In this guide:
- Setting up your public site
- Changing the visibility of materials
- Setting a featured photo for public display
- Viewing and sharing your public collection
- Sharing the public collection on your own website
The Public Sites feature allows you to share your garden's collection with visitors. By making your collection public, you can enhance your educational outreach, foster community engagement, and showcase the diversity of your garden.
Follow the steps below to set up and manage your public site.
Setting up your public site
Head to Settings > Collection Sites > Select the Collection Site for which you want a Public Site and turn on the visibility.
Now you can configure additional settings for your garden that will be displayed on your public page.
In the Details section, you can add a brief description of your garden, its location, country, and garden’s website. You can also provide an email address for visitors to contact you.
Changing the visibility of materials
Managing the plant materials that are visible on your public site is easy. To start with, all of your plant materials are set as Private, and these will need to be set to Public to be displayed on the site.
Note: Only plants that have status Present can be made Public. As soon as Public plant material is changed its status from Present to (Absent, Transient or Unknown), it will automatically also be changed to Private.
To change individual records
Go to the individual Plant Material > tap the horizontal ellipses (⋯) > “Make public”.
To change multiple records
Use the Plant Materials List > Select records with checkboxes > Open the Actions Menu > select “Make public” or “Make private”. You can alternativly, use the Actions Menu from the map, by clicking Select at the bottom of the list on the left hand side.
Once you have made your materials public, they will appear on your Public Site settings page:
You can also add an additional column entitled “Public” to your List view (read here), making it easier to see which material is public or not.
Setting a featured photo for public display
A plant material's featured photo is shown as the main image on the public page. However, if you have not set a featured photo, navigate to the plant material photos tab. Select "Set as featured" on an image to designate it as the main image for both the material itself and also the public page.
If no photo is set as featured, then no photo will appear on the public page, even if the material has other photos.
Viewing and sharing your public collection
Once you have configured your public site settings, you can easily view and share the public version of your collection.
To view your entire public collection site, click on the URL (or tap the copy button to paste the link elsewhere):
For individual records, select the verticle ellipses (⋮) next to the public record in the table, and select "Open public page":
Sharing the public collection on your own website
Share the URL
You can share the public site URL on your website as a link or generate a QR code for easy access. QR codes can also be printed on posters, making it simple for your visitors to explore your collection with their smart phone. You have the option to share a link to either the map or the browse page.
Emded the public collection site on your own website
For a more integrated experience, you can embed the public site directly on your website using an IFrame. This allows you to display either the map or the browse page seamlessly within your site.
If you’re unsure what an IFrame is, your website developer or the person who helped you set up your website should be familiar with this concept and can assist with the setup.