PhotoShelter WordPress Integration

You are a photographer. You have an web portfolio. And a blog. And another site for selling prints. And another site for licensing images. And another system for newsletters. And, well, you get the point.

If this is your situation, stop! It’s time to streamline your digital life.

Combining PhotoShelter‘s robust photo sales, licensing and marketing tools with WordPress, a rapidly evolving and highly extensible web publishing platform, gives photographers the web tools needed to thrive in today’s digital marketplace.

How integration works

1. Download and install one of our integrated themes on your WordPress site

2. Configure your PhotoShelter navigation and run the configurator

After installing your new shiny theme, you need to configure the navigation settings tab on your theme options panel. Save the settings and visit the PhotoShelter configurator page. The configurator takes a snapshot of your Graph Paper Press theme and automagically generates a new custom theme for all your PhotoShelter web pages. Here are the official instructions from PhotoShelter for using the configurator.

3. Done.

Bonus! PhotoShelter plugins for WordPress

Take integration to another level by using these free PhotoShelter plugins:

  • PhotoShelter Official Plugin – Embed PhotoShelter photos & galleries in WordPress
  • PhotoShelter Gallery Plugin – Display PhotoShelter gallery updates into your site’s sidebar
  • PhotoShelter Search – Search PhotoShelter archives from your sidebar

PhotoShelter plugin videos & info

PhotoShelter Official Plugin (Beta)

Developed by the PhotoShelter team, this plugin allows you to add images and slideshows from your PhotoShelter account to any WordPress post – all without leaving your WP interface. Just click on the PhotoShelter icon in your post menu, and you may browse your public PhotoShelter content to select a gallery or image for embedding.

PhotoShelter Gallery Plugin

Developed by the Graph Paper Press team, this plugin allows you to embed the latest photo from any number of your recently published PhotoShelter galleries directly into your site’s sidebar.

Where do I download these plugins?

All plugins can be downloaded directly from your member page here at Graph Paper Press. Free and paid memberships are available, depending on your needs. You can also download the PhotoShelter Official Plugin directly from PhotoShelter. You must have PHP5, SimpleXML PHP library (usually pre-installed on servers running PHP5) and the have the PHP function file_get_contents available on your server. Most modern web hosts will meet these system requirements. If yours doesn’t, please contact your web host and ask them to enable them.

Example Integrated Websites

Help! I’m lost & need assistance!

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Still have questions?

What is integration and why do I need it?

When we refer to “integration” we are referring, first and foremost, to design integration. The goal for your website should be to create a seamless, cohesive brand between your blog, portfolio, e-commerce and marketing materials. A web presence that is splintered around the internet with no cohesive branding or design sensibility communicates more to your potential clients than you might think. Bringing your blog, portfolio and e-commerce sites in under one roof will not only streamline your workflow, it communicates to your potential clients that you are current. So long Flash sites & splash pages. Hello iPhone compatible slideshows & videos. While our plugins aren’t required for integration, they do further simplify the process of inserting PhotoShelter content into your WordPress site.

Additional information & tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add the PhotoShelter plugins to my site?

To add plugins to your WordPress site, follow these steps:

  1. Using FTP, connect to your web server
  2. Navigate into the directory where you installed WordPress
  3. Navigate into /wp-content/plugins/
  4. Drop the entire unzipped plugin folder that you downloaded from us into that folder
  5. Now, log into your WordPress site, if you aren't already and click on Plugins
  6. Activate the plugin you just uploaded
  7. If you are using the PhotoShelter Plugin, click on the new PhotoShelter icon at the bottom left of your WordPress admin panel and configure the plugin.
  8. If you are using the PhotoShelter Gallery or PhotoShelter Search plugins, navigate to the Appearance -> Widgets section and drag the new widget the plugin created into one of your sidebar areas.

Gallery Widget - Warning: file_get_contents()

You must have PHP5, SimpleXML PHP library (usually pre-installed on servers running PHP5) and have the PHP function file_get_contents available on your server.  Some hosts have the PHP function file_get_contents disabled by default. You can check to see your server's PHP settings my creating a file called phpinfo.php and adding this code to it:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Upload that file to a web accessible folder on your site and then load it in your browser. For example, I would load http://example.com/phpinfo.php

This will show you all your PHP settings. Check to see if file_get_content is disabled. If it is, either ask your web host to enable it, or add a php.ini file to the wordpress folders with "allow_url_fopen = On" and "allow_url_include = On" inside it.