Koken – Publish unlisted and private content

Every image, video, album and set has its own Visibility setting. This setting controls who is allowed to view content on your web site. Three options are available:

• Public — content may be viewed by anyone and indexed by search engines.
• Unlisted — content is not published publicly and may only be viewed through a secret URL.
• Private — content is not published publicly and may only be viewed by you inside Koken’s library.

By default, everything you import and create is public. This means the content is visible to anyone who visits your web site, and search engines may include the content in their search results. You may change the default visibility setting by going to Settings > Importing inside Koken. Separate settings are available for individual images/videos and collections, as shown below.

Visibility may also be edited through the Library when editing existing content or when importing new content. Visibility settings assigned in the Library override the default settings.

Let’s take a closer look at how visibility works by publishing an album of unlisted content, followed by a walkthrough demonstrating how to provide password-protected access to private content using our premium Password Protect plugin.

Unlisted content

Unlisted content is most useful for photographers who’d like to discretely share individual images, videos, or entire collections with clients, friends or family. Unlisted content isn’t password protected, but their URLs are secret, so only you and those you choose to share the links with are able to view the content. Neither search engines nor the general public are able to view them.

Let’s start by creating an unlisted album. Click the plus [+] button at the bottom of the Library’s left column. Select Album at the top if not already selected, then assign a title and description. Click More Properties underneath and select “Unlisted” from the Visibility dropdown. Finally, click the Create album button at the bottom.

The new album will appear in the left column’s Unlisted list.

Now let’s add some images. If you’ve already imported images or videos, click All content at top left, then drag and drop one or multiple items from the Library’s middle column onto the unlisted album in the left column. If the content is public, Koken will ask if you’d like to change their visibility to match. Click Yes.

To import new images or videos not in the Library, make sure the album is selected in the Library’s left column, then click the Import content button at bottom right.

The images in your unlisted album should now display the unlisted icon badge, as shown below.

Let’s take a look at our new unlisted album! Scroll the Library’s right “Inspector” column down until you see the Site section. Click the view link under the Link field.

A new browser window will open displaying the unlisted album at its secret URL. Share this link with anyone you like. Remember, unlisted content doesn’t appear anywhere else on your site and can only be accessed through their assigned secret URL.

To reset a link, click the reset link under the URL. A new unlisted URL will be generated and the former URL will no longer function.

Unlisted sets

A set is collection that groups albums or sets. Just like albums, sets may be public, unlisted or private. All collections inside a parent set must match the visibility of their parent set. When sharing unlisted sets, sharing a parent set’s secret link will allow access to all collections the set contains. Sharing a secret link to a collection inside a set will only allow access to that particular collection, not the parent set.

Private content

Private content is password protected, and can normally only be by you inside Koken’s Library. For those who’d like to share private content on their sites we offer a separate Password Protect plugin. This premium plugin may be used to password-protect individual collections or your entire site.

We’ll now take a closer look at how this plugin works by publishing a password-protected album of content.

First we need a private album. As before, click the plus [+] button at the bottom of the Library’s left column. Select Album at the top if not already selected, then assign a title and description. Click More Properties underneath and select “Private” from the Visibility dropdown. Finally, click the Add button at the bottom.

The new album will appear in the left column’s Private list.

Add to the private album existing images/videos from All content, or import new images/videos by clicking the Import content button at bottom right.

The images in your private album should now display the private icon badge, as shown below.

With the Password Protect plugin installed and enabled, click on a private album in the Library’s left column, then scroll the right “Inspector” panel down until you see the Password Protect section. Click the Allow viewing with a password checkbox, then enter a password into the field that appears underneath, as demonstrated below.

When finished, click anywhere outside the password field. The password will be saved. Click view underneath its Site link to test out your password. If everything works, share the page URL with anyone you’d like, along with the necessary password.

If you’d like to use a single password for all private collections instead of assigning passwords individually, you may do so by assigning a “master key” in the plugin’s setup screen.