Search Improvements
I'd like my visitors to be able to search within their current gallery, regardless of privacy settings.
For example, I may have a "hidden" gallery (as explained in "Mastering Access Control"), the link for which I provide to friends and family. I'm not looking for real security here, and particularly for older members of the family, passwords and logins are too much hassle, and too confusing. This gallery may have a couple of hundred photos in it, of ancestors and extended family, all tagged with names. I'd like for my visitors to be able to search that gallery for a person's name, and be shown all of the photos in that gallery that match, but not other photos from my site, or from galleries that they wouldn't be able to browse to from the main page.
Using this group as an example ( http://anwright.zenfolio.com/f684461491 ), this is what I'd like: If someone is viewing the group "Demo Group" and searches for "Grandparents" I'd like for the two "Grandparents" galleries to come back as results, because they can be found by browsing from the "Demo Group" page. If someone is on my main page, I would not want those two galleries to be returned. If someone is viewing the "Mom's Side" group and searched for "Grandparents," I'd want only the "Grandparents" under "Mom's Side" to show up in the results.
At the very least, if a visitor is viewing viewing a gallery (not a group), and performs a search, I'd like it to include all photos that they can see, regardless of search privacy settings.
It would also be useful to be able to control the sort order of search results.


This feature has been reviewed and given the current roadmap this will unfortunately be not able to happen in 2018. We will reassess at a later time.
37 comments
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Steve Ide Photography commented
Any thought to improved search? I am a new customer and I'm shocked to see how limited this is, especially at the higher level I pay. Please listen to your customers for this pretty important feature...
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Anonymous commented
It's been a few years now, we've had new music, themes, printing options, etc. but a core feature like this still hasn't been advanced?
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Why is this still an unsolved issue? Seems like a no brainier for working professionals. If I've ever had a reason to jump ship this is it.
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corleve commented
It would be great if Zenfolio had the ability to search using more than one keyword, at the moment this is not possible and Zenfolio is the only image hosting site I've come across that doesn't allow one to use more than one keyword to search for images.
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myPhotoStuff commented
Is this still planned? As a potential transfer client from Smugmug, the search capability for a folder (and all below) or even down to a single gallery is a "must have" feature. The iPad app needs to have the feature as well, but less critical.
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evanR Photography commented
Please, for the love of all things... as a wedding photographer I need for my clients to be able to search through their gallery to find "reception" or "ceremony" photos etc. Flipping through 1,000+ photos is crazy. I am astounded at how the search structure is so focused on sitewide search and the keyword function is useless within each gallery!
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Kevin Pyle Photography commented
This is something that I desperately need. One of my clients is a hockey team. They have their own group that allows them to download photos and they MUST be able to search for photos instead of digging through the galleries. SInce the search hits my whole site, it's pretty useless for them. Can we please get this rolled out ASAP? Thanks!
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corleve commented
Coming upto almost 1 year in 'Planned' status, 3 years since this idea was first suggested. Can zenfolio give any indication when such a crucial feature will be in their release schedule?
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Jacques commented
Definitely want gallery-specific search. Sitewide search is useless, as I don't want Client A finding Client B's photos. As a result, I have to turn off all search on my site.
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reynold mainse commented
I have a 2000+image private gallery that I continue to populate where I charge a fee to give access to it. Zenfolio does not provide a way for my clients to do a search with in it. Adding search ability to private galleries would help my business and my clients greatly.
reynold -
Chuck commented
Please Please Please permit gallery search separate from site search
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corleve commented
3 years later....
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Ronan commented
I was just searching for this function as well to setup 'stock' galleries that can be searched - but as it is now, my entire website is searched.
Please address this Zenfolio. -
David Lauersdorf commented
Please do this! It would be a HUGE help; if people want to see pictures of Bill and Pictures of Ted, they should be able to do a simple search for "Bill or Ted".
Instead, their only option (as far as I can tell) is to do 1 search for Bill, then another search for Ted, and ignore all the redundant pictures of them together. It's a huge pain in the ass!
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will commented
....without just going to the gallery the images are in.
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will commented
PLEASE add this function as well:
The search results need to be displayed in such a way that the customer can view larger and purchase those images that came up in search.
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Paul Edmundson commented
Advanced searching is essential for event photographers. It is usual for the participant to enter their bib number to find their images. However, currently Zenfolio searches the entire website. For example, an event might be in a group and have several galleries. Being able to add a search box to a gallery or group, and selecting where it will search, is a step forward I need desperately. All the technology is there currently for searching contacts etc, just need to be able to add this search facility to the event and let the user enter their metadata.
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Paul Edmundson commented
Advanced searching is essential for event photographers. It is usual for the participant to enter their bib number to find their images. However, currently Zenfolio searches the entire website. For example, an event might be in a group and have several galleries. Being able to add a search box to a gallery or group, and selecting where it will search, is a step forward I need desperately. All the technology is there currently for searching contacts etc, just need to be able to add this search facility to the event and let the user enter their metadata.
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Ryan Rodrick Beiler commented
Add my YES to this list. The ability to search within a gallery, group, collection, etc. seems like a rather simple but key improvement to making Zenfolio a slam-dunk first choice over Smugmug. That and dynamic collections/smart collections, which I voted for on another thread.
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corleve commented
At the moment I have to password protect every single gallery which takes up a lot of time for me. The client then has to unlock all the galleries within their group that they want to search within, which is an annoyance for them. As previously stated it would be great to add simple option(s) to restrict search down to the group and/or gallery level.