In this tutorial, we will customize our ecards system a little so that we can test that it is working. Our first step is configure some general settings under the Configuration section of the Admin menu. Let's take a look at some of the settings we will work with.

General Layout Options

1. Our first step is to give our ecard site a name. You might want to use your name, such as you see on Pamela Gladding Ecards or Katies Cards.
   
   
2. Of course, we will want to use Friendly URLs to make it easy for search engines to index our site.
   
   
3. Although we have the option to charge for our ecards, we will be giving this small sample of ecards away for free. Therefore we won't display a price with each card.
   
   
4. The number of thumbnail images displayed across the page will depend on the size of your thumbnals. If your thumbnails are a small size, you can increase the number above four for a normal website. If you will be using the ecard software as part of your Facebook^R Fan Page, you will have limited space. Keep the number of thumbnail images in a row set to 3.
   
   
5. We only have a total of 18 ecards. Let's allow all 18 to be listed on the front page by setting the total number of ecards to 18.
   
   
6. Set the new/popular images to 3.
   
   
7. If you will be using this system on a website, you may wish to enable the social media links for Facebook and Twitter. If you will be using the system on a Facebook Fan Page, disable the social links.
   
   
8. At the bottom of the page, we can set the default width and height for the generated thumbnail jpgs. A good size is 150px width unless you have a small area. In that case reduce the thumbnail width to 70px.
   
   

For now, we will want to keep the defaults for the other options in this section. To test the system, we will need to add some ecards. Before we can add any cards, we need to create at least one category. We will do this under the Categories - Add Category section. Give the category a name such as General or Holidays. The name you use here will be used to create the text links on the site. We will want this first category to be a Parent Category. Finally, add a description (optional).

Now we can add a few ecards. The system needs at least 6 ecards to work with or it gets a bit unhappy. So lets add some under the Images - Add Image section.

1. Give the ecard a name. This name will appear under the thumbnail image. So don't make it too long.
   
   
2. You will see the General category in the Category list. Select this category.
   
   
3. When we add the ecard image or swf, we have the option to upload the file into the system. In this case, the file will be stored in a folder within the system. Another option is to link to an image or swf that is store elsewhere. As mentioned earlier, we will be using the link option. Many artists have images stored on Flickr and it's nice that we have the option to link to these images.
   
   
4. If we are using jpg images for our ecards, we will want the system to automatically generate a thumbnail. However, the system can't do this for us if we are using swfs as our ecards. In that case, we will need to make our own thumbnails. We have the option to upload or link to these images.
   
   
5. If you are using swfs, it's very important to give the width and height of the swf. The program will use this information when it generates the embed tag for the swf. Because the Facebook iFrame is only 510 px wide, the width of the swf should not be more than 480 px. Add the dimensions for the thumbnail also.
   
   
6. Finally, we will add some keywords. The system will use these keywords for the Search Cloud.
   
   

That should be enough to allow us to test the installation of the program.

https://www.mywebcards.net
WebCards screenshots used by permission.