How to set up the eCards plugin

WordPress eCards Plugin with Email Designer

Table of Contents

Installation

  1. Upload the /ecards/ folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin via the Plugins menu in WordPress
  3. Create and publish a new post/page, attach an image or more and add the [ecard] shortcode
  4. Note that there is no way to attach images only in the block editor — if this is the case, use the image IDs (see below)
  5. A new eCards menu will appear below WordPress Posts

Email Deliverability

If you are using an email delivery solution, skip to Step 2.

Step 1

Set up your email delivery solution — SendGrid, Brevo, Mailgun, Gmail or custom SMTP — and use an SMTP plugin to link it to your WordPress site. Add the selected email address inside the Email Options tab, in the eCards Settings section.

Step 2

Create a dedicated email address to use for sending eCards and prevent your messages landing in Spam/Junk folders. Use noreply@yourdomain.com, ecards@yourdomain.com or something similar. You will not receive any emails at this address, as it is only used for sending. Use your cPanel or Plesk panel to create an empty mailbox. Add this email address inside the Email Options tab, in eCards settings.

Go to the Diagnostics tab and check if your mail sending function is working.

Settings

Go to the Labels tab and configure (or translate) the strings as necessary.

The plugin is configured to use the best settings for your site, but you might want to check all the tabs — Settings, Email Options, Restrictions, and Labels — and change the options as necessary.

Usage

Adding eCards to a post or a page is accomplished by uploading one or more images for the [ecard] shortcode.

Images can be uploaded directly to the post or page where the shortcode is present, not attached from the Media Library. Inserting the images is not necessary, as the plugin creates the eCard automatically and displays all uploaded/attached images.

If your images are already uploaded, and they are present in your Media Library, use their IDs to display them:

[ecard id="1, 2, 3, 4, 78"]

The IDs correspond to images in your Media Library. This feature eliminates the need to manually attach images and also eliminates the need to upload the same image multiple times, just to have it attached to different posts or pages.

Add the [ecard] shortcode to a post or a page, or call the function from a template file:

<?php
if ( function_exists( 'wp_ecard_display_ecards' ) ) {
    echo wp_ecard_display_ecards();
}

Remember: If you use WordPress 4.9 or lower or ClassicPress, use the Add Images button to upload images to your post or page. Do not insert them into the page, as the plugin does it automatically.

Note: When an eCard is sent, it uses the large version of the image, as the maximum allowed email width is 600px.