You can of course completely skip the picdrop.com address for sharing your galleries and use your own internet address instead. This way you can share a link in your emails, WhatsApp chats, Instagram DMs etc. that perfectly matches your branding.
With picdrop’s Web Forwarder, picdrop remains invisible when you share your gallery links. For example, www.picdrop.com/johndoe/gallery becomes johndoe.de/clients/gallery
If you are already registered with picdrop, you can find the installation files here and the instructions for installing the Web Forwarder here.
Here we explain briefly what the picdrop Web Forwarder does. Perhaps this will make it easier for you to decide for or against it?
All galleries and the associated gallery links that were created before the Web Forwarder was installed will remain accessible after the installation as they were before. The links will not change when the Web Forwarder is installed on your server.
The picdrop gallery link will continue to be displayed in the address bar of your browser even after the Web Forwarder has been installed. In the Share menu of each gallery, however, you will now find your own Web Forwarder link to the gallery. Both links always work in parallel.
Very important: picdrop cannot be installed directly on your server. This is because picdrop is a very complex program that we are constantly working on for you. Furthermore, perfectly adapted servers and the interaction of several functions are part of the perfect picdrop, which is why it is not possible to use it on other servers.
You can find the Web Forwarder and instructions on how to install it in your picdrop account settings under the Web Forwarder menu item.
If your server fulfills all basic requirements (Apache, PHP support and a valid SSL certificate), but still displays error messages during installation, please send us an email to hello@picdrop.com. Please send us the exact address where your (non-functioning) Web Forwarder is installed. We will then be happy to help you solve the problem.
You have managed to install the Web Forwarder on your server. The gallery overview can be called up via the new address (www.deineseite.de/picdrop/) without any problems, but when calling up individual galleries via their addresses (www.deineseite.de/picdrop/galerie), your website only spits out errors.
The solution is usually quite simple: please also upload the ".htaccess" file, which is included in the ZIP of our Web Forwarder. It seems to be missing in your case.
Unfortunately, uploading this file is often skipped as it is not displayed on many PCs & Macs. Some operating systems see the .htaccess file as part of their system files and therefore hide it. If you cannot find the file, show the "hidden files" (or similar) in the settings of your operating system or your FTP program. You will then be able to see the .htaccess file and upload it to your Web Forwarder folder on your server.
If this does not work or you need further help, you can always contact us at hello@picdrop.com.
You have installed the Web Forwarder from picdrop on your server according to our instructions and stumble across this phenomenon:
In this case, everything indicates that you have installed the Web Forwarder correctly on your server. A file with the name .htaccess has also ended up in your Web Forwarder folder. Apparently there is another .htaccess file in a main folder on your server that is getting in the way of the Web Forwarder.
An .htaccess file is a configuration file for Apache servers, among other things. Several functions can be controlled in an .htaccess file: e.g. password protection for individual areas of your server, rules for the automatic redirection of URLs, etc.
If you use Wordpress for your website, then you most likely already have an .htaccess file on your server that ensures that the appropriate file is always loaded on your server for a specific URL. If the htaccess file does not find a suitable result on your server, a 404 error page will be displayed. This is also regulated in the .htaccess file.
The Web Forwarder from picdrop also provides an .htaccess file. This file specifies, for example, how the links to your galleries must be redirected in the background so that your galleries can be displayed.
Now it can happen that the .htaccess file in your main folder cannot find a rule for a gallery URL and is then always automatically redirected to an error page. The .htaccess file in your Web Forwarder directory is therefore bypassed and cannot resolve a gallery.
To do this, you need to make changes to the .htaccess file in the main folder that belongs to your website. You need to add an exception there that explicitly excludes the Web Forwarder directory from being handled by your .htaccess file.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer a universal solution for this, as it can look different on every website. If you are not very familiar with this yourself, the person who usually takes care of your website, i.e. your webmaster, is the right address here! Feel free to forward the link to this article so that you can quickly find the right approach!
Especially with WordPress installations, it can also happen that plugins, e.g. to speed up your site or for search engine optimization, repeatedly make changes to the .htaccess - so even Web Forwarders that previously worked can suddenly point to the 404 error page due to a plugin update. It is therefore a good idea to search for the causes of these plugins too!
Installation instructions
For these installation instructions, you need a basic understanding of how to operate a website. If you have nothing to do with your website and prefer to let your webmaster do such things, we recommend that you send him/her the ZIP file and a reference to these instructions. The installation should be done quickly for him/her.
Go to the Web Forwarder page in your account settings and choose whether you want to install the web forwarder as a subfolder on your website (method 1) or whether you would prefer to use a subdomain or the main folder of your website (method 2).
Enter the desired subfolder and click on "Download Web Forwarder".
Unzip the downloaded ZIP file - you will receive a folder with the name you entered under 1.
Log in to your own web server via FTP.
Call up your root directory there, i.e. the directory in which the index.hml or index.php file of your website is also located. (You should never overwrite these files!)
Load the complete folder from step 2 into exactly this directory. Attention: the folder also contains an invisible .htaccess file, which is not displayed on many systems but is hidden instead. Important: Be sure to upload the complete folder, not just the file in the folder!
Call up your gallery overview at https://www.yoursite.com/picdrop/ or replace "picdrop" here with the name of the folder you specified in step 1.
That's it! Your galleries can now be accessed via your web forwarding! You can find the link for each gallery in the Share menu.
Select "Installation as subdomain or in main directory" and click on "Download Web Forwarder".
Unzip your downloaded ZIP file.
Log in to your own web server via FTP.
Call up the directory you want to use for your Web Forwarder.
Load the contents of your picdrop folder into this directory. Attention: there is also an invisible .htaccess file in the folder, which is not displayed on many systems.
Call up the desired URL or subdomain that points to the directory with the Web Forwarder you have just uploaded.
Done! Your galleries can now be accessed via your web redirect! You can find the link for each gallery in the Share menu.
Is that it?
Yup.
Important notes
Please continue to upload your images, videos and other files to your picdrop account after installation and not to your own server. The Web Forwarder you have just installed there is "only" a redirect to picdrop, which ensures that you can share picdrop links with your own address. picdrop itself continues to run on our secure servers.
How do I get rid of the Web Forwarder?
If you want to use picdrop again via the normal picdrop URL, simply delete the folder with the Web Forwarder from your web space. However, this is not absolutely necessary as it is sufficient to call up your picdrop via your picdrop URL to have the normal address displayed again in the "Share" menu and in the gallery settings. If you still see a Web Forwarder URL there, you can reset the saved address in your picdrop account settings in the Web Forwarder section with one click. The corresponding browser cookie that defines the address will be deleted and the picdrop URL will be displayed everywhere again.
