v1.3.3 is released!
Posted by ProStockMaster at 8/21/2007 4:07 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Fotolia V2 is supported in this version (welcome back, Fotolia!). Like for iStockPhoto.com, uploaded images will go directly to the approval queue - no need to "finalize" the uploaded work before sending it inspectors. A default category is attached to all the uploaded images - change it later if you believe that buyers search Fotolia by categories 
Like it was promised in the past, the new v1.3.3 speeds up images preparation workflow by extending "Copy" functionality.
"Copy" wizard is now bi-directional, i.e. it can copy data to the selected image from any other (previously prepared) image or, alternatively, copy data from the selected to multiple images selected by the photographer.
Let me tell a few words about this latest feature. Imagine that you have a series of 15 studio shots with a nice model handling a fruits basket. Now you have added a title, description and keywords to the first image in this series (do not forget to press "Generate" button to get some automated help on the keywording!), and have selected sites where you want this image and all the rest images from your series to be uploaded.
Next, press "Copy" button in the IPTC panel. You will get the following window:
Note that you can copy metadata and/or sites selection from this first image to all the others. Pressing the "Next" button will show the window where you can create and manage the list of images that should get this data:
If you press "Add" button, you will be prompted to add files to this list. Following our example, you will select here all the images that belong to that "model-with-a-fruits-basket" shooting session:
When you press "Select" in the window above, all the images you have selected are added to the list.
You can now add more images, delete images that probably were added here by a mistake, cancel or approve the "Copy" procedure. If you approve your selection by pressing "Finish" button, all the listed images will get exactly the same metadata - title, description, keywords and will get exactly the same sites selection like you have defined for the first image in the series, which is currently selected in the main application window.
Now, when you go to "Tools->Upload Images..." menu, you will see that all the images in your series are properly indexed with the identical metadata and are ready to be uploaded to all the sites you wanted. You can upload them all in button click or, alternatively, edit titles and other metadata for some images to be more image-specific before uploading the entire series.
-David
Like it was promised in the past, the new v1.3.3 speeds up images preparation workflow by extending "Copy" functionality.
"Copy" wizard is now bi-directional, i.e. it can copy data to the selected image from any other (previously prepared) image or, alternatively, copy data from the selected to multiple images selected by the photographer.
Let me tell a few words about this latest feature. Imagine that you have a series of 15 studio shots with a nice model handling a fruits basket. Now you have added a title, description and keywords to the first image in this series (do not forget to press "Generate" button to get some automated help on the keywording!), and have selected sites where you want this image and all the rest images from your series to be uploaded.
Next, press "Copy" button in the IPTC panel. You will get the following window:
Note that you can copy metadata and/or sites selection from this first image to all the others. Pressing the "Next" button will show the window where you can create and manage the list of images that should get this data:
If you press "Add" button, you will be prompted to add files to this list. Following our example, you will select here all the images that belong to that "model-with-a-fruits-basket" shooting session:
When you press "Select" in the window above, all the images you have selected are added to the list.
You can now add more images, delete images that probably were added here by a mistake, cancel or approve the "Copy" procedure. If you approve your selection by pressing "Finish" button, all the listed images will get exactly the same metadata - title, description, keywords and will get exactly the same sites selection like you have defined for the first image in the series, which is currently selected in the main application window.
Now, when you go to "Tools->Upload Images..." menu, you will see that all the images in your series are properly indexed with the identical metadata and are ready to be uploaded to all the sites you wanted. You can upload them all in button click or, alternatively, edit titles and other metadata for some images to be more image-specific before uploading the entire series.
-David
Thanks for the welcome back
don't feel to contact me directly for any questions about the API (if you eventualy used it
Thibaud
CEO Fotolia
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Hi Thibaud,
Glad to hear from you.
Well, I got the API key from Pierre, Fotolia - he was very kind delivering it to me very fast.
Than I started to learn the API and occasionally I found that the V2 brand-new-totally-redesigned API does not have files upload functionality.
At all.
Nada.
Pierre made a remark via email that you guys assumed that images can be successfully uploaded via FTP, so there is no need to implement HTTP upload.
Well, it is quite a strange way of doing things I guess. Did you ever try to get file ID in response to your FTP upload?
I mean, if your API users (developers) have uploaded a file via FTP, how do you expect them (actually, us,- the developers) track down the file's status on Fotolia? Since FTP can not return the file ID, our end-users/photographers can not get any indication if the file was approved or rejected, what is its downloading statistics etc. Speaking more generally, using the FTP we can not build proper connection between what is going on on the local photographer's computer and on his submitter's homepage at Fotolia. And as you see - this is exactly what the photographers wnat, so let's help them doing that.
IMO, if anyway Fotolia has invested significant amount of time in site redesign and API creation, I would expect such API to provide at least similar or even bigger functionality than the web site provides. However, at the moment the API allows much less then the web site. For instance, it provides very basic download statistics - credits, number of images sold - all in total. Even the simpliest query for "show me the last month sdownload statistics" is not included in the API. The web sites allows this one and much more statistics queries and, in fact, I can not find any reasonable explanation why this functionality has been excluded from the so-long-awaited Fotolia V2 API.
So, well, I reviewed the API and I decided not to use it. In its current form V2 API has no added value for me.
Oh, there is one more point, and this time there is nothing about the API. Do you know that once you have uploaded a picture to Fotolia and it is inserted in the queue for approval, you can not delete it from there? It must be reviewed and either accepted or deleted. You are getting a chance to delete it only after the approval/rejection, until that "delete" button is grayed out.
First, I think it is the direct violation of photographers rights. We are speaking here about my pictures and Fotolia has to give me full control on them once they are uploaded to Fotolia web. Restricting a photographer doing that looks like an explicit violation of the basic image owner rights. What if I regreted right after the upload, and I do not want to sell this picture on Fotolia? Why I can not delete it right away? What if I has uploaded the wrong image, probably available exclusively from another stock agency? What if I uploaded a personal picture and I do not want Fotolia' editors to see it?
I assume that if other people will ask the same question it can cause multiple law suites against Fotolia.
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It's a bit akward in case you made a mistake. But the main point is that you can delete the image when it has passed the approval queue.
The legal issue is totally void. An image in the approval queue is not visible to the public, hence Fotolia doesn't violate any copyright. It's like you send a photo by Yahoo email. At some point it will be physically present on Yahoo's servers, but the mere physical possession doesn't mean Yahoo violates your copyright since they don't offer that image to anybody, except the recipient.
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We're loving ProStockMaster. Glad to have access to Fotolia back, kind of humorous to see they messed up the API just as bad or even worse than their own user interface and site features.
Notice that uploads to BigStockPhoto don't seem to work now. ProStockMaster reports they were uploaded, but they don't appear on the web site. A flaw in 1.3.3, or due to changes at BigStock?
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Thanks for the hard work keeping improving this guys!
Unfortunately there are two issues that I've found.
BigStock uploads no longer work at all. Yes. I've waited a while for them to come up and they earn't EVER coming up. Anyone else having this problem?
Now that photo files are automatically submitted for validation at Fotolia, there's never an opportunity to edit your Categories. Also, there's no way to add or edit Categories to my images once they're approved either. So, even though it may be Fotolia's policies that should change regarding editing after upload, I think the upload should go back to where it was, with the option of editing the file after uploading. In other words, just upload the images, don't submit them.
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