PayPal CreditCard Orders Don't Show Up In My Zen Cart

[rwclark]

OK. I've scoured the forums for about an hour or two before posting this. I thought I understood what was going on, but apparently not.

I set up Zen Cart with PayPal IPN for a client and some of the PayPal orders weren't getting back to ZenCart so there'd be a PayPal receipt and no record of what the customer ordered.

So I found the May PayPal patch, installed that, and turned on PDT. Thought everything would work now.

But in fact, here's what happens. Auto Return only works if you pay using PayPal. And that seems to be OK. But if you pay using a credit card, there's just a tiny link that says "return to merchant." As I understand things, the PayPal data should go back to Zen Cart whether or not the auto return works. Is this wrong? What can I do to fix this?

I also ran the PayPal IPN test php script and it showed everything was fine (http://www.jameskelleher.com/ipncheck.php).

[Merlinpa1969]

pay with Credit card ( no account ) at paypal means that the user HAS to hit th ereturn link,

there are 2 links there return to merchant or create account,

they HAVE to choose one

[rwclark]

It seems impossible to ensure that every customer will click that link. Is there a way around this? Or is this just a limitation of PayPal IPN? Would another payment module work better?

Ryan

pay with Credit card ( no account ) at paypal means that the user HAS to hit th ereturn link,

there are 2 links there return to merchant or create account,

they HAVE to choose one

[rwclark]

The final PayPal page looks like this...

"Thank You for your payment

Secure Transaction
You have sent a secure payment of $XXX USD to ___. This payment will appear on your card statement as "PAYPAL *___". You will receive an email receipt for this shortly.
View Printable Receipt"

On the bottom left there's a link that says "Return to Merchant" and on the bottom right there's a link that says "Sign Up."

It looks a lot like a final confirmation and a customer could easily just assume everything was done and close the window at this point. That's all I'm saying.

Is there a way to make this process less ambiguous?

It seems impossible to ensure that every customer will click that link. Is there a way around this? Or is this just a limitation of PayPal IPN? Would another payment module work better?

Ryan

[Merlinpa1969]

not on zen carts end, that is all paypal,

[rwclark]

So the PayPal IPN module is functioning correctly, then?

On the Wiki it says that between making the payment and the customer clicking there's some communication between PayPal's server and Zen Cart's. It seems that clicking the "return to merchant" link is the final step?

Thanks so much,
Ryan

not on zen carts end, that is all paypal,

[DrByte]

If the customer doesn't click the Return To Merchant link, then you must rely on the IPN notification (instead of PDT) to release your order.

PDT is triggered if the customer comes back to your store directly from PayPal.

IPN is triggered when PayPal authorizes the payment. This is background communications, and doesn't rely on the customer. However, it does rely on your server configuration to talk to paypal's server.
The wiki article talks about potential communication issues:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

[rwclark]

Thanks. So what this indicates is that PDT is probably working, but IPN is not, correct?

If the customer doesn't click the Return To Merchant link, then you must rely on the IPN notification (instead of PDT) to release your order.

PDT is triggered if the customer comes back to your store directly from PayPal.

IPN is triggered when PayPal authorizes the payment. This is background communications, and doesn't rely on the customer. However, it does rely on your server configuration to talk to paypal's server.
The wiki article talks about potential communication issues:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

[DrByte]

Thanks. So what this indicates is that PDT is probably working, but IPN is not, correct?

If your customers are paying by CC and not creating or using their PP account, and they're not clicking on the Return To Merchant link at the end of the process, AND you're not getting those orders in your Zen Cart site, then yes, your IPN communications are not working properly.

Troubleshooting IPN issues:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

Enabling Debug Logging for analysis:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61199

[rwclark]

I spoke with the hosting company about the problem I've been having, after pointing them to this info from the Wiki:

* Check with your host that port 80 and 443 are open for bidirectional communication.
* Check there is no IP block or firewall to prevent PayPal's™ servers from talking to your server (your host should check this, and you should check any blocking you may have done via your control panel.
* Check .htaccess for any deny from statements and be sure none of them are addresses related to PayPal™.
PayPal IP Address List (these should be in your host's firewall whitelist)
notify.paypal.com (as of June 2006):
216.113.188.202
216.113.188.203
216.113.188.204
66.211.170.66

They think that the site may need to be on a static IP instead of a shared IP in order for PayPal to properly communicate with Zen Cart, but they're not sure.

Does this sound plausible? Anyone know?

Ryan

If your customers are paying by CC and not creating or using their PP account, and they're not clicking on the Return To Merchant link at the end of the process, AND you're not getting those orders in your Zen Cart site, then yes, your IPN communications are not working properly.

Troubleshooting IPN issues:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

Enabling Debug Logging for analysis:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61199