Random Malformed order confirmation emails

[cliffvt]

Dr. Byte, thanks for this very useful suggestion!!

The only meaningful differences that I can find are:

A. Interestingly enough, in the paypalwpp.php file. I seem to have the "11302007" full release (3.8) installed but I have compared my install to the "12112007" version (3.8a)also available.

Here are the differences, seems to be mostly to do with debug mode though... do you think this could cause the issue and if so, can I safely replace my version with the 12112007 version of the file?

<snipped by moderator>


Look forward to hearing from you whether you think any of these could be causing this?

Cheers

Cliff

[DrByte]

I would use the more recent of the two versions.
Note that v1.3.8a is newer than v1.3.8, and has a couple tiny but important bugfixes in it.


None of the things you mention would have any bearing on order confirmation emails.

[cliffvt]

Hallelujah!! After weeks of searching and struggling, I FOUND THE ERROR!!

Turns out that it had nothing to do with PayPal, it was to do with an OPTION VALUE (DESCRIPTION)!

One of my option descriptions were "CHILD <12"

When Zencart produces the TEXT email, it terminated the email when it encountered the "<" in the option description, but works fine in the HTML version. The copy of the email going to store owner always terminated on that option due to that email always being text.

This must be A BUG, THE "<" is contained in the VALUE FIELD of the Option and should be somehow be converted to text when creating a text version of the email, perhaps by using "\<"?

Hope this helps anyone else that encounters the same problem. Once I changed the Option value to "CHILD under 12" it works fine!!

Cheers

Cliff

[DrByte]

The < character is probably being treated as the beginning of an HTML tag, and since HTML tags are stripped out of text-only emails (for safety and appearance reasons), that's likely why the problem is occurring for you.

Glad you have a workaround.

[cliffvt]

Yes thanks! I guess this should be reported as a bug since, if the character is encountered as part of a static description field, it's obviously not an HTML tag and should be preserved for the text version.

Cheers

Cliff

[DrByte]

We'll look into it.

However, HTML tags *do* (unfortunately) get used in various description fields, making it a little tough to apply simple generic rules to data parsing. Especially when the 'value' could be a text field that was entered by the customer ... which then brings security risks if not properly sanitized.

[DrByte]

Puzzling. I've tested the use of "Child < 12" as the option value, and can't reproduce any problems with emails getting truncated.

[cliffvt]

Hah! I also notice that if you should enter "Child <Twelve" for example, then it totally ignores the "<Twelve" bit in the description in the Admin panel, and in the shop it shows "[Child <Twelve"]" (i.e. followed by a quote mark)
See image below:


Interesting!

[DrByte]

What happens if you replace the "<" with "&lt;" instead?

[cliffvt]

Dr Byte

Just tested that, and whilst it looks correct on the option value (shows Child <12", when it gets to the checkout cart, it shows as "Child &lt;12" and the email is once again malformed.

Cheers

Cliff