Mobile interface has been updated

The whole BlueMelon mobile interface has been remade to better match the current design and usability standards, as well as support the wide variety of available mobile devices.

You can still switch between the mobile and the desktop interface, but you will find the mobile one to be much improved. New features for the updated mobile interface include :


The mobile interface now supports the voting 'like' button in albums where voting is enabled.

In the single-image view mode, you can swipe your finger to navigate among the photos on touch-enabled devices.

Support for visitor registrations where these are enabled has also been implemented.

Updated help section and a new support system

We have moved both the help and the support system to a new provider.

The support has been moved into an external service. When you use the Contact Us link from any BlueMelon page or the Email Us link at the right side of any help page, you will be presented with the new support interface. 

Before the email is submitted, the support system tries to intelligently suggest articles and questions from the relevant help section based on the content of your email in order to give you immediate answers whenever possible. People often ask the same questions which have been answered many times before. This may save your time by quickly finding solutions to your questions.

Moreover, the new support system makes it possible for you to easily write to us by replying to the support emails. You don't need to go to the support section to submit your replies anymore. You can also add attachments to your messages.

You can also use the new system to post a Public Question. If you feel your problem is of a personal character, simply use the first option. If you feel others may benefit from our answer, ask publicly.

The help has been updated and new sections have been added. You can browse the new help by topic or search.

We hope that the new help and support will help you use your BlueMelon account more efficiently and to the full.

New indication of your running processes

Processing uploads, applying watermarks, and transforming photos (flipping or rotating them) all take time to finish. Until now, when you scheduled an operation, you had to check back if the operation was completed or not.

However, from now on, you can see an indicator of the status of all your currently running processes. The indicator shows the number of current uploads, photos to be watermarked, and photos to be transformed. The indicator is displayed in the top right corner of each BlueMelon page so that you can always easily find out when your scheduled processes complete.

Below, you can see a screenshot of the top-right corner when the indicator is displayed. The photo count is updated real-time, so you do not need to refresh anymore.

Rename your sections and hide the zoom icon

We have just added two new customization options :

1. the hover zoom icon can now be hidden
2. the labelled homepage and category sections can now be renamed

The zoom icon is available when you point the mouse cursor over a photo - clicking this icon automatically displays the photo in the highest available resolution. The new feature works well with the right-click protection setting, since this prevents the visitors from right clicking the zoomed photo.

The second feature finally enables the BlueMelon users to arbitrarily rename any of their labelled homepage and category sections. To rename a section, simply point your mouse cursor over the section and click the displayed "Change Look" button. Within the panel that opens, you will find a text field for the section name.

A new access mode system

Much like the themes (which are now available for categories as well), the access mode system has been upgraded to give you greater control over what of your content can be accessed by whom.

• you can still use the standard password protection on the account-wide level
• when someone tries to access any of your content, they are asked to enter your chosen password
• each of your categories (including your homepage) can have an access mode of its own (public, private, unlisted, password protected)
• when you create a new album and do not explicitly specify its access mode, it will automatically use the access mode of its parent category (or the homepage)
• your albums can either use their parent's access mode, or have their own specified (public, private, unlisted, password protected)
• each of your photos either uses its parent's album derived access mode or can have its own specified (public, private, unlisted)

When you unlock an album on the homepage which is password protected, and there are other albums with the same derived access mode within the homepage, they will be automatically unlocked as well. This is to spare your visitors the need to enter the same password all over whenever accessing a new album within a password protected homepage.

All in all, both you and your visitors will have an easier time and you will enjoy more freedom in how to set up your access settings.

Themes in categories and new theme system

From now on you can also set a theme for each of your Categories as well. With this come a few changes in way the theme settings are applied to albums.

Until now, when you created an album, its theme was determined by the "theme" setting from the Control Panel's "Album Layout" tab. The new system applies the theme from an album's parent category to the album. You can still choose a different theme for each album, but an album on your homepage will by default have the theme set for the homepage. The same applies for your categories :  an album within a category will have the default theme always equal to the theme set for the category.

To sum it up :  whenever you change the theme on your homepage or a category, the albums within which do not have a theme selected will be automatically displayed with the new theme.

Enhanced order approvals

Enterprise users can now set up manual order approval for both, digital downloads and prints & gifts. By default, the orders are sent to the lab automatically, but you can set up either type to be approved manually.

As far as digital downloads are concerned, your customers will receive a pending approval message. Within 7 days, you can review the order and replace the ordered images with higher quality, resolution, or re-touched images. The customers will receive the download links after you have approved all files or after 7 days.

Prints & gifts work the same way, but you also have the possibility of correcting the cropping your customers chose. Within 7 days, you can review each order, change the cropping or replace the ordered images with images of higher quality or resolution. The order will be sent to the lab after you have approved all files or after 7 days.

The 7 days limit is implemented to prevent your customers from waiting too long in case you cannot approve some of your orders.