Screenshot

PopCard Greetings is a free PHP script which you can use to add stylish e-mail postcards to your site.

PopCard is different from other e-card software because the card is sent to the recipient as a JPEG image rather than the them having to come to the site to pick it up. This makes it a much more personal experience that you get with most e-cards.

How does it work?

  • The card itself is rendered as a JPEG image.
  • The image sent as an HTML email attachment.
  • The user sees the card right in their e-mail inbox.

Installation

If you haven't already, you will need to download the script (580 KB) to your computer and unpack the archive.

The script hasn't been updated since 2006 but it should still work fine on most servers. The original documentation has unfortunately gone to the great database in the sky but installing PopCard is fairly simple:

  1. Configure the script by following the instructions in the file 'resources/includes/popcard.config.php'.
  2. Upload all the PopCard files to your server.
  3. Use your web browser to navigate to popcard.php

Security considerations

To help reduce the risk of bots using PopCard to send spam e-mails, the script uses encrypted form elements which expire within five minutes of loading the first page.

This makes it significantly more difficult for malicious users to create botnet programs to automatically send e-mail using the PopCard script.

Cards from remote files

PopCard has the ability to generate cards from remote files by including them over HTTP. To do this, all you need to do is pass the full URL (including the 'http://' protocol part) to the script in this fashion.

http://site1.com/popcard.php?pu=http://site2.com/image.jpg

This technique makes it easy for you to integrate PopCard with any image library or website you like. Just remember that it's not cool to steal images from other sites and yes, linking to them like this is stealing..!

The legal bits...

PopCard is a free script provided in the hope that people may find it useful. I've tested it pretty thoroughly and it shouldn't cause any problems but please be aware that if you decide to install it on your server, you do so at your own risk!

The script is released under the MIT open source license which means you can do more or less anything you like with it as long as you ensure the license stays with the software.

Supported Languages

PopCard Greetings includes built in support for a range of languages. If you would like to translate the script into another language and share it with other users, please let me know.

  • Bahasa Indonesian Bahasa Indonesian
  • Dansk Dansk
  • Deutsch Deutsch
  • English English
  • Español Español
  • Français Canadien Français (Canada)
  • Magyar Magyar
  • Nederlands Nederlands
  • Norsk Norsk (Bokmål)
  • Português Português (Brasil)
  • Romana Română
  • Suomi Suomi

PopCard.me

Want to send a free greeting card using PopCard? Why not check out PopCard.me, a free e-card service powered by PopCard with the added goodness of Flickr integration!