Event Cats allows to log in a user in Piwigo, without providing username and password ("autolog"). It also allows that an account created by a visitor gets immediately the same access than another account ("duplication").
The purpose is to allow you, after an event where you "have been the photographer", to share your pictures a very simple way with people not having (yet) an account on your gallery, but still publishing your images in a private category. But maybe is there other ways to use it :-) ...
The automatic identification is carried out thanks to the "autolog" code, placed in the link that you give to the people whom you want to give access to. The visitors using this link find themselves directly logged in on your gallery under the account associated to the "autolog" code. The page displayed just after the identification can be:
The link (URL) allowing automatic identification on your gallery, is built as following:
Event Cats provides up to five tabs for its management:
This tab allows you to create the entries in the database. An entry associates a code to a user and to a page to display. It is possible to use a code several times, in the case it would be convenient to give access to different pages, to a same user. But a same code can of course be associated to only one user.
When creating an entry, it is possible to create at the same time the account used in this entry. The accounts created by Event Cats are generic accounts, ie destinated to be used by several different users. The name of the account can be generated by Event Cats, provided that a page to display has been selected, as it is the title of the displayed page which is used to create the new account name. Event Cats can also create a group, which will be associated to, for instance, the selected category. Thus as the code itself can be generated by Event Cats too, it is possible to create an entry just by selecting a page to display and clicking on button "Full auto".
As the page to display is mentioned in the URL (with the parameters &cat=category identifier, &img=image identifier, and &ap=Add. P. identifier, see above), the user has the possibility to change the requested page, by modifying the URL. If the account associated to the code is not allowed to navigate into this page, Piwigo will definetely not display it no danger. But, to avoid the message "You are not authorized to access the requested page", you can set the displayed page to be "forced", meaning that Event Cats redirects the user on the page which you set at the entry creation, whatever are the parameters &cat, &img, and/or &ap, if there is any, in the requested URL.
If an entry is forced, its code can of course appear only once in the Event Cats entries list. Thus, making an entry "forced", requires to delete all other entries using the same code.
The field "Comment" is completely optional, its only purpose is for you to record a small text (100 digits maximum), displayed in the entry list (tab Autolog entries) as tooltip or on a new line under the related code.
This tab, which is displayed when at least one "autolog" entry is available, allows you to monitor all the entries available in your database. When you select an entry, the related URL is displayed in the field "URL" to allow you to copy the automatic identification link, and to paste it for instance in an e-mail inteded to the people concerned in the event for which you want to share your pictures. With most of explorers, clicking on "URL" directly selects all the field, you just need to copy.
The following tools are available in this page:
This tab, also available only when at least one "autolog" entry exists for your gallery, allows you to modify an entry (indeed...). Unlike during entry creation, you can here make an entry "outdated", by choosing "None" as "Identified user" or "Access denied" as "Displayed page". If "None" is selected as "Identified user", and plugin Additional Pages can be used, it is possible to choose an Additional Page as displayed page. You are this way able to make a code inactive, but displaying a personnalized explanation (see help on Make entry outdated in section Autolog entries).
This tab is available only when parameter "Duplication allowance" is set to "Per group selection". As a matter of fact, it is useless when duplication is allowed to all accounts, or to none.
It allows you to monitor duplication: which accounts will it be possible to duplicate, and the way the duplication link will be displayed. Selecting the accounts is done exactly the same way as in administration page "Manage permissions for a category" (as simple as copying this page :-/ ...).
The way the duplication link is displayed, allows mainly to treat gently the users identified with a generic account (Event Cats creates only generic accounts): if a visitor used a link activating an "autolog" code, (s)he is identified without having to provide a username and a password. On the face of it (s)he has no clue (s)he can "copy" this account, and therefore it is useless to suggest "duplication", a word which can show itself not understandable at this moment. The user is simply given the possibility to "Register", and, without a word about it, if (s)he registers (though (s)he is already identified), (s)he gets immediately the same access than the account with which (s)he was previously identified, and is this way is allowed to continue to navigate on your gallery in the same categories than the account associated to the "autolog" code you had provided, but with his (her) personnal account, together with the related facilities: personnalization, comments with the account name... Registration is done exactly the same way as normally, and you're warned that your gallery counts a new user. As a matter of fact, the e-mail precises "Identified user:", showing with which account was identified the new user, when (s)he registered, if it was after an "autolog". There is currently no known conflict with plugin NBC UserAdvManager (advanced users management).
This last tab allows to manage the following parameters: