Administrators can create new card sets in the wp-admin area under the “Scratch Cards” menu. To get started click on the “Add New” link the menu.
First, we need to give out card set a title. This is mandatory. Next, we need to start by setting up how much a card will cost to play, what point type to accept as payment (if you have more than one), the maximum number of times a user can buy cards per day and the point type you want to payout for winners.
While you can charge a different point type from the one that the cards pay out, you can not require multiple point types as payment or payout.
Next, we need to setup our message templates. This includes the messages users see when they win, when they do not win and when they have reached their purchase limit (if used). Furthermore it also includes the log entry templates that the plugin should use when a user is charged and paid. These entries is what the user would see in their history.
Save Changes before continuing further.
Next, we need to decide if we want to provide our own design for the cards or use one of the built-in templates. If you select to use a built-in template, the editor will refresh and load images, dimensions and scratch settings. Details in your “Setup” and “Message Templates” metabox will not be affected.
If you plan on using your own designs, please make sure you read the Designing Cards article before continuing any further.
The plugin comes with three built-in templates that you can use to start selling cards right away.
The most basic template of all with one design for winning cards and one for no-wins. How much the winner gets is all up to you.
- Width: 300px
- Height: 400px
- Illustrator Template
This basic template provides an example of how you can have multiple no-win images to give your card set some variation from just a win or no win design. The objective is to scratch a card that has three stars. No-win cards use a variation of other shapes.
- Width: 400px
- Height: 250px
- Illustrator Template
This is an example of more complex setups where users can win different amounts amongst a large variation of cards. The objective is for the user to scratch three of a particular value and they win that value.
- Width: 300px
- Height: 400px
- Illustrator Template
Once you select your template, the editor will refresh and load the scratch card images. For this reason, it is important that you save any other settings you might have set up-until now, before selecting the template!
Once the page has finished loading, you will see all the available images for each point amount the cards payout. You can add images of your own or remove those you do not want to use.
You can use multiple images for representing the same amount a user wins. This helps create more randomness amongst your cards. You can see an example of this by using the Treasure Cove template.
After the card design, we need to decide how many scratch cards our set will have. This will include all the cards that contain no wins, and the ones that do.
As a minimum you must have one payout option besides “No win”. You can however add as many as you like. Each payout option consists of two pieces of information:
- The point amount the user wins and
- The number of cards that grants this amount
Remember to always save your set when making changes to the “Winnings” metabox! If you add a new payout option, you will need to save before the background image options for that payout shows in the editor!
Finally you can give your set a logo. This logo will be shown in the scratch cards shortcodes for each card. By default, the image is shown above the card sets title in the shortcode, however if you plan on using an image that is as large as the cards a user play, it is highly recommended you select to “Show logo as background”!
If you do not select any logo, the card will be represented by it’s title.
If you provide a logo but you do not select to use the logo as a background. Note that the default CSS styling will enforce a maximum height of 120px of your logo.
If you provide a logo and select to show it as a background image.
Once you have set your background images (or loaded a template) and saved, you will be shown a “Preview” of how the card would look when viewed by your users. This preview can be scratched so you can test your Minimum Scratch settings or see how your coin image and dimension works with your design.
Remember that if you make any changes you need to save for the preview to update!
Once you have saved your card set, set all Winnings, added all the images you want to use, the “Activate” button will become visible in the “Actions” metabox.
This button will trigger the Activation process, during which the plugin will generate the cards in the set based on your setup. This is an important step as you can not undo this. Before you activate your set, make sure you double check all your settings, images etc. The Card Logo is the only thing you will be able to adjust once a set is created along with templates and prices.
The plugin will generate 500 cards at a time, so if you have requested to create a large number of cards, this process can take a few seconds to complete. Please make sure you do not leave the page until the process is completed.
Once all cards have been created, the set will become published and purchasable immediately.
The most commonly asked question has always been “how many cards can I generate?”. The answer to this question depends on your website, the available resources along with how many plugin you are using. You would be able to generate without issues on a sandbox or low traffic website a lot more cards than on a busy website with large number of active plugins.
The plugin has been tested by generating 100,000 cards per set without any issues.
The most common issue is the maximum execution time your server sets. Adding 10k entries to your database will be a heavy task for your server and can take up to a few minutes to complete. Most servers however have a maximum execution time of max. 30 seconds, which in turn will limit the number of cards the script can insert before things timeout.
Finally the plugin was written to give out points. So even if you decide to give a user something else when they win, they will also need to earn points. How much, is up to you.
