Incorrect Paypal Item Names

[xtreme]

Hello,

When processing orders via Paypal I recieve payment. The customer gets 2 emails 1 from paypal, 1 from my store confirming the order, and in my admin area shows the paypal order The only problem is when the customer sends payment through paypal my invoices are a little messed up.

Item Amount:
$0.22 USD
Shipping:
$0.00 USD
Handling:
$0.00 USD
Quantity:
1
Item Title:
Xtreme Surf and Sport
Item Number:
1

Both the Item number and the Item title are incorrect. The Item title shows up as my store name and not the item(s) purchased. And the item number does not correspond with the item title which is also wrong. How do I get my paypal invoices to display what has been purchased?

[DrByte]

Your PayPal email will show your store name as the item purchased.
Details of the transaction will be on the email that comes from your store.

[TigerOne]

Hello,

When processing orders via Paypal I recieve payment. The customer gets 2 emails 1 from paypal, 1 from my store confirming the order, and in my admin area shows the paypal order The only problem is when the customer sends payment through paypal my invoices are a little messed up.

Item Amount:
$0.22 USD
Shipping:
$0.00 USD
Handling:
$0.00 USD
Quantity:
1
Item Title:
Xtreme Surf and Sport
Item Number:
1

Both the Item number and the Item title are incorrect. The Item title shows up as my store name and not the item(s) purchased. And the item number does not correspond with the item title which is also wrong. How do I get my paypal invoices to display what has been purchased?

Perhaps this will shed some light on things. I see this question come up several times concerning item numbers and item title for PayPal payments. When multiple items are purchased, you can only pass the amount of the purchase and shipping if required. PayPal will figure the total. So multiple item amounts can not be passed to PayPal's IPN.

There is a somewhat alternative to this. Here is what I've done to make customer's happy. Remember to backup your files before making changes!

In the /includes/modules/payment/paypal.php file, around line 186, find the following lines:

zen_draw_hidden_field('item_name', 'STORE_NAME') .
zen_draw_hidden_field('item_number', '1') .

Then just change the first line to display your Store Name plus the word puchase on it and comment out the item_number line. See below example.

zen_draw_hidden_field('item_name', 'Xtreme Surf and Sport Purchase') .
// zen_draw_hidden_field('item_number', '1') .

What this does is show on PayPal for item, "Xtreme Surf and Sport Purchase" and also does not show any item number so the customer is not confused.

To prepare the customer for this I have put a "Important Note" at the bottom of my /includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_checkout_confirmation_default.php file. Note that if you have a custom template that this file may be in a different folder.

At the bottom of tpl_checkout_confirmation_default.php, just put the following and you can change the wording to your liking.

<br><br><br>
<div class="alert"><b>IMPORTANT NOTE: Upon confirming order, you will be taken to
PayPal for your secure payment. PayPal will list this as a payment to us for a
Quantity of 1 and will give you a total purchase price. Once you have finished your completed payment, please return to our site to complete the order. Once this has been done, you will be sent a detailed receipt of your order. Remember that unless you click "Return to Complete Order" after paying, your order may not be shipped.</b></div><br><br>

Remember this is at the very end of the file tpl_checkout_confirmation_default.php after everything else in the code. I made it RED with the alert class from the css file but you can make it any color you want. Red seems to get attention though.

Hope that helps a lot of people because this is a very easy workaround to the PayPal Item display problem.

[DrByte]

note that STORE_NAME is actually the name of your store as you set it up in the Admin->My Store->Store Name.... so changing that line is not necessary.

[TigerOne]

note that STORE_NAME is actually the name of your store as you set it up in the Admin->My Store->Store Name.... so changing that line is not necessary.

This is true, but it is also what will display as Item Name on PayPal's payment screen. Since you can't actually pass the name(s) of the actual items that were purchased, then a lot of customers get confused or hesitant because they don't see what they are paying for listed there. So this was my way of getting around that.

The point is that if you put "Purchase" at the end of it in the paypal.php file, then when people checkout, they will then see on the PayPal payment screen:

Item: Store Name Purchase
QTY: 1
Price: $49.95

rather than:

Item: Store Name
QTY: 1
Price: $49.95

You could even go so far as to hard code in "Order Purchase From My Store" if you wanted.

Instead of letting ZenCart pass the STORE_NAME and then adding . 'Purchase' to the end of it, I simply hard coded it into the paypal.php file. Was a simpler solution because PayPal is just looking for a value to put in there.

Same outcome overall. But the important thing is that now my customers see that they are paying for a "Store Purchase" rather than just a "Store Name."

[gregsmith]

The code has changed since 2006.
However, telling someone to hard code some litteral is a "non-answer" so,
I am using the "PayPal IPN - Website Payments Standard" module
and in /includes/modules/payment/paypal.php at about line 261,
change 'item_name' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE,
to 'item_name' => $order->products[0]['name'],
if you are only selling 1 product at a time (as we are),
otherwise, create a loop and append all of them together into 1 string and assign it to 'item_name'.
That should help for the standard module.

[zamzom]

The code has changed since 2006.
However, telling someone to hard code some litteral is a "non-answer" so,
I am using the "PayPal IPN - Website Payments Standard" module
and in /includes/modules/payment/paypal.php at about line 261,
change 'item_name' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE,
to 'item_name' => $order->products[0]['name'],
if you are only selling 1 product at a time (as we are),
otherwise, create a loop and append all of them together into 1 string and assign it to 'item_name'.
That should help for the standard module.

I have made the following small changes in /includes/modules/payment/paypal.php
I have added two new variables to the function process_button() at around line 165:

$itemlist = '';
$itemamount = 0;

Itemlist is a string where a concatenated string for all the items will be formed. Itemamount is an integer where the number of total items will be calculated.
Next, added the following piece just before $optionsAggregate = ... around line 260:

for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($order->products); $i<$n; $i++) {
$itemlist = $itemlist . strval($order->products[$i]['qty']) . 'x ' . $order->products[$i]['name'];
if ($i<$n-1) $itemlist = $itemlist . ', ';
$itemamount = $itemamount + $order->products[$i]['qty'];
}

and finally change the 'item_name' and 'item_number' assignments as also gregsmith suggested:

'item_name' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE . $itemlist,
'item_number' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_ITEMNUM . strval($itemamount),

This way your Paypal item will show items' quantities and items' names listed (comma seperated) next to your store name.
The Paypal item # will show total amount of items in this payment.

I also suggest you to edit your /includes/languages/modules/payment/paypal.php define's as follows so that the line looks neat.

define('MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE', 'Purchases from ' . STORE_NAME . ': ');
define('MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_ITEMNUM', '');

Finally your payment in Paypal IPN will show like this:

Purchases from yourstore.com: 3x Adjustable Amount Gift Certificates, 1x Gift Certificate 10$
Item # 4

[zamzom]

I also suggest you to edit your /includes/languages/modules/payment/paypal.php define's as follows so that the line looks neat.

The correct path is off course:
includes/languages/english/modules/payment

[DrByte]

Keep in mind that that field has a limited maximum length, and your approach does not take into account anything related to product attribute choices, so is thus not a universal fix, and thus not suitable for all stores. If it works for you, great. USE AT OWN RISK.

And ... remember ... you STILL need the IPN infrastructure working properly if you want your store to be notified of updates to payments, including echecks, pending payment changes, voids, refunds, and so on. So, if you're trying to add item names because you have problems with orders not being added to your store, then the above fix is a huge red herring for you, and you should fix the root problem first instead of making the suggested code change.

[undersun]

I have made the following small changes in /includes/modules/payment/paypal.php
I have added two new variables to the function process_button() at around line 165:

$itemlist = '';
$itemamount = 0;

Itemlist is a string where a concatenated string for all the items will be formed. Itemamount is an integer where the number of total items will be calculated.
Next, added the following piece just before $optionsAggregate = ... around line 260:

for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($order->products); $i<$n; $i++) {
$itemlist = $itemlist . strval($order->products[$i]['qty']) . 'x ' . $order->products[$i]['name'];
if ($i<$n-1) $itemlist = $itemlist . ', ';
$itemamount = $itemamount + $order->products[$i]['qty'];
}

and finally change the 'item_name' and 'item_number' assignments as also gregsmith suggested:

'item_name' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE . $itemlist,
'item_number' => MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_ITEMNUM . strval($itemamount),

This way your Paypal item will show items' quantities and items' names listed (comma seperated) next to your store name.
The Paypal item # will show total amount of items in this payment.

I also suggest you to edit your /includes/languages/modules/payment/paypal.php define's as follows so that the line looks neat.

define('MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_TITLE', 'Purchases from ' . STORE_NAME . ': ');
define('MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION_ITEMNUM', '');

Finally your payment in Paypal IPN will show like this:

Purchases from yourstore.com: 3x Adjustable Amount Gift Certificates, 1x Gift Certificate 10$
Item # 4

In the above example, I need the actual "item number" from zencart to be passed through to paypal standard. As it stands
with this code, the "item #" is actually calculating the total number
of ordered items and NOT the zencart "Catalog Number."

What would be the code to do that?

P.S. The first part of the code passes through the DESCRIPTION_TITLE perfectly.