As we set up our new church site, we've looked at several other church sites and come across an intriguing idea that we wondered "how to" with WEC:

How could/could we create an "invite a friend to church" eCARD function whereby the fe user could select a card design (missed you, meet me at church, etc) then send it via email to a friend.

Any ideas?
Beth C.

Beth,
Great idea! WEC doesn't have an eCard extension of its own, but there are several extensions out there from the TYPO3 community that do this.

http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/?tx_terfe_pi1%5Bview%5D=search&no_cache=1&tx_terfe_pi1%5Bsword%5D=card

I haven't used any of them myself, but perhaps some others around here have experience with them. At some point in the future, I wouldn't be surprised if WEC goes down this road more, either developing our own eCard extension or testing the existing ones and picking the best to recommend.

Thanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff and Beth

simply do the following
install
pmkslimbox
rgecard http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgecard.html
rgmedialinks http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgmedialinks.html
rgmediaimages http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgmediaimages.html it will enable you to place ANY multimedia content in the text with image field i.e. videos!!!

Now you will have all you need to create an ecard from every image on your page.
Only Check "click enlarge" where you wanna have the eCard feature activated.
It is the most easiest and especially also best looking way of an eCard module and it really would waste of time to try to top this. Georg Ringer did a real good job hear like with his rgsmoothgallery. http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgsmoothgallery.html

IMHO WEC should use much more of Georg Ringers great work.
i.e. The login box and the search function could easily be placed in a "content-lightbox" using rgmoodalbox http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgmoodalbox.html

The backend login should be customized using a nice colorful WEC Login instead of the standard TYPO3 one using http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/chloginskin.html
(will be available next week as Georg wrote)

In tt_news it is boring to have only one picture but with rgslidshow you can show complete slideshows instead http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgslideshow.html

In every website are pages which need simply to appear but have no real SEO use, so be place them in Tabs on a single Page inside a moodalbox using rgtabs http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgtabs.html and the already mentioned rgmoodalbox
Imprint, Feedback form, Road map, Legal Informations and other MUST on websites i.e. in Germany to be conform the state law.

As WEC is coming with tt_news there are some very good news. Use http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/mpossnewssorting.html and you can sort and edit your news very easy and add this one too http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/chnewssort.html

As also churches like to have nice images on websites http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/fun/mpossnewsheader.html might be just right for you. With this extension you can define an image header PER NEWS article. In other words you could let the header switch every time a new news article gets called :-)

But best is the next one as Georg just opened a new project and we are looking to get a bit more support for it. The idea is to use IRRE to place every CE inside a News Article. If you are interested have a look here. This could be a real innovative thing if especially tt_news would get a complete renewal but this needs support. Write your comments to it here:
http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgnewsce.html
http://lists.netfielders.de/pipermail/typo3-english/2008-March/047548.html

Georg is a very good and very editor friendly developer. His extensions are working :-) and are documented and he gives great support for them in the mailing lists and on his website.
http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgecard.html

Have a look there as it is really great fun to see what other nice goodies he has got on this site.

Enjoy playing around with Georgs stuf
God bless you
Andi

Sorry - later addon:
What about this here in combination with Bible Citations
http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/fun/rgtitleonimage.html

Hi

Have a look here
http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgnewsce/beispiele-i-bilder.html
if you like it make a comment or much better support Georg. If you need something similar as you have also your problems with all those tiny little extensions for tt_news which are really confusing. Best read here and comment:

http://www.rggooglemap.com/dev/rgnewsce.html

IMHO this would be a real innovative idea what has just started here.

Thanks
Andi

Andi,

Have you demonstrated a working eCard system using the extensions listed here? If so, can we get a link to it?

In Christ,
Mark

I really like this one, as our church is interested in implementing an ecard system for invitations to special events and also for current sermon series invitations.

I went to the site to test it and it looks like a winner. 30 minutes later still no email, so I'm not sure what happened, and unfortunately while the site can be read in English the site comments are not in English which makes researching difficult.

I'd love to see a fully functional demo as well.

I'm also researching the other options, and will post my findings here. Unfortunately, with 7 options found on the typo3 site under a search for ecards, only 2 have been updated in the last 12 months and only 1 is listed as stable.

Has anyone had success with this function as of yet?

IHS,
David

Sorry for replying late

Here I just setup another.
http://inovo.t3log.info/index.php?id=28

The installation is very easy - simple follow the manual step by step
Only problem I had was that the Mail formular isn't flexible, so the Picture needs to be big enough otherwise you can't see the complete formular.

Andi

Andi,

I clicked on the picture and then the light box came up. But when I click on the ecard link it does not seem to do anything. Am I missing something or is it not working. I used Firefox to test this.

In Him,
Mark

Hi Mark
no it should work I tested it this morning with firefox

1. Click on one of the pictures
2. A Lightbox will open
3. Enter the receiver and your mail and message
4. send
5. you will receive a mail with a verification link to prevent spam
6. click this link and verify
7. the eCard gets send to the receiver
8. the receiver gets a mail with a link to the eCard
9. Click the eCard and read the eCard

Please try again, it should actually work. I just deactivated the templateFile perhaps this was causing the problem. I used a custom one.

Andi

I just tried it out and it works as described for me using firefox. When I received the email telling me where to go pick up my ecard the link was to the main site and there was no link to the actual ecard. The link the receiver receives is the following:

You can take a look at it at the following page: http://inovo.t3log.info/

Hopefully this is an easy fix for you.

Now, to take it one step further and into a more modern application for church and ministry use:

Let's say that I want to invite someone to a church event or to hear one of our sermons. In this day of instant information some people won't click on a link in their email to go to a site where an invitation is. In order to capitalize on every opportunity to reach someone, it would be great if this application actually emailed the ecard or an html email to the person you want to send it to instead of the link to an email. They instantly receive the invitation and less clicks means more success in at least getting the word out.

I can understand needing to visit the site when it comes to heavy animated graphics, but this is where we as the body need to step up our efforts and find a way to reach people with the same technology that companies use and with ease of use for the receiver in mind.

Not preaching to anyone, just my thoughts on this particular extension. It does what it says it will, but this is still delivered the same way ecards started out several years ago