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ImageFolio Postcard Mod User's Guide


VERSION: 1.5
LAST MODIFIED: 03/13/2001


What is the Postcard Mod?
This is an add-on script for BizDesign ImageFolio that allows your site visitors to send images and movies as postcards to the recipient of their choice.

If you are familiar with postcard scripts then you should not have a hard time understanding how this one works. Your site visitors will browse your gallery as normal. When they reach the page displaying your full-size media, they will be presented with a link that states "Send As A Postcard" - you can change the wording if you'd like. Clicking on this link will take the visitor to a postcard creation page (create_card.html) where they can specify colors, fonts, wording, etc. Upon completing this step, the visitor will preview the postcard by clicking the "Preview Postcard" button at the bottom of create_card.html. The preview page (preview_card.html) will show the visitor exactly what the recipient will see. If acceptable, the visitor may choose to send a postcard by clicking a "Send Postcard" button or clicking "Edit Postcard" to change any options. Upon sending, the recipient will receive a notification message by email, informing him/her that a postcard is waiting to be picked up at your Website. Clicking on a link in this email message will take the recipient directly to your site where they will see the visitor's postcard (send_card.html).

This script does not use or require a database. It creates html pages, based on a random number, for each and every card. Old postcards (html pages) are automatically deleted after 'x' number of days.




Installation Instructions
  1. Unzip the zip file if you haven't already.

  2. Determine which version of ImageFolio you are using. If you are using version 2.22 or greater, you may skip this instruction and move on to the next step. But be sure to set $using_postcard_mod = 1; in your config.pl file.

    In the subroutine build_nav of shared.pl (from the cgi-bin/if_lib directory)
    find this line:

    $thumblinks .= qq|<a href="$ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}?direct=$FORM{'link'}&img=$FORM{'img'}"><b>Return to Thumbnail View</b></a><br>|;

    And replace it with these two line below(replace "imageCard.cgi" with the URL
    to your imageCard.cgi):

    $thumblinks .= qq|<a href="$ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}?direct=$FORM{'link'}&img=$FORM{'img'}"><b>Return to Thumbnail View</b></a><br>|;
    $thumblinks .= qq|<a href="imageCard.cgi?action=ecard&link=$FORM{'link'}&image=$FORM{'image'}&img=$FORM{'img'}&tt=$FORM{'tt'}">Send As A Postcard</a></b><br>|;

  3. Log into your Webserver via FTP and upload 'imageCard.cgi', 'card_config.pl', and 'post.db' in ASCII text format to the same location as imageFolio.cgi. Unix users set permissions on 'imageCard.cgi' to 755 and 777 on post.db.

  4. Upload in ASCII text format the content of the 'templates' directory to the existing Imagefolio 'templates' directory. You should be uploading three (3) files total.

  5. Create or upload the 'postcards' directory and the subirectory 'mailtemp' in ASCII text format anywhere within your Web space. Both of these directories must have permissions of 777 as postcards will be created as HTML pages within the postcards directory and temporary mail files will be stored in mailtemp.

  6. Upload the stamp.gif file from the if_images directory to the if_images directory on your server. Transfer in binary mode.

  7. Open 'card_config.pl' in a text editor and answer all the questions. Save when finished and upload back to your server.

  8. Open 'imageCard.cgi' in a text editor and verify that the path to Perl at the top of the script is correct. Unless yours in /usr/bin/perl. Save when finished and upload back to your server.

  9. Type in the URL to imageFolio.cgi in your Web browser and navigate to the full-size page of any image or movie. Click the 'Send As A Postcard' link at the bottom. Fill out the form and send yourself a postcard.



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