This has now been fixed. You can download the updated zip file from your Member Centre. You only need to upload the file index.php to correct the problem. Please note that the problem will only be resolved for cards sent after the update has been applied.

If you encounter any issues please submit a support ticket in your Member Centre or post on the forum.

At the minute you can only get your users to pay for credits. You can then set how many credits each card costs to send. I am not totally happy with this set up but this will change very soon.

As you can see from the demo version, you will soon be able to charge for individual cards. This is only available in our testing version, not general release just yet.

Additionally, we are about to introduce monthly subscriptions. You would then be able to set how many cards a user can send per month for their subscription fee.

The question I want to ask people is whether the credits option should stay too? We will have the pay-per-card option and monthly subscription. But will keeping the use of credits be a bit too much? I like flexibility, but sometimes having too many options can be too overwhelming.

Please leave your feedback in the comments below.

This version introduces support for Facebook login and a calendar and events manager.

Here is a full list of new features.

• Customisable cost of each card
• Calendar and events manager
• Ability to link event to multiple categories
• Images are now presented in the url in a much better way, the pipe character is no longer used
• Full integration of Facebook Connect and ability to post sent card on Facebook
• Option to disable all registration functions
• Ability to reorder poems, audio file and stamps
• Option to delete multiple cards from admin centre

There are also a few bug fixes, including:

• Images are now hidden when their categories are disabled
• SMTP will only authenticate if a username and password are set
• Separated admin language components from language file to aid translators

If you are not currently a WebCards member please subscribe today for an instant download.

If you have any problems feel free to post in our forum or submit a support request.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the events calendar.

This feature lets you list upcoming events for your users. Clicking a date that has an event will load that event via AJAX so your visitors can read all about the event. You can then choose to link some categories to any event. The great feature of this is that you can seamlessly add as many categories as you like and they will all be listed like they are part of the same category.

Let’s see how this works in the admin centre.

Here you can see that we choose a date for the event but can then set the event to repeat every year. This is handy for events such as Christmas and Velentines Day. You then choose a title for this event and add a description. Most importantly is the category selection box. You can have an event that doesn’t link to any images, but alternatively you can add as many categories as you like to an event.

When the user clicks on this event, images from each of these categories will be included for sending for this event.

There have been many improvements in this release. Here are some of the highlights:

• Display images from child categories. This prevents parent categories showing as empty when the child categories are full of images. It is a setting that can be turned on or off.
• Added free text upload – good for YouTube videos and other embedded media. One of the problems with Webcards 2.0 was that it used file extensions to determine how to display a file. If you added a file without an extension such as a YouTube video, Webcards didn’t know what to do with it. Now you have a the option of a free text upload. Simply paste the embedded html into the box and away you go!
• Added reCAPTCHA system. This has been requested for a long time and is now available in Webcards. You can choose to show a CAPTCHA to everybody, just guests or you can turn it off all together.
• WebCards is now fully brandable. You can now choose to remove all traces of the word “WebCard” from your system and fully rebrand it to whatever you want. Instead of receiving a “WebCard”, your users can now receive a “Chuck’s bodacious e-card” or whatever you wish to call them.

There are also quite a few bug fixes and feature enhancements. Most notably:

• Fixed many SQL errors and general bugs
• More generous login attempts for your users before they are frozen out for 10 minutes
• Safer renaming of uploaded images to prevent file upload attacks
• Manually typing pickup code now works properly with friendly URLs
• Added more robust filtering of user input to prevent XSS problems
• email is checked for being banned when a user registers

WebCards is the best value e-card software available today. It is robust, powerful and great value. $50 will get your 6 months unlimited updates and support. Customers with valid subscriptions can download WebCards today from our Secure Members Area.

If you are not a member please proceed to our order area to purchase WebCards today. It will be available for immediate download when your payment has cleared.

Using the great bulk upload feature, it took just a few minutes to add all these images.

So try out our demo version of WebCards today.

You can download the package from the Sourceforge download page.

If you already have WebCards 1.3 installed, you only need to upload the file source/ad_login.php. If you are unsure, feel free to upload all the files. But please ensure you do not overwrite config.php.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post a reply to this post until we get our forum software sorted out.

The beta will be valid for 30 days and all you need to do is install it, test it as much as you can and then let us know how you got on with it. If you are interested in being a beta testers, please email beta@mywebcards.net to express your interest.

Every beta tester will get a very special treat, but I am going to keep what it is secret for a while. In return for this treat, all you have to do is promise to give some feedback.
Remember, just email beta@mywebcards.net to express your interest.

Did you know that members of our mailing list got this announcement last week? If you want to get updates before anybody else, just sign up for our list at the left hand side of any page. If you replied to the announcement from the mailing list and haven’t heard back from me, please contact me again. My spam filter deleted a lot of the replies.

I will look into a more robust forum solution that will stop spammers, but if anybody has any ideas let me know.

You can email me chris.charlton[at]gmail.com if you need any support.

You can always check out the latest updates at the development demo.

Firstly, the sending routines have been seriously overhauled. Parsing a message and sending a card is now faster, more accurate and more reliable. Send a card from the demonstration and you will see that you message will be properly parsed and smileys work now too.

Gravatar support has been added. When a user receives a WebCard from you, your Gravatar will be added to the card so they can see who sent it.

An account settings and history section has been added to the members section. You can see cards that you have sent, cards send to you and cards that are pending to be sent in the future. The does away with having to request a pickup be sent to you by email if you lose it. Just login to your account and you can see all the cards that have been sent to you that are still active. You can also change your timezone settings, your password and look at your PayPal payment history.

We have also created a new WebCards Newsletter so you can be kept up to date with the latest announcements. You won’t receive emails everyday, we promise. Use this link to signup.

Keep your feedback coming about the new version of WebCards, it really helps us to know how the new features are being received.