EntryThingy News and Blog http://www.entrythingy.com en-us ℗ & © 2006-2010 49PM The latest from EntryThingy - the embeddable digital call for entries, entry management and jurying software for art, photography and video exhibitions, festivals, fairs and competitions 2010-07-30T02:21:58UTC EntryThingy Server How to Apply to Artstreet
how to apply to artstreet
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/59 http://www.entrythingy.com/59 2010-07-29T20:13:27UTC Admin-Entrants Search ]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/58 http://www.entrythingy.com/58 2010-07-21T17:11:01UTC Yay! Now the Admin-Entrants list makes sense!
Why?
It was a list of all entrants that registered through your EntryThingy. So it also showed entrants that only registered through your EntryThingy but never actually added an entry. To top it off, it didn't show entrants that originally registered with an EntryThingy on another site but then added an entry to one of your calls for entry.

Now, new and improved!
Now you can choose from a drop-down what you want to see:
  • With Entry Only - ie entrants that have applied to your calls
  • All Registered Users (also without entry) - ie entrants that have registered through your site
  • Registered Users Without Entries - ie only entrants that registered through your site but did not add an entry
And now you can also sort by first or last name, email, city, state and last seen.

What's next?
Search by first and last name and email!
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/57 http://www.entrythingy.com/57 2010-07-10T19:32:09UTC Look out - the APIs are coming: An Art Call for Entries Listing API
What's an API? Well, API stands for Application Programming Interface - it's basically a way for software programs to talk to each other. As usual, Wikipedia knows best:
An application programming interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program which enables it to interact with other software. It facilitates interaction between different software programs similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. An API is implemented by applications, libraries, and operating systems to determine their vocabularies and calling conventions, and is used to access their services. It may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and protocols used to communicate between the consumer and the implementer of the API.
And now EntryThingy has it's first API call!
You can use this first API call to get a list of your active calls for entry (ie shows where the status is set to 'Show to Entrants and Jury'). So, for example, you could use it to display a list of your active calls on a sidebar of your home page and link them to the EntryThingy on your site or even link each to it's prospectus which then links to your EntryThingy.

So how does it work?
This is where it gets a little complicated. You actually have to be pretty good at Javascript, HTML and all that other good stuff... you can always contact us if you need help with this!

The URL is formatted like this:

http://www.entrythingy.com/widget?c=YOURSITECODE&a=api&d=shows&callback=YOURCALLBACK&command=YOURCOMMAND

  • Replace YOURSITECODE with your sitecode (which you'll find in your EntryThingy html code where it says 'var sitecode=...;' without the 's1.' part.

  • Replace YOURCALLBACK with the name of the function you want it to call (this is optional)

  • Replace YOURCOMMAND with a command that you want to send to your callback function (also optional)
And it returns the show data in JSON format. Click on this link to see what the API returns for some sample shows.

And with that, you can do something like this:




Thanks to the folks at New Orleans Photo Alliance and David at NolaFlash for asking for this and working with me to get it implemented!
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/56 http://www.entrythingy.com/56 2010-06-30T17:16:34UTC Artist Gallery on the Droid, iPhone and iPad

And by the way: you can also add commenting to the gallery widget - just think: people could comment on artists while they're at the show - or on their way home... now that's pretty social!
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/54 http://www.entrythingy.com/54 2010-06-24T21:59:42UTC Tabs vs Commas in CSV Files. The Commas won! Yes, the commas won.

EntryThingy originally used tabs as the delimiters for the CSV files you can download and import into Excel, Access, OpenOffice Calc etc etc. That was not good. Why? Because CSV stands for Comma Separated Values - so comma is the standard, default delimiter for reading CSV files. To get these programs to read a tab delimited file, you had to go through some wizard and change some option somewhere. And it wasn't always easy to find that.

So. The commas won. And now it'll be lots easier to import CSV downloads.

Don't ask why it started out with tabs. I have no idea.

Illustration by beneneuman


]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/53 http://www.entrythingy.com/53 2010-06-24T02:08:20UTC Postcards!
postcard-1-front   postcard-1-back
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/52 http://www.entrythingy.com/52 2010-06-14T20:37:07UTC Art shows, relevance, audience and what happens after the show
Let's look at your art show. You put out a call for entries and get all sorts of submissions. Lots of stuff. Too much stuff. And not all of it is necessarily relevant to your audience. That's where the jurors come in. You ask one or more people to decide what gets put into your show. They are people who know your audience, who understand art and whom you trust to make the right decisions on what to include in your show. They create relevance.

So you put on your show and people come. And they like what they see. And buy. Because the art that is on display is relevant to them. Because your jurors selected the right stuff. And they go home and mark their calendars for your next show. Because they know that they'll also like what they see the next time they come.

Screenshot_1
Think about it. You put all this effort into putting the show together. The call for entries. The marketing. The artists. The art. The huge audience. But then the show is over, everyone packs up and goes home. That's it. Good bye. See you next year.

That's such a shame. Because you've got what so many people are longing for. Relevance plus an audience.

This is where EntryThingy's gallery widget comes in. Put it on your site and let people know about it. Include the link in all of your marketing material. Hand out fliers at the show pointing to the gallery. Include it in email blasts.

So when the show is over, it's not over. It's still there. There's a page on your site that has the one thing that everyone is longing for: relevance.
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/51 http://www.entrythingy.com/51 2010-06-07T04:38:57UTC What a Trip
I brought home several suggestions on how EntryThingy can be improved - some have already been implemented:

* Include space code per entry in Emailer email body text.

* Break down of entries per category by total, accepted, not accepted and waitlist.

* Add explanation of the use of tab instead of comma as delimiter for CSV downloads.

There are still a few items on the list:

* Notify admins when there's a new entry

* Preview of show settings

* Context sensitive help

* Easy formatting of show text areas

* Jury commenting

Please post a comment below if there's anything you can think of that needs to be added or changed!
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/50 http://www.entrythingy.com/50 2010-05-30T02:38:58UTC EntryThingy Review by Technology in the Arts this review of EntryThingy at Technology in the Arts. Technology in the Arts is a service of the Center for Arts Management and Technology at Carnegie Mellon.

I do have one correction to make: EntryThingy accepts not only images, but also video, audio, PDFs and word documents.
]]> http://www.entrythingy.com/49 http://www.entrythingy.com/49 2010-05-26T23:53:26UTC