />
<br />
Rich
I recently purchased several of my own photos from my gallery through shutterfly and it took almost 2 weeks just to get confirmation that the order had been shipped... and the confirmation was that they had been shipped almost a week prior and that if I waitied another additional week and still didnt have them then I should get back to them...<br />
<br />
This is a horrid level of service and it makes me want to turn off the availablity of shutterfly as an option... however I would rather offer another option to my visitors... has anyone successfully added a secondary option? Think we can get them to do a similar deal with Gallery to supplement thier costs?
I have no problems paying such a small extra fee to support the gallery, but I also think that gallery should consider adding several printing services (e.g. one in north america, one in europe and so on) to make ordering prints easier.
<p>I've just been in touch with <a href="http://www.fotowire.com">FotoWire</a>, seeking their permission to code an interface between Gallery and their international network of processing labs.</p>
<p>For those that don't know, FotoWire basically provide a channel for people to send images to what are often local processing labs, and be able to get their prints via pickup or post. In Australia, they provide a custom version of their upload application for <a href="http://www.kodak.com.au/AU/en/consumer/printOnline/index.shtml">Kodak</a> and <a href="http://www.teds.com.au/p/58/articles/displayarticle.asp?articleid=38885">Ted's Camera Stores</a>. I imagine that they do this in other locations as well.</p>
<p>Anyway, their response was promising:</p>
<pre><b>From:</b> Chris Johnson<br><b>To:</b> Richard Stocks<br><b>Subject:</b> Sending images to labs<br>
Hello Richard,
Thankyou for considering FotoWire on the Gallery
application. We would be glad to offer our
support. I would need an NDA on file, and then I
will be glad to forward you the documentation that
you have asked for which should help you easily
implement an HTML version. Please sign and
return the attached standard Non-disclosure.
Thanks,
Chris Johnson
</p>
VP FotoWire, Inc</pre>
<p>Now, I have no problem signing the NDA... however, I'm not sure what good it will do, given that Gallery is open source.
<p>Anyway, I'll check it out and report back!</p>
<p>Side issue, I also tried to get in touch with <a href="http://www.fujicolour.com.au">Fuji</a>, but the email address on their site bounced.</p>
Okay, it's taken a while to get some action happening. FotoWire were trying to decide how to deal with the whole open source thing. Thankfully, they have now decided that no NDA is required, and have sent me some documentation on how to interface with their network. Looks pretty simple.<br />
<br />
The only catch is that anyone who wants to use it will need to apply for a FotoWire Web Site ID. I'm working with them at the moment to make this as painless as possible.<br />
<br />
Time permitting, I'll have some code for people to try out soon!<br />
Hi there,<br />
I think it's great that others are looking at alternative printing sources. I don't particularly care for shutterfly and I'm not sure why everyone integrates with only them. I'd definately pay the extra 2 cents for gallery, but I'd rather have the print cost be .10 less and donate more with a provider with a higher level of service. <br />
<br />
I've been using www.photoaccess.com for quite some time. I've had excellent results all around.. Quick turnaround and good service overall.. They also print on Fuji crystal archive which is pretty good stuff..<br />
<br />
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.. so to speak..<br />
Thanks,<br />
Brett
Latest update:<br />
<br />
I've got a test account set up (goes to a "test" lab - ie no real prints done), and a couple of basic tests have works ok. Now to the fun part of actually making it work from Gallery...<br />
Latest update: I've got the FotoWire link code integrated on a test gallery, using a test account, and it works well. I'm just waiting for my real "web ID" to be created, and I'll fire it up for real.
Hi there,<br />
I just wrote to photoaccess.com the other day regarding integrating with gallery and aparently making their system integrate into other sites is something they've already been discussing internally. They said that they wrote to
to get more information, so I hope that's a manned account! <br />
<br />
<br />
Guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed that everyone stays as cooperative as they are!
Brett<br />
I've been searching hi and lo for information about this. Can you share how you went about getting the code from FotoWire for your photo album? I'm very interested in using it with my albums!
I'm guessing that since Gallery is open source and whatnot, there's the option of striking a similar deal with Shutterfly, and modifying the code to get the 1.8 cents (or whatever) myself. Which, since I too don't have unlimited bandwidth, would be a Good Thing. ;)
<p>
But... if I do that, I should donate to Gallery through PayPal, yes?
Just to provide an alternative experience, we ordered several prints from Shutterfly just to see how it worked out and had excellent results. (We've just installed the Gallery program as a PostNuke module and wanted to be able to tell our users what it was like to use Shutterfly to order prints.)<br />
<br />
In particular, I placed the order in the early hours of Monday, 24 March. I got an e-mail confirmation that day, and the five prints arrived that Friday, 28 March, despite my having chosen the cheapest/slowest shipping option (U.S. Postal Service).
I think this is great.<br />
<br />
My experience with shutterfly (one order so far, about $5 US worth of stuff) was really positive.<br />
<br />
I am just curious how much this yeilds back to the project. Maybe an occasional update or progress meter or something?