Introduction
Congratulations on launching your eCard site! This document provides specific instructions on how to update and maintain your site.
Your website is built on WordPress, which is updated and improved frequently. This is good news for you, because it means that it’s always getting better and more secure. However, it also means that the platform may change slightly from update to update.
For that reason, we encourage you to visit the latest documentation and resources at the WordPress website at http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons for more information.
Note: If you are already comfortable editing content in WordPress, you can skip this article.
Getting Started
Logging In
To log in to the WordPress Administrator Interface, where you’ll make content changes to your site:
In any web browser enter the eCards site admin URL provided by Cornershop Creative.
Type your username and password, which you will have received from Cornershop Creative.
The WordPress Administrator Interface
Once logged in, you will see the WordPress Administrator Interface. This is where you make changes to your website.
On the left you will see the following items:
Media. Images that are uploaded through WordPress.
Forms. List of sent eCards in case of necessary editing or exporting data.
Pages. This is how you will add new campaigns with specific categories.
eCards. Individual posts containing the ecard image and ecard name.
Profile. Basic profile management (password, username, color scheme, etc.)
Site Options. Management of overall themes, content, etc.
Screen Options
You can alter what items are visible on your screen at any time by clicking screen options in the top right and selecting from the available items.
Your Custom Site
Your eCards WordPress site is a little non-traditional, since it’s used primarily for the creation of eCard posts and forms, with no customization for things like a home page, menus, or other types of content.
Create a New eCard Post
We’ve built a custom eCard post type to manage each individual card. These card posts will never be viewed individually, but instead will be automatically included as eCard options each time you create a new eCard form.
To create a new eCard post, find the eCard option in the left navigation in your WordPress admin and click “Add New”.
There are many fields available by default in WordPress, but you need only fill out four:
Title. The eCard’s post title will be displayed as a caption to the image on your forms.
Custom Embedded Message. This will display under the user message and you can use this to override the default message.
Categories. You can use these to categorize eCards and will be able to select which category displays under “Site Options” or when you create a new page.
Featured Image. This option at the right of the post is used to determine which image should be presented on your forms. We recommend that you use image sizes of 600x600px to work best in the page display as well as when sent to recipients via email.
Once you’ve filled out these four fields, the eCard record will automatically be added through the “Select an eCard” fields on your forms, as shown below:
Note: The eCards will display from newest to oldest from right to left, respectively. You can adjust their order by changing their publish date.
Social Media Sharing & SEO
Default Properties
When sharing a page to social media, the social media service will pull the following information for display:
Title. by default, this will be the defined title of the page that appears in your browser.
Description. by default, the service will display the first paragraph-level language on the page.
Image. If you do not set a default here, the social service will display the first image that is displayed on the page, as long as it meets size requirements. Every service is different, but Facebook, for example, will only use a photo if it is larger than 200x200px. If the first image is too small, Facebook will display the next image.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all use this information when displaying preview information from shared links. Other services can vary in terms of what they will utilize and share.
Users
The Users area is where you can add permission for another individual to add content to your site.
User Roles
Out of the box, WordPress comes with the following user roles:
Administrator. somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.
Editor. somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
Author. somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
Contributor. somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
Subscriber. somebody who can only manage their profile and comment on the site.
For your eCards site, we have included a custom “client admin” role that will allow you access to settings and exporting data, while protecting key eCard system functionality. If you would like to set up additional users within your organization you can give them permissions for either client admin or editor.
Add User
From the WordPress Administrator Interface, hover over Users and click on Add New User on the left navigation menu.
Complete the form by creating a username, email address, first name, last name and password. Our security plugin requires a strong password, which can be generated at: http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/, if not given the ability to auto-generate one.
Remove User
From the WordPress Administrator Interface, hover over Users and click on All Users on the left navigation menu.
This page contains a list of all users in the system.
Check the box next to the user that you wish to remove from the system.
In the dropdown that is labeled Bulk Actions, select Delete and then click the button for Apply.
Exporting Data
You are able to export the past 60 days' worth of data from your eCard forms in the backend. Under the "Dashboard" you will see "Export Entries to CSV". Click the button according to your form type (unpaid/standard or paid). Once you click the button the CSV will download.
Tracking Scheduled eCards
On the WordPress dashboard screen, you will see a widget that displays the specific number of scheduled eCards for any future date with scheduled eCards. This dashboard counts each recipient of an eCard as a unique number (instead of counting based on the number of orders).
For example, if one donor purchases 10 eCards within one order and schedules them to send tomorrow you will see a count of 10 eCards for tomorrow's date.
In addition, you can set up customizable alerts for any days that have over X number of eCards scheduled.
If you navigate to Site Options > High Volume you will see various settings to configure your own alerts.
You can specify any emails that should receive the alerts, you can customize the number of eCards on any given day that will trigger the alert, and you can select the number of days in advance that you would like to be alerted.
Please note that you will receive an alert each day preceding the scheduled date if the eCards are over your threshold (at each listed email).
For example, if you set it up to alert three team members anytime there are over 10 emails sent, and you want to be notified seven days in advance, then all three of you will receive a daily email for each of the seven days preceding any date of the scheduled eCards that has 10 (or more) scheduled eCards.
Tracking specific eCard send status
If you navigate into a specific eCard entry you will see a field that will confirm (via SendGrid) if the eCard has been sent.
You will need to go to Forms > Entries and then select the specific Entry ID that you would like to review. Once you are in the Entry record, you will need to click into the specific recipient by clicking "View Entry" to the right of their name. (You can see an example of this process under "Resend eCard" below.
At the bottom of the entry, you will see “SG Message ID”. If that field has been populated with data, it means that the eCard has been correctly and successfully handed to SendGrid.
You will be able to track the eCard sending with additional notes below the entry fields. You can also use the "Fetch New Sendgrid Update" link if you want to confirm the most up to date information.
Resend eCards
You are able to resend eCards in the backend. Under the "Dashboard" you will see "Resend an eCard".
When you click that button you will be sent to a specific page that allows you to enter the eCard order entry ID or the recipient entry ID and then submit the eCard to resend.
In order to find the eCard entry ID you need to go to Forms > Entries and then select the appropriate form at the top.
If you would like to resend a specific eCard to only one recipient, then you will need to click on the Entry ID and then navigate to the specific recipient to find their recipient entry ID.
Once on the “Entries” view for an eCard, you can click on "View Entry" next to any recipient and find their specific Entry ID.
What to Do if Your Site Goes Down!
Unfortunately, sometimes websites go down, often for reasons that you have no control over.
Down for Everyone?
If you believe your site is down, first go to http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ and enter your site URL. If it reports that the site is down for just you, there’s likely an issue with your computer or Internet - try rebooting. If it’s down for everyone at your office, it may be an issue with your office’s Internet or network, and you may want to contact your IT department.
We find that 90% of site downtime is due to hosting issues. The host is almost always aware of this outage and working quickly to restore service. You can always check to see if LiquidWeb is aware of the issue by visiting: https://status.liquidweb.com/
If it says that things are operational or you have further concerns, you are welcome to reach out to us at [email protected].
Note that Cornershop does not provide 24/7 support, so we will begin our investigation on the next weekday after 8am Eastern Time.
Feel free to continue on to our next article to help with using categories!