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Paypal does have an API available for total user customized / created carts, but that is a seperate system from the simple cart I'm refering to.

I used it years ago, and it worked pretty much as I described. Although appears to be slightly more robust now in terms of options for an item than it was those years ago.

I plan to create an item and will post it on an HTML page later today, so we can see exactly how it's handled, and you can hopefully get a better idea of wether or not it's do-able.

There are several major differences between PayPal and Fotomoto.

First of all, PayPal is just a payment system. While Fotomoto takes care of the payments, it's not just a payment system. It also does fulfillment, customer support, and even customization (for example, look at custom message in the postcard).

Also, soon Fotomoto.com will be a central place to search all of our users' sites. Think about Google Image Search, but the different is the photos you see there are available for print / license / etc. This will start bringing traffic / transaction to the photographers' website.

There are a lot of smaller difference there as well: e-card, statistics, sharing (soon), and several new products (adding each month).

One last thing, on top of default site setting, using our control panel photographers can decide which photos are being offered, which sizes, etc (in the photo level).

Hope this helps.

markam24 wrote:Paypal does have an API available for total user customized / created carts, but that is a seperate system from the simple cart I'm refering to.

I used it years ago, and it worked pretty much as I described. Although appears to be slightly more robust now in terms of options for an item than it was those years ago.

I plan to create an item and will post it on an HTML page later today, so we can see exactly how it's handled, and you can hopefully get a better idea of wether or not it's do-able.

All I can imagine, is a website you will show me, where you have embedded lots of paypal-specific html with attributes as to create options for your single item. We are expected to create this interface in Imagevue SWF I presume? And have a management system so the gallery-owner can select dozens of options with limited values to be available to all pictures?

Ok, I won't jump to any more conclusions until I see your example =)

Hello FotoMoto -;)

Yes, your service looks excellent and I'm not trying to dissuade Karl from implementing it. In fact I've signed up and will order a test print or two. Seems like a very nice option.

But not everyone will always want a 3rd party to handle printing. I for one have invested great amounts of time researching and testing various papers and profiles, enjoy the process, and take pride in saying "I've created this & personally approve it".

Many people also want signed prints.

So I'm simply suggesting an alternative for people such as myself who want this creative control. I'm sure I'm not alone. Some people look at self fulfillment as a burden. Some see it as an advantage.

Hello Experienced,

You are right! A lot of artists want to do the print themselves. You may have missed our first post here. There I mentioned that we are working on adding "Self-fulfillment" feature as well. And based on our conversations with the artists, I think the sensitivity is usually about the large prints. For postcards and calendars and smaller products, they are OK with "outsourcing" it. Is this correct?

Damn.

Your right. I haven't seen that! That changes everything!

If that's the case then I can get behind it 85%. Maybe I'll offer the other 15% after trying it -;)

Thanks for clarifying.

(Karl - hope I haven't wasted too much of your time here)

And yes...I believe you are correct re: the large prints as opposed to other products.

markam24 wrote:Damn.

Your right. I haven't seen that! That changes everything!

If that's the case then I can get behind it 85%. Maybe I'll offer the other 15% after trying it -;)

Thanks for clarifying.

(Karl - hope I haven't wasted too much of your time here)

Not at all - This is a great learning process for us, and I am very happy someone is putting time into processing the idea. We are grateful for your help!

Well you can safely move me to the "optimistic" column re: Fotomoto. Especially given they're getting personally involved in the forums.

Ok, now that we're all* happy with Fotomoto and it's inclusion into Imagevue can we now get round to adding a geotagging feature
















* I use the word "all" very loosely

Very happy to see that e-Commerce topic is on the run (I've been dreaming of it from the very first day I've used IV, which is still my favorite fash gallery !)

Fotomoto or other, may I suggest you to consider that localization (language and proximity service) is an important feature to me (poor little french man )

I must admit I didn't have a deep look on Fotomoto but, at first sight, I have some difficulties to imagine that sending prints with Fotomoto at a reasonable price with the needed protection (photo print is a fragile thing) is competitive with my local printing provider (see http://photoweb.fr) ...

I support Foto Moto.
Will we be able to customize the look of the FotoMoto Bar in the interface?

Is it possible to also keep the Purchase Link Button, some clients sites that use IV can still have it send the users to their e-commerce side of their site to purchase?

Also how is FotoMoto with Adult Images? I have a few clients that are playmates and models, that would be trying to sell Adult Oriented Imagery.

Doesn't really appeal to me, because of the fee and the fact that they print it. I mean, I would love some kind of e-commerce in Imagevue (or just some plugin/addon) but I want to manage everything since most of the customers would probably be from my country, so I would take photos to my trusted print shop and mail/deliver them with much less costs.
Maybe I would use this if I had a lot of buyers, since then I probably wouldn't be able to handle all the traffic. So, not really.

azzqim wrote:Doesn't really appeal to me, because of the fee and the fact that they print it. I mean, I would love some kind of e-commerce in Imagevue (or just some plugin/addon) but I want to manage everything since most of the customers would probably be from my country, so I would take photos to my trusted print shop and mail/deliver them with much less costs.
Maybe I would use this if I had a lot of buyers, since then I probably wouldn't be able to handle all the traffic. So, not really.

Keep in mind the provide a "self-fulfillment" option in Fotomoto also, so you can handle your own prints. The Fotomoto service simply fills in an area that is realistically an impossible task for Imagevue.

"Some kind of E-commerce in Imagevue" simply does not apply technically. The interface we need to include is too complex, basically because everyone wants different sales features and options for photos ... and thats even before the contemplation of hooking it up to any payment provider, who already takes at least 5% commission anyway. I think some are failing to see that we are not merely suggesting Fotomoto as a print service provider, but because they provide a full service that basically makes it possible to integrate a fully-flexible webshop into Imagevue.

Fotomoto is not a solution
a) for anyone living outside of the the US
b) for photographers selling stock photos or printing themselves
c) for artists selling fine art reproductions

I started writing a gallery system 5 years ago. I stopped partly because there were other systems out there - including "Gallery". I assumed at that time that their chunkiness would soon be replaced by something with more functionality and sleeker, more user friendly. I'm still trying to find it.

Its great news that imagevue is working on an e-commerce system. Fotomoto will work for some, but not for me, or for the 3 other photographers I build websites for.

Can I suggest:
Consider using a hosted shopping cart (like mals-ecommerce) to handle the shopping cart side of things. Its trivial to write code to send items to the cart, you would, however need to add admin systems to assign data to each image - which I appreciate would not be trivial.

I'd be happy to help with the admin logic - both as photographer and developer