My Lightroom Plugins 

Export & Publish

Zenfolio

SmugMug

Flickr

PicasaWeb

Facebook

Export Plugins

Twitter

Photobucket

Kodak

ExposureManager

Order Prints Locally

Expono

Other Publish Plugins

Collection Publisher

Folder Publisher

Tree Publisher

Export Add-Ons

Metadata Wrangler

Run Any Command

Snapshot on Export

Crop for iPad

Geoencoding Plugins

Geoencoding Support

Proximity Search

Utility Plugins

Photoshop Layers

PhotoSafe

Metadata Viewer

Bulk Develop Settings

Metadata-Viewer Preset Builder

JPEG Quality Tester

Folder Watch

Megapixel Sort

Focal-length Sort

Data Plot

Extended Search

Picasa Face Import

Video-Asset Management

Preview-Cache Image Extraction

Other Plugin Sources
 · Lightroom Exchange
 · Photographer's Toolbox
 · alloy photo
 · John Beardsworth
 · Rob Cole

Quick Links · Latest Download:
     folder-publisher-20120510.9.zip
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This Lightroom “Publish” plugin allows you to export copies of your Lightroom photos to local disk in a folder hierarchy that mimics the folder hierarchy in your Lightroom catalog. I've found it very useful in mirroring my Lightroom catalog as small JPGs on my wife's computer.

This plugin works in Lightroom 4 and Lightroom 3 (though you must have at least version 3.5 for the latter).

The same download works for both Windows and Mac. See the box to the upper right for the download link link (in orange) and installation instructions.

Note: a Lightroom major upgrade, such as from Lr3 to Lr4, de-registers the plugin in the upgraded version, thus requiring a new (1-cent if you like) registration code in the upgraded version. It makes for a hassle every couple of years, I know. Sorry. See this note for details.

This is a sister plugin to my Collection Publisher plugin (which is similar to this plugin, except that plugin mirrors a collection hierarchy instead of a folder hierarchy).

Unlike a normal export, this Publish service allows you to create an ongoing relationship between the photo in Lightroom and the copy on disk. The tree on disk is refreshed for any changes (new images, removed images, and image changes) each time you “Publish”.

The plugin is normally used in the following pattern:

1. Initial setup of the publish service.
2. Populate the default collection with image you want to mirror, or create a smart collection that identifies the images you want to mirrors.
3. “Publish” them, causing copies of the images to be reflected into a hierarchy on disk matching the folder hierarchy in Lightroom.
4. Going forward, any time changes are made (images updated, added, or removed), “Publish” causes those changes to be reflected on disk.

Publish-Service Setup

When setting up a new publish service, you first assign a name, though you can leave it blank if you'll only have one...

You indicate where published copies are to be placed by specifying the root of the publish tree. When first setting up a new publisher, you'll likely want to pick an empty folder as the root.

The next sections are all part of the standard Lightroom export. In them you decide the size and quality of the published copies...

The next two sections shown in the example aren't included unless you specifically add them:

They're from my crop for iPad and Metadata Wrangler plugins; I use them in my exports to allow me extra control of what metadata is included in each exported copy, and in the case of my iPad portfolio, special iPad-specific crops so that some images better fill the screen.

The next section controls what changes in Lightroom should cause published images to be slated for republish.

Then we have a plugin-specific seciton on file renaming that gives much more flexability than Lightroom's standard “File Naming” section, should you need it:

The next section provides a way to do an FTP sync of the published copies, should you need it. Photo-viewing iPad apps tend to allow updates via FTP sync, so this section is convenient for that.

It's here as a convenient tool rather than an actual part of the configuration; the FTP sync is never automatic... it happens only when you launch it manually from the Publishing Manager.

The plugin also provides a way to import and export settings, making it easier to set up comperable publish services on multiple catalogs (such as when part of your library is on your desktop, and part on your laptop, as is my case).

When first setting up a service, you'll have the ability to import settings...

... but once it's been set up the first time, after that the section allows for export:

Collection Setup

Once you've got the publish service created, you can drag images into the default collection, or you can create your own collections, including “smart collections” that identify images to include via rules (e.g. “all five-star images”).

The default publish location for any image in any collection is that its folder structure in Lightroom is replicated and placed starting at the root folder chosen when you set up the publish service. However, you can modify aspects of how image locations are mapped when you create/edit a collection:

Availability

This plugin is distributed as “donationware”. I have chosen to make it available for free — everyone can use it forever, without cost of any kind — but unless registered, its functionality is somewhat reduced after six weeks.

Registration is done via PayPal, and if you choose to register, it costs the minimum 1-cent PayPal fee; any amount you'd like to add beyond PayPal's sliding fees as a gift to me is completely optional, and completely appreciated.

For details on plugin registration and on how I came into this hobby of Lightroom plugin development, see my Plugin Registration page.

Version History
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