Image restrictions and access

Brand Toolbox houses a powerful image access and restrictions tool.

You can restrict access to images in two very different ways:

  1. Image size and watermark restrictions (specific to member group)
    Use this method if you want to restrict specific member groups to low resolution images or to watermarked images only.
  2. Image access restrictions (specific to image category) 
    Use this method if you want to prevent images in a specific image category being accessible to select member groups.

Brand Toolbox allows you to use either of the image access and restriction mechanisms to suit your purpose. Combined together, the mechanisms create a powerful image access and restrictions tool.

1. Image size and watermark restrictions (specific to member group)

Brand Toolbox allows the Administrator to set which image sizes a particular member group is allowed to access and download.

The options are:

Watermarked images

Non-watermarked images

Note that these are broad settings across all images and categories in the Photo library. For example, if a particular member group is set to view and download “Low resolution (watermarked) images” only, they will only be able to download low resolution (Small - watermarked) images across the entire Photo library. They will see the options for Small (non-watermarked), MediumLargeOriginal and Custom size images (see exclamation marks below) but they are not allowed to download.

Frontend image download restrictions icon 

However, they can request high resolution images via an online Image Request Form attached to the image download buttons. The form is sent to the Image Administrator^^ as an email for approval. Once approved, the member will then be allowed to download the high resolution image for the approved images only.

^^ Find out how to “Configure Administrators to approve the image requests”.

Note: If a member group is not allowed to download high resolution images, then they will also NOT be able to create and export custom image sizes.
 

Setting the image access options

To set member image access options:

  1. Select the individual member group in the “Content > Settings > Member Groups” section.

    Select the member group in the settings section

  2. Select the “Settings” tab and toggle on/off either or both of the image size checkboxes that the member group can access:

    •  Can Download Low Res
    •  Can Download High Res

    Image restrictions and access

  3. Click “Save and publish”.

If none of the checkboxes are selected, members from that member group will only be able to download low resolution (630px) watermarked images. They would need to request non-watermarked images.

Note that the “Can Download Custom Size” toggle is a legacy option and will soon be removed from the solution. Users with access to high resolution images will also be able to create and export custom sizes.

Note also that the pre-configured image size options currently need to be input by the Brand Toolbox Development Team. To see the pre-configured list that ships with the software, view the Export custom image sizes & formats list.

2. Image access restrictions (specific to image category)

“Public access” restrictions allow you to define which member groups are allowed to view the images within a specific image category.

When applied, all images within the specified category will be hidden from view. Note that if an image appears in several categories, and the member is allowed to view one of the two categories applied to the image, then the image will still be viewable under the permitted category.

Public access link

Default settings

By default, Brand Toolbox makes all category nodes available to all member groups. Unless you specifically change this setting, all image categories inherit these access privileges. Note that you only need to change these settings when you want to block individual member groups from viewing specific image categories.

Restricting access to categories of images

You may decide to restrict access to a particular image category so it is viewable by ‘Employee’ member groups only. For example, you may have internal comms images and wish to exclude 3rd party or external suppliers (i.e. Non-employees) from viewing the images.

To restrict access to the ‘Employee’ member group only, follow the steps below:

  1. Select an existing Category and select the Public access option in the actions menu.

    Image category public access restrictions

  2. The Public Access slide out menu appears. Select Role based protection and click Select.
     
    Image category role based protection slide out menu
     
  3. You’ll be presented with the Public access – Role based protection slide out menu.
  4. Pick the member groups that you would like to have access to the images. You will see a list of all of the member groups for your site in the left hand list. Use the ( >> ) or ( << ) buttons to move these groups to/from the right hand list. For an ‘Employee’ group member to be able view the page, it must appear in the right hand list (as per below).
     
    Public access role based protection slide out menu

  5. Specify the Login Page. This is important in the event a user attempts to browse to this protected category without first being logged into the site. In this scenario, they will first be redirected to login:
    • Choose: Login
  6. Specify the Error Page. This is the page that users are redirected to when logged on but do not have access to the category:
    • Choose: Error  (DO NOT CHOOSE ‘Server Error 404’)
  7. Click the Save button to enable changes.

Creating permanent and shareable links

For guidance on how to share images with external (general public) users, visit the ‘Creating permanent and shareable links’ section.

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