Discussion: photoshoot client delivery mechanism - Webflow CMS, Zapier question

I am exploring the ability to create CMS items in Webflow using Zapier in order to create the following functionality:

On my photography portfolio site I want a “client area” where a client can be sent a link to a password protected collections page that would contain all the photos from our photoshoot together. The client would then be able to review the images, and ideally “like” or “comment” on them, but primarily be able to download 1 image or all the images. This would basically allow me to bake in the functionality of sites like Shootproof, Photoshelter, Cloudspot, or sharing a Dropbox/Google Drive link into my photographer portfolio sites, allowing the client to stay in the brand environment and not switch to some third party designed service.

The first barrier I am encountering while working through this in my head is, it doesn’t seem possible to generate a NEW collections page with Zapier-Webflow… only make new collection items given X Collection. Is this true?

Regarding the end-goal functionality does anyone have any resources? I have been trying to research this on-and-off for months, ultimately settling for third party solutions like sending Google Drive links, which feel unprofessional, because I can’t seem to figure out and workflow that is convenient for the client and for the photographer.


Here is my public share link: LINK
(how to access public share link)

i found a solution for udating Webflow collection with Zapier via id of Www.getpostman.com
watch Using Postman to Get Webflow Item IDs for Zapier - YouTube
Karel

That doesn’t seem to address my question. I can see how you can update collection items but the video doesn’t show how/if you can create a new collection set. I’m starting to think it just isn’t supported.

You may want to consider using smugmug pro for this. It offers the features you described as needing. I do this now with my commercial clients that use my services. You can use your own domain, and design the site.

I have used Smugmug a long time ago and am familiar with the litany of third-party offerings I could incorporate into my workflow. My main issue with them is it is yet another service I have to pay for and manage as opposed to centralizing everything and controlling everything myself (preference) and generally speaking the design capabilities of these services, Smugmug in particularly, is quite limited creating a disruptive user experience whereby the user is taken to “another site” to do downloads which is less than ideal.

What I am looking for is how to build that functionality, with maybe not ALL the bells and whistles, into Webflow.

I’ve been thinking more on it and realized I’ve been neglecting to take advantage of collection page templates which are already right there in Webflow. I could conceivable, each time I want to send a gallery to a new client, simply create a new page from the collection page template, create a Zap that creates Live CMS Items based on images added to say, Google Drive, Dropbox, Airtable, etc. and send that out to the client. I noticed that just the other day CMS collection pages can now have a password applied to them which is perfect.

So now, assuming all of those layers come together perfectly, the problem remains, how do I implement a download functionality on Webflow page, ideally enabling the client to make selections of a set of images, all images, or just one. Surely there is a way to do this?

Nick

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