The License Alerts workflow helps reduce risk for your organization by making image and video 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 an email notification about any images/videos with upcoming License Expiration Dates
• Those images and videos will be automatically marked with license expiration info in the Library. At this time, only images will be marked on the Portal. This expiration mark is for display only; it will not be visible on downloaded images.

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:

• Click Admin > Metadata Settings
• Click Set up workflow

• Select a notification and watermark timeframe for images and videos: 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 and/or videos

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 and videos

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 or video

• In the Library, select an image or video
• In the right pane, click Edit Metadata
• Scroll down the Metadata list to find the License Expiration Date field
• Click the calendar icon and select a License Expiration Date for that image/video, or enter a date using the MM/DD/YYY format, e.g. 04/16/2024
• Click Save

Edit or remove a License Expiration Date on a single image or video

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

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

• Navigate to a gallery in the Library
• In the Center Pane, select a batch of images/videos
• Click the Edit Metadata button and scroll down to the License Expiration Date field
• Follow the instructions in the sections above to add, edit, or remove a License Expiration Date from the batch of images/videos
• Click Save

You can also perform these actions on one or more images/videos 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/videos

After you’ve set a License Expiration Date on one or more images/videos in your Library, the Admin and Editors will receive an 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/video. 

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

License Alert email contents

• The number of images/videos 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/videos, sorted alphabetically by filename
• A link to each image/videos, which goes to the Library single image view

If you need to notify stakeholders about these images/videos, move the images/videos within your Library, or change any Visibility & Access settings for the galleries the images/videos 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/video link in the License Alerts email and receive an error page, it means that an Admin or Editor previously moved that image/video to your Library Trash. An image/video 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/videos within your Library

• To find that image/video 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/video ID into the File ID field of your Library search, and click Search

 

Library & Portal: View Expired 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/videos will be marked in the Library and images will be marked on the Portal. The expiration mark will always display in the top-left corner of an image or video in the Library and the top-center of an image on the Portal.

The expiration watermark will display on thumbnails as either “Expires soon” (for images/videos with upcoming License Expiration Dates) or “Expired” (for images/videos 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.

The expiration mark will also display in the single file view as "Expiring Soon" (for images/videos with upcoming License Expiration Dates) or Expired (for images/videos 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 mark will not be embedded in any images/videos 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/videos. 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 file view

• Displaying the usage rights and license duration alongside an asset can help your Portal visitors understand when, where, and how they can use assets
• 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 asset beyond its current license period

Although you will be notified about any assets with an upcoming License Expiration Date, the assets 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 assets, 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
• Move the images/videos 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/video with a soon-to-expire or expired license, you can:

• Check the Stats for that image/video in the right pane of the Library single image view
• Look at the Download Log in the Admin menu
  • Click Export CSV file, select the “License Expiration Date” checkbox in addition to any other info you’d like about recently downloaded assets, 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/video licensing agreements in the Library, so that you have them on hand if needed