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Shutterfly Upload

An export plug-in for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Shutterfly Upload

This plug-in allows you to export images from Photoshop Lightroom directly into your Shutterfly account. It was developed using Shutterfly’s Open API, but is in no other way affiliated with Shutterfly. Please don’t ask Shutterfly if you have questions about, or problems with, this plug-in — they won’t have a clue what you’re talking about.


download
Version 1.3

Compatibility

This plug-in was developed and tested on Windows, but should work fine on a Mac (please let me know if that’s not the case!). It has been tested with the following Photoshop Lightroom versions:

  • 2.1,
  • 2.3,
  • 3.0, and
  • 3.2.

In Photoshop Lightroom 3.x, the plug-in operates as a traditional export plug-in. There is no Publishing Services support at this time.

Installation

  1. Download version 1.3 of the plug-in as a zip file.
     
  2. Unzip the contents of the zip file to a location of your choice. Be sure that the internal folder structure is preserved (the plug-in contents should all be inside of a folder that ends with “.lrplugin” or “.lrdevplugin”). Check your zip tool documentation to see what you need to do.
     
  3. Start Lightroom, and launch the Plug-in Manager either from the File menu, or from the “Plug-in Manager…” button on the Export Dialog.
     
  4. Click the “Add” button, then locate the directory that you unzipped, above (it will end with “.lrplugin” or “.lrdevplugin”).
     
  5. If you receive a “Confirm” dialog telling you that

    The plug-in “Shutterfly Upload” needs to update the catalog to support its plug-in properties.

    press “Update“.

  6. Press “OK“, and you’ll be good to go!

Updates

The installation zip file is designed to be unzipped directly over the top of an existing installation of the plug-in. The easiest way to update is to unzip the contents to the same place you did initially, then restart Lightroom or reload the plug-in from the Plug-in Manager.

When you install an update, a “Confirm” dialog may pop up to let you know that the Shutterfly Upload plug-in “… needs to update the catalog ….“  The plug-in uses your catalog you keep information about your uploads so you can find it later if you need to. Press “Update” to dismiss the dialog.

You may also install an update along side of an existing installation, making it easy to return to the original version if you want to. If you want to go this route, follow the “Installation” instructions, above, but be sure to unzip the file to a new location.

Lightroom will detect that you’re installing a newer version and disable the older copy. If you want to switch back, use the Plug-in Manager to Disable the more recent version, then Enable the older one.

When you decide which version you want to keep, you can use the Plug-in Manager to Remove the other from Lightroom, but the plug-in files will remain in your file system. You’ll need to delete them manually if you want to remove them from your machine.

Use

Export:

After following the installation steps, the Shutterfly Upload will be available as an export target. In the Export dialog, click anywhere on the banner image located near the top and select “Shutterfly Upload” from the menu that appears.

There are three settings groups specific to the Shutterfly Upload plug-in (the others are standard with most export plug-ins):

  1. Shutterfly Account

    If you would like to see a list of your Shutterfly albums, enter your Shutterfly user ID and password, and press the “Login” button. If you aren’t logged on to Shutterfly prior to starting the export, you will be prompted for your login information.

    If you would like to save your password for the next time you use Lightroom, or to be able to save your password in an export preset, check the “Save password?” box before pressing “Login”. Be aware that when checked, your password will be saved as clear text in Lightroom’s preferences file, and it may be visible in debug logs.
     

  2. Shutterfly Upload Settings

    This is where you can specify the Shutterfly album to export to. Either select “Add to new album” and fill in an album name, or select “Add to existing album” and choose one from the list. The “Add to existing album” option will only be available when you’re logged on to Shutterfly (see above).

    If you don’t provide an album name, today’s date will be used as a default name (e.g. “2009-03-24″).
     

  3. Post-processing

    There are three actions to choose from that can be performed once your export completes:

    Do Nothing
    I guess this would be better termed an “inaction”.
    Visit Shutterfly
    The Shutterfly “Album View” will be opened in your browser. Note that if your browser is already logged on to a Shutterfly account, it is that account that will be displayed, not necessarily the one used for the Lightroom export.
    Show in [Explorer | Finder]
    Show the exported images in Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac). This choice only makes sense if you chose other than “Temporary folder” in the standard “Export Location” section.

Note: in the “File Settings” group, be sure to choose “sRGB” for the “Color Space” selection!

Metadata:

When you export images to Shutterfly, the plug-in adds information to the Lightroom catalog for those images that is visible in the Lightroom metadata panel and can be used as a filter for creating Smart Collections, or for Library module viewing. The information saved includes:

  • the upload status,
  • the Shutterfly user ID active at the time of upload,
  • the Shutterfly album name the photo was uploaded to, and
  • the upload date and time.

If a given image is uploaded more than once, the metadata reflects the status of the most recent upload.

Some basic metadata maintenance can be performed using the “Shutterfly Upload extras” panel, accessible from Lightroom’s “File > Plug-in Extras” and “Library > Plug-in Extras” menu options.

The options on this panel give you the ability to:

  • remove the Shutterfly Upload metadata from the selected photos,
  • set the Shutterfly Upload status flag for the selected photos, and
  • edit some Shutterfly Upload metadata fields for the selected photos.

These actions can be “undone” using Lightroom’s standard undo capability if the undo is performed immediately.

Terms

This plug-in is provided for your use, free of charge. However, if you find it useful, Donations are Gladly Accepted!

Contact

If you have questions, comments, or problems, post a comment on the Feedback page and I’ll do what I can to help. Be sure to include the version and build stamp (found in the plug-in’s “Status” section of the Plug-in Manager) and any error messages you received.

Enjoy!

-Don

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