The License Alerts workflow helps reduce risk for your organization by making image license tracking transparent and seamless.

After enabling this workflow:

• You can add a License Expiration Date to images in your Library
• The Admin and Editors will receive a daily email notification about any images with upcoming License Expiration Dates
• Those images will be automatically watermarked with license expiration info in the Library and on the Portal. This watermark is for display only; it will not be visible on downloaded images

This workflow is currently available only for image files. It is not available for video, audio, or other non-image files.

The License Alerts workflow is available to PhotoShelter for Brands subscriptions. Please contact our support team if you would like to upgrade your organization’s PhotoShelter account.

 

Admin: enable workflow

Only the Admin on a PhotoShelter for Brands account can enable, disable, and change the workflow settings for License Alerts.

To set up the License Alerts workflow:

• Select Metadata Settings from the Admin menu
• Click Set up workflow

• Select a notification and watermark timeframe for images: On the License Expiration Date, 14 days before the License Expiration Date, or 30 days before the License Expiration Date

• Click Enable workflow
• Go to your Library and add a License Expiration Date to one or more images

On the Metadata Settings page, Editors can view the workflow status (enabled/disabled) and the notification/watermark setting, but cannot change any settings.

 

Library: add a License Expiration Date to images

After the Admin enables the License Alerts workflow, the Admin, Editors, and Taggers will be alerted about the new License Expiration Date field in the Library via a one-time popup when they select an image. This will also let them know what the Admin has selected as the notification & watermark setting.

Add a License Expiration Date to a single image

• Navigate to a gallery in the Library
• In the Center Pane, select an image
• In the Right Pane, click the pencil icon next to License Metadata
• Click the calendar icon and select a License Expiration Date for that image, or enter a date using the DD Mon YYYY format, e.g. 30 Apr 2019 or 07 Jun 2015
• Click Add

Edit or remove a License Expiration Date on a single image

• Navigate to a gallery in the Library
• In the Center Pane, select an image that already has a License Expiration Date
• In the Right Pane, click the pencil icon next to License Metadata
• Click the calendar icon and select a new License Expiration Date for that image, or click Remove License Expiration Date to remove the existing date
• Click Save

Add/edit/remove a License Expiration Date from a batch of images

• Navigate to a gallery in the Library
• In the Center Pane, select a batch of images
• Click the Actions dropdown and select Edit image license metadata
• Follow the instructions in the sections above to add, edit, or remove a License Expiration Date from the batch of images
• Click Add or Save

You can also perform these actions on one or more images in Library search results.

 

Library & Portal: view License Expiration Date info for images

• Once an image has a License Expiration Date, that metadata will be displayed in the Library Right Pane Image Info when you’ve selected an image

• It will also display on the Portal single image view, above the IPTC Usage Rights field

 

Please note that License Expiration Date metadata is not embedded in images if you export the images from PhotoShelter, e.g. by downloading them from your Library or Portal.

 

Admins & Editors: receive License Alerts email about soon-to-expire or expired images

After you’ve set a License Expiration Date on one or more images in your Library, the Admin and Editors will receive a daily email if there are any images with upcoming expiration dates.

Depending on the notification/watermark setting the Admin selected, you will receive this email either on the License Expiration Date, 14 days before the License Expiration Date, or 30 days before the License Expiration Date of an image.

If there are no images with an upcoming expiration date, there will be no email sent that day.

License Alert email contents

• The number of images with an upcoming License Expiration Date, e.g. 5 images
• The License Expiration Date, e.g. 23 Jun 2018
• How much advance notice is being given (if applicable), e.g. 14 or 30 days
• A list of those images, sorted alphabetically by filename
• A link to each image, which goes to the Library single image view

If you need to notify stakeholders about these images, move the images within your Library, or change any Visibility & Access settings for the galleries the images are in, receiving this email is a great opportunity to do so, since there will be no additional reminder email.

Error page

• If you click an image link in the License Alerts email and receive an error page, it means that an Admin or Editor previously moved that image to your Library Trash. An image in the Trash cannot be displayed in the Library single image view, since it’s no longer in any galleries
• The License Alerts workflow does not automatically move any images within your Library

• To find that image in your Library, you can copy the image ID from the error page URL, located at the end of the URL after /img-show/IMAGEID
• Paste the image ID into the File ID field of your Library search, and click Search

 

Library & Portal: view watermarked images

On the same day the Admin and Editors receive the License Alert email about any images with an upcoming License Expiration Date, that set of images will be watermarked in the Library and on the Portal of your PhotoShelter for Brands account. The expiration watermark will always display in the top-center of an image.

The expiration watermark will display on thumbnails as either “Expires soon” (for images with upcoming License Expiration Dates) or “Expired” (for images with past License Expiration Dates). In the Library, it will display on gallery and search results thumbnails. On the Portal, it will display on gallery thumbnails.

It will also display in the single image view as “License Expires DD Mon YYYY” (for images with upcoming License Expiration Dates) or “License Expired DD Mon YYYY” (for images with past License Expiration Dates). In the Library and on the Portal, it will display in the gallery and search results single image views.

The expiration watermark will not be embedded in any images that you download from your Library, or any images that you allow your Invited Users to download from the Portal. It is for display only.

On the Portal, the expiration watermark will display in addition to any text or graphic watermarks that you’ve set up in your Image Security Settings.

 

Admin: edit or disable workflow

Only the Admin on a PhotoShelter for Brands account can edit or disable the License Alerts workflow.

To edit the workflow:

• Select Metadata Settings from the Admin menu
• Click Edit workflow
• Select a new notification/watermark setting
• Click Save workflow

Disabling the License Alerts workflow will hide (but not delete) any License Expiration Date metadata on your images. It will also deactivate your automatic email notifications and expiration watermarks.

If you later re-enable the workflow, the metadata, notifications, and watermarks will be reactivated.

To disable the workflow:

• Select Metadata Settings from the Admin menu
• Click Edit workflow
• Click Disable workflow
• Click Disable workflow to confirm

 

Tips

• The IPTC Usage Rights field displays underneath the License Expiration Date metadata in the Portal single image view
• Displaying the usage rights and license duration alongside an image can help your Portal visitors understand when, where, and how they can use images
• The Usage Rights field is also a helpful place to indicate whether and how your stakeholders can request license renewal, if they’re interested in using an image beyond its current license period
• Although you will be notified about any images with an upcoming License Expiration Date, the images will not be moved from any galleries they’re in, and the galleries’ Visibility & Access settings will stay the same
• If you would like to prevent Invited Users from downloading soon-to-expire or expired images, you can:
• Change a gallery’s download permissions, so that the “Image DL Type” is “View only,” and users can’t download any images from that gallery
• Add a gallery-level Expiration Date in the Visibility & Access Settings, so that Invited Users can’t log into or download from the entire gallery after a certain date
• Move the images to a new gallery, with its visibility set to “No one but me,” so that only your Library Staff can see and download them
• If you need to determine who recently downloaded an image with a soon-to-expire or expired license, you can:
• Check the Stats for that image in the Library Right Pane Image Info

• Look at the Download Log in the Admin menu, which shows 90 days of download history
• Click Export CSV file, select the “License Expiration Date” checkbox in addition to any other info you’d like about recently downloaded images, then click Export
• This will download a CSV of your Download Log, with “License Expiration Date” as a column

• You can also store your image licensing agreements in PhotoShelter for Brands, so that you have them on hand if needed