Square Payment Module for Zen Cart [Support Thread]

[mrsawyer]

I just installed the version 0.97 of the Square Payments plugin that was included with ZC 1.5.6c. It seems to work fine, but I see a notice in the Square dashboard that my payment API is 5 versions behind. Should I be concerned about upgrading the plugin to the latest version, or just go with what I have?

Please Advise,
mrsawyer

[DrByte]

I just installed the version 0.97 of the Square Payments plugin that was included with ZC 1.5.6c. It seems to work fine, but I see a notice in the Square dashboard that my payment API is 5 versions behind. Should I be concerned about upgrading the plugin to the latest version, or just go with what I have?

You could upgrade to the latest Square plugin version, which works with a newer API version (and also shows in your Admin which API version it's designed to work with, so you can set that version to match in your Square account).
There are some discussions a few pages back about which API version to use. In short: use the one that the module was written for. The latest version of the module shows that for easy reference.

[dallison]

How is that done? Everything is correct per the install instruction but it still does not work. What is the solution to make this happen?

[DrByte]

New store with 1.5.6c version of Zencart. Square payments stopped working with no changes to the site with an error in step 2 of checkout below
"Sorry, we are not accepting payments from your region at this time. Please contact us for alternate arrangements."

Questions:
You say "new store", which on the face sounds like "created a new store, which hasn't sold anything yet".
But then you say "payments stopped working".
Granted, you do at least say "... with no changes to the site", which suggests you're thinking the same as me: "if it 'was' working but suddenly 'stopped', what changed?".

The "Sorry, we are not accepting payments from your region at this time. Please contact us for alternate arrangements." message appears when no payment modules are available according to the Store's configuration. This could be because modules aren't installed, or any that are installed are disabled intentionally, or disabled due to misconfiguration (eg expired/missing token, broken communications (curl not available)), or ruled themselves out because the module is configured to only work for certain address zones and the current customer is not in one of those allowed zones.

As discussed, the yellow dot suggests that the module is potentially ruling itself out either because it has zone restrictions specified or because the module has determined its configuration is not complete or accurate (eg: token issues, communications capability issues, no Location set, Location doesn't support the store's default currency).

Things you can check:

1. Token has been set. How to do that? that's all explained on-screen in the module's admin area already. And in the documentation for the module, see the link below.

2. Handler script. The square_handler.php script is used by Square to interact for exchanging tokens. It can also be used by a cron job to keep the token fresh. For troubleshooting you can visit your_site.com/square_handler.php -- it will normally show a blank page, but if you temporarily change the "$verbose=false;" to say true on around line 12 of the file it will tell you tiny clues about what is/isn't happening. It's intentionally very silent when run from a browser, in order to avoid exposing anything that a malicious visitor might want to learn about your site. But if you run it from the command-line (cron job) it'll tell you more about what's happening. It also logs to the /logs/ directory if it has communications problems.

3. Uninstall and Re-install the module using the buttons in the Admin->Modules->Payment screen. Uninstalling using the Remove button should remove all its configuration settings. Then click Install to re-configure all the settings. You'll need to paste all the settings back in again from your Square account, and use the green button to do the token exchange with Square. Then be sure to set the Location by exiting the Admin and then going back in and Editing the module settings to choose the Location from the dropdown and Saving.

Additional troubleshooting can be seen in the module's documentation: https://github.com/zencart/square_pa...ster/README.md

[dallison]

I uninstalled and reinstalled from inside the module and all is solved.
Thank you very much. Everything was installed correctly but something must have corrupted in the installation. Everything works now so far.

[mrsawyer]

You could upgrade to the latest Square plugin version, which works with a newer API version (and also shows in your Admin which API version it's designed to work with, so you can set that version to match in your Square account).
There are some discussions a few pages back about which API version to use. In short: use the one that the module was written for. The latest version of the module shows that for easy reference.

Thanks for your reply, but I'm still left with my original question: Should I be concerned about upgrading the plugin to the latest version, or just go with what is working just fine? (You know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!)

[dbltoe]

My theory has always been, "If I've got a chance to prevent the bump in the night, I'm gonna take it." In this case, it's who's gonna break it?

Like most, I'm cautious about jumping on the first upgrade. You are fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

Things are working but, what if Square makes a 1 AM change? Time spent now versus time spent in a crisis is the question.

[mrsawyer]

I logged into my Square account and used the Square Virtual Terminal 11 days ago. Much to my surprise, when using a zipcode that does not match the credit card address, Square approved the payment! I then tried doing a similar transaction on my site, checking out with the Square Plugin. Again, Square approved the purchase even though the billing address had no relation to the credit card used. I contacted Square about this, who informed me that they DO validate the billing address before approving purchases. They noted the two transactions and have claimed to be sending the issue to their API team and their Virtual Terminal payment engineering team to have a look. It has been 11 days, and still no progress. Perhaps some users of the Square service should run their own tests with unverified billing addresses and also notify Square of the discrepancy in what they claim they do, and actually do.

[gohealth]

When the module in your store Admin says "(Access Token needed)", it's because the OAuth token has NOT been successfully obtained from Square.

For the OAuth token to be obtained, the following (as documented in the installation instructions) must be in place:

a) square_handler.php must be on your server. It should be in the same directory as ipn_main_handler.php already exists.
b) the correct URL pointing to square_handler.php on your site must be entered into your Square's account OAuth Redirect URL setting.
c) click on the button to initiate the process of requesting a token. This will open a browser window to Square, and if you're not already logged in there, will ask for credentials.
d) After Square verifies the supplied credentials, it will show an almost-blank page with a small redirection message, before the window closes automatically.
e) Within 0-5 seconds after that almost-blank window closes, Square should have automatically sent a message to the OAuth Redirect URL (your square_handler.php file), which will read and validate Square's response, and update the token in your store. This happens automatically, and 99% of the time happens in less than 1 second.
f) Now refreshing your Zen Cart Admin screen will show that the "Get Token" button has disappeared, as well as the "(Access Token needed)" message.
The module is now fully functional.

Common causes of problems with this:
a) didn't upload square_handler.php
b) put square_handler.php into the wrong directory. It belongs in the "root" of your store's folders. For reference, "ipn_main_handler.php" also exists in this directory.)
c) didn't put the OAuth Redirect URL into Square's settings, or mistyped it.


Less common, but possible causes:
a) you've got URL-rewriting rules set up in .htaccess or nginx, which are disallowing square_handler.php to be reached, probably because you're redirecting those requests to some other URL/file. Fix: allow square_handler.php to accessed directly. You could clone any rules for ipn_main_handler.php for square_handler.php, as a starting point.

b) you're running on a test site using a fake/unreachable URL, according to Square's servers. Fix by using a real live website.

c) you're running behind a firewall that's got aggressive restrictions on which files are allowed to be accessed. This is simple. Just tell the firewall to allow normal port 443 access to square_handler.php .... just like any other file on a website should be able to do. Nothing special here.

I struggled with this issue for a while, and it may be a combination of a number of the less common issues mentioned above. But, what fixed my issue was actually setting the Square OAuth Redirect URL to the actual full path of "www.rootstoreurl.com/square_handler.php" even though the Payment Module in Zen Cart shows it as just the root url "www.rootstoreurl.com".

So, hoping this little update might save others some time.

Chris

[mrsawyer]

I logged into my Square account and used the Square Virtual Terminal 11 days ago. Much to my surprise, when using a zipcode that does not match the credit card address, Square approved the payment! I then tried doing a similar transaction on my site, checking out with the Square Plugin. Again, Square approved the purchase even though the billing address had no relation to the credit card used. I contacted Square about this, who informed me that they DO validate the billing address before approving purchases. They noted the two transactions and have claimed to be sending the issue to their API team and their Virtual Terminal payment engineering team to have a look. It has been 11 days, and still no progress. Perhaps some users of the Square service should run their own tests with unverified billing addresses and also notify Square of the discrepancy in what they claim they do, and actually do.

I finally heard from a manager at Square yesterday. It turns out that the customer service person who told me that Square verifies a match between billing address and credit card information was wrong. The manager says that Square DOES NOT verify this information for their API, nor their Virtual Terminal.

Does anyone know of a card processor with no monthly fees that verify a match between the credit card number and the billing address of the order? I thought PayPal did, but they only verify info for a PayPal card.

Thanks...