A gallery experience built around finding photos
The custom website reads gallery information from SmugMug while the photography remains hosted there. Visitors can browse meets, open a photo viewer, and find photos using reviewed school annotations. The search is grounded in the reviewed index rather than presenting every photograph as already classified.
Individual original downloads and selected-photo ZIP downloads follow the gallery’s permissions. That matters when connecting an existing image service: the custom experience should respect the access rules behind the content.
A connected technical foundation
The work includes DigitalOcean hosting, domain and HTTPS configuration, a separate Medusa commerce backend, and PostgreSQL-backed photo likes. Keeping these responsibilities distinct helps the owner understand where an edit belongs and what needs checking before deployment.
- Custom gallery browsing and photo viewer
- Reviewed school search and SmugMug integration
- Permission-checked original and ZIP downloads
- Database-backed photo likes
- Commerce backend and sandbox checkout development
Live payment processing and email delivery are separate launch steps. The case study describes the implemented development work without treating sandbox checkout as a live sales result.
Manage and extend the website with Claude
Jay can now use his own Claude connection to update and manage the website by asking for changes in plain language. The integrated AI has project context and access to the website’s working environment, making routine maintenance easier and giving him a practical way to request and build out new features.
The initial setup included an additional security layer on Jay’s computer for securely accessing the server, along with documentation covering the source files, integrations, and deployment process. Once that foundation is in place, the day-to-day workflow is largely self-service: ask for a change, review the result, and publish it.
An AI subscription may be required depending on usage. AI subscription fees and website hosting are separate from the initial setup work. The connection simplifies ongoing work, with review and testing still part of publishing changes.
Services used in this project
Website development and integrations, cloud server and HTTPS setup, and AI-assisted maintenance guidance came together around the photography workflow.
Visit the Soda & Cereal website to explore the public experience. If you have an existing gallery, business tool, or data source you want to connect to your own site, we can discuss an appropriate scope.