//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // CARDFOUNTAIN CF-ECARDS SCRIPT VERSION 3.0 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // LIVE CO-BRANDED DEMO: http://www.cardfountain.com/cf-ecards/ /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // THREE STEP EASY INSTALLATION ( WE'VE MADE IT EASY FOR YA! ): /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (1) Create a new directory on your web server called "cf-ecards". (2) Unzip and extract all files from cf-ecards.zip to your "cf-ecards" directory. (3) Upload the cf-ecards dir ( and all the files in it ) to your server. Now direct your browser to: http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/index.php & check it out! Below you will find some additional tips to help you get things customized :-) /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: YOU SHOULD HAVE ENDED UP WITH A DIRECTORY STRUCTURE LIKE THIS: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/readme.txt - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/compat.php - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/config.php - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/ecards.php - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/footer.php - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/header.php - http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/index.php /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: THE LATEST VERSION DOWNLOAD IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE AT: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.cardfountain.com/cf-ecards.zip /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: BASIC SERVER REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS SCRIPT TO WORK: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// - The ability to run php scripts on your web server ( most servers have this ) - PHP version 4.0 or higher will do just fine with this simple script :-) - allow_url_fopen enabled in your php.ini file ( * normally this is already on * ) The script will automatically tell you if your php.ini file has this turned off. For more info: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php#ini.allow-url-fopen /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: CO-BRANDING THE LOOK AND FEEL OF YOUR NEW ECARD SITE ( OPTIONAL ): /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Open "cf-ecards/header.php" and "cf-ecards/footer.php" Add your own custom html or php code to these files. It's your site, so feel free to add any sort of customizations that you like. ( get creative! ) /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: EARNING REVENUE FROM YOUR ECARD SITE BY BECOMING AN AFFILIATE: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Open config.php and add your affiliate id number to earn revenue. Our affiliate program is handled through ShareASale.com. If you already have a ShareASale.com publisher account, log into your ShareASale account and search for CardFountain. Then join our affiliate program and get approved. Once approved, all you do is just enter your main ShareASale account id, like in this example: $cf_aid = "my shareasale publisher id"; ( this is optional ) For more info and signup, visit: http://affiliates.cardfountain.com/ /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: LEARN ABOUT CHANGING THE "cf-ecards" DIRECTORY NAME: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// This script is able to run just fine, even if you change the "cf-ecards" directory name. So you could rename the "cf-ecards" directory to just "ecards", and end up with something like this: - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/readme.txt - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/compat.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/config.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/ecards.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/footer.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/header.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards/index.php /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: ENTIRE DOMAIN NAME FOR ECARDS ( NO SEPERATE DIRECTORY ): /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// You could simply not use a separate directory at all :-) In this case you would be dedicating an entire domain name to your ecard site. So you would end up with a special web site that is just for ecards. You could end up with something like this: Where: http://www.mysite.com/ is your ecard site home page. - http://www.mysite.com/readme.txt - http://www.mysite.com/compat.php - http://www.mysite.com/config.php - http://www.mysite.com/ecards.php - http://www.mysite.com/footer.php - http://www.mysite.com/header.php - http://www.mysite.com/index.php /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: ABOUT THE "MORE ECARDS" BUTTON AT THE TOP OF EACH INDIVIDUAL CARD /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The "More Ecards" button is at the top of each individual ecard ( hosted at CardFountain ). This special button is able to detect your ecard site as the referrer, and will take the user back to the last page they were on ( at your site ) before they clicked through to view or send the ecard. So, although the actual ecards are hosted on the CardFountain servers, your ecard site and directory listings are hosted on your server; and the user is always taken back to your co-branded ecard site if they want to find more cards. To see how this works, simply load up your new co-branded ecard site by going to: http://www.mysite.com/cf-ecards/, then click through to view an ecard. Once you're done viewing the ecard, click the "More Ecards" button to be taken back to your own co-branded version of CardFountain Greetings. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: ENABLE CACHING TO SPEED THINGS UP ON YOUR SERVER AND OURS :- ) /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// In config.php there is a setting called $cf_cache. You can set it's value to true like this: $cf_cache = true; Setting this to true enables 24 hour local caching on the files that your server receives from cardfountain. This will speed your server up and ours too! The cache files are stored in a directory called "cf-cache" and this special cache directory is created automatically by script; if cache is enabled! /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: USING CSS STYLES TO FURTHER CUSTOMIZE THE OUTPUT FROM OUR SERVERS /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Here are the two css styles that are used for the fonts and coloration of the output from our servers. You can add these lines to header.php and adjust them to fit in with the rest of your own site design: ( this is optional ) /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // TIP: SEO ( SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ) /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// All of the output is already highly optimized for the best search engine exposure. In fact, just running this script on your site will dramatically improve your exposure in the major search engines. The only thing is, you have to link to the ecards from your main home page in order for the search engines to spend time on indexing all of your co-branded ecard pages. So don't forget, once you have this script up and running; be sure to add links to it from your home page! Otherwise, we have seen Google & Yahoo both ignore it because they figure if you're not linking to it from your home page, then it's not an important enough part of your site. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR ENCOUNTER PROBLEMS WITH THIS SCRIPT: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// CONTACT: Jason