Opening an image collection via the internet can greatly enhance the value of that collection. There is one client of DBGallery that used to individually find and email images to third parties, by the dozens per week. This was obviously interruptive and time-consuming. Allowing those third parties to login in themselves, with access to only the areas they should be able to access, turned out to be a huge benefit to the third party also because they could instantly grab the images they needed.
DBGallery has two ways to open an image collection:
1) Secure Public Share Links (no login required): Convenient for those viewing images. All that is required by those receiving the share link is to click on a URL. No login needed. The onus is on your side where you need to find the images, click Share, then sent the URL to the viewer or viewers. As an example, this works well for sales situations where convenience to potential clients is essential.
2) Logins: Convenient for those managing the image collection. When there are internal or external folks who would often want access to images you simply provide them with a login username and password.
Examples of user access:
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- Search and view only access, or possibly allow download as well. In this example, this group would NOT be able to modify the collection in any way. They would typically be provided access to only specific folders. This restricted access is perfect for those outside your company, such as customers.
Usage scenarios from DBGallery clients:
1) Clients login to view the latest drone videos of their construction site.
2) A municipal state agency has requests for images from many other state, federal and private agencies and they are provided login and search instructions for a self-serve model. This provides significant time saving for the municipality, and has the added benefit of providing faster access to those who need to find images.
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- Add and Edit access, to help manage the collection. This group could be provided permissions to upload and potentially edit data. They would typically be provided access to only specific folders.
Usage scenarios from DBGallery clients:
1) A group of field personnel taking photographs return to their hotel and laptop after a day of shooting to upload and tag images.
2) Field personnel involved in shipping upload and tag images real time as crates are moved from one mode of transportation to another (to provide customers near real-time access to the condition of their crates).
An image collection doesn’t have to be lockup up internally. Open it up to those who need access to your image and you are likely to find things more convenient with a good deal of time saved. They'll appreciate it too.
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