I've been asked a number of times about it, and I'm discussing it with my partners, but if I do release the script, it would have to be a licensed program, due to how it was developed.
The version I'm running on my sites now, I'd release as the "lite" version, since it doesn't track users, require log ons, and basically functions as a standard postcards script, except it uses an SQL back end, and goes through DBSQL.pm and HTML_Templates.pm so that it's look/feel and customizations are all the same as for links. No new skills would be needed, and it integrates seemlessly as long as it's passed an ID to set up the cards, or a pickup code to pick them up. It can accept more, and spit back more, but that is all it needs to "integrate" with Links. If you wanted it to run stand-alone, you just pass it the image URL, and it again generates everything. This may not be clear, but basically, it will accept anything you send it, and figure out what it needs.
I'm working on what I guess would be a "pro" version, that will handle user logons (for address verification, address books, unsending, etc). No release date is planned or expected for that :) Really. The "lite" code is looking good because it's been used for a year, and I rewrote it to install on about a half dozen sites. So, it uses standard Links integrations, nothing unique to my site, per se.
The pro version will be tailored to my sites needs, then generalized out, which is why I'm not promising anything about it.
But, the lite version does work -- it's one script -- and one table, a few templates (as many as you want, 1 or 100) and a couple of routines added to HTML_Templates.pm (standard output stuff).
Now for the gory part. Now that I've explained what it will do, and that it's an "as is" type script (bug fixes yes, features no), if I did release it would have be under license, and probably about $75. It _REQUIRES_ you to have a copy of Links SQL, or it just won't run. It goes into the scripts directory, and reads the Links.pm files, and other library routines. Only your path to perl needs to be set in the script file.
I have no idea what the pro version would be, (or when) it depends a lot on how carried away I get, but it would be a Links SQL plug-in for the next version.
If anyone is interested, please contact me via email, don't litter the forum here.
I'm posting this because while it's against my general "free software" philosophy, I'm sort of tied up on this. It's not definite I can release the program. It's up to my partners, mostly, since the business "owns" it. It also becomes a matter of is there enough interest to warrant it, and opening up the whole can of worms that distributing a program causes.
I hope this answers some of the questions I've gotten in the past couple of weeks, and why I haven't released this program or script before.
Oh... one last thing. It stores the path to the image files, as well as all the fields for the cards, so that image files can reside off-server, and does _not_ require the Links database itself for pickup (everything is stored in the Postcards database). There is no arbitrary limit to what it can do, or how many images you can have (if you pass in an image URL, the script will "send" it).
Thanks,
Robert S. Pataki, MD
PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ
The version I'm running on my sites now, I'd release as the "lite" version, since it doesn't track users, require log ons, and basically functions as a standard postcards script, except it uses an SQL back end, and goes through DBSQL.pm and HTML_Templates.pm so that it's look/feel and customizations are all the same as for links. No new skills would be needed, and it integrates seemlessly as long as it's passed an ID to set up the cards, or a pickup code to pick them up. It can accept more, and spit back more, but that is all it needs to "integrate" with Links. If you wanted it to run stand-alone, you just pass it the image URL, and it again generates everything. This may not be clear, but basically, it will accept anything you send it, and figure out what it needs.
I'm working on what I guess would be a "pro" version, that will handle user logons (for address verification, address books, unsending, etc). No release date is planned or expected for that :) Really. The "lite" code is looking good because it's been used for a year, and I rewrote it to install on about a half dozen sites. So, it uses standard Links integrations, nothing unique to my site, per se.
The pro version will be tailored to my sites needs, then generalized out, which is why I'm not promising anything about it.
But, the lite version does work -- it's one script -- and one table, a few templates (as many as you want, 1 or 100) and a couple of routines added to HTML_Templates.pm (standard output stuff).
Now for the gory part. Now that I've explained what it will do, and that it's an "as is" type script (bug fixes yes, features no), if I did release it would have be under license, and probably about $75. It _REQUIRES_ you to have a copy of Links SQL, or it just won't run. It goes into the scripts directory, and reads the Links.pm files, and other library routines. Only your path to perl needs to be set in the script file.
I have no idea what the pro version would be, (or when) it depends a lot on how carried away I get, but it would be a Links SQL plug-in for the next version.
If anyone is interested, please contact me via email, don't litter the forum here.
I'm posting this because while it's against my general "free software" philosophy, I'm sort of tied up on this. It's not definite I can release the program. It's up to my partners, mostly, since the business "owns" it. It also becomes a matter of is there enough interest to warrant it, and opening up the whole can of worms that distributing a program causes.
I hope this answers some of the questions I've gotten in the past couple of weeks, and why I haven't released this program or script before.
Oh... one last thing. It stores the path to the image files, as well as all the fields for the cards, so that image files can reside off-server, and does _not_ require the Links database itself for pickup (everything is stored in the Postcards database). There is no arbitrary limit to what it can do, or how many images you can have (if you pass in an image URL, the script will "send" it).
Thanks,
Robert S. Pataki, MD
PUGDOGŪ
PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ: http://postcards.com/FAQ