PayPal Return to Merchant

[vickytroy]

My domain www.HistoricHomeHardware.com I just had a major update from a 10+ year old version of ZenCart. I am using PayPal Standard. Please don't tell me to use PayPal Express. I hate it. I've used PayPal Standard for a decade and never had any problems with it. Now I do. The URL for either an auto return to merchant or an option button after payment ends up going to a Whoops! Timed Out. page. Note that my testing a purchase takes less than a minute including the PayPal payment. This is the URL my developer entered in the ZC Admin (in Website Payments Preferences set your Automatic Return URL to:)

https://www.historichomehardware.com...eckout_process

and I have used the same URL on the PayPal account Website Preferences>Auto return>Save

Putting that URL on the URL line (FireFox) also results in the Whoops! Time out. page.

I opted out of the auto return and I guess I can just hope no one clicks on Return to Merchant but I'd really like it to work properly.

[barco57]

you may want to review this page https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/payment/paypal_standard/
If you problem with paypal express is the checkout with paypal button on the shopping cart page there is a switch to turn that off.

[vickytroy]

I have reviewed that thread before posting but thank you.

[DrByte]

I suspect this is related to modern browsers enforcing samesite cookie rules. Chrome is especially picky about this, and other browsers are following suit.
In the default mode browsers won't pass cookies forward from site to site, and with PayPal Standard that means your store will never know what shopping-session the customer was in before being returned from PayPal.

If you want to force browsers into lower-security mode by disabling the samesite cookie rules they're programmed to follow, then you can do the following:


Create a file named /includes/extra_configures/samesite_cookie.php containing the following:

<?php
// -----
// Samesite cookie needs to be 'none' when doing offsite payment gateway redirects
//
define('COOKIE_SAMESITE', 'none');

[vickytroy]

Sorry in advance for my ignorance but aren't the cookies associated with each browser? I use Firefox as my default. I have never used Chrome for any purchases and definitely have not gone into my website with that browser - ever. I just did a test purchase (had to enter everything because none of my data was stored in Chrome so no auto fill) and with that browser the Whoops! Time out! page still comes up rather than the Thank you for your Order page when I Return to Merchant in PayPal.

I don't have any idea how to create files so want to be sure I'm covering all bases before I have to hire someone to do your suggestion.

[mc12345678]

What is your method of accessing files on your server? There are a number of ways to "create" a file. One of which could be to simply copy a file to the folder. Easiest to do if the file being copied doesn't have a name of a file that already exists in that folder. Best if the file doesn't end in .php. Then you edit that file to have the content described above. Save the file.

Then rename it as suggested above.

Done.

Instead of copy, perhaps upload following the same above concept(s)... For something this "simple" I think that you would be spending more time trying to properly setup to support your code helper than just doing this task... But, perhaps there are other things the individual could help you correct if necessary and/or discovered...