Does ZC 1.3.8 PayPal IPN really require allow_url_fopen?

[CJPinder]

The Zen Cart v1.3.8 PayPal IPN payment module (and the ZC 1.3.7 version as well I believe) say that they require allow_url_fopen to be enabled.

Thing is, I have a client with a ZC 1.3.7 site that would like an upgrade to ZC 1.3.8. The site is currently using PayPal IPN and NoChex without problem. The phpinfo shows allow_url_fopen to be off (both master and local). I have run the ipncheck.php from the ZC 1.3.8 extras directory and that shows...

IPNCHECK.PHP - Version 1.0

IPN TESTING - POSTING to PayPal via: ssl://www.paypal.com:443

IPN TESTING - Confirmation/Validation response: RESPONSE RECEIVED - Communications OKAY

Script finished.

Now that leads me to believe that PayPal IPN on ZC 1.3.8 would work fine if I went ahead with the upgrade to ZC 1.3.8. But the host has allow_url_fopen disabled and the payment mod information says it needs to be enabled.

So I've been through the ZC 1.3.8 PayPal IPN code and I cannot find anywhere that would require allow_url_fopen to be enabled. What am I missing? I can see that it uses fsockopen() to the paypal site but as far as I know fsockopen() is not affected by allow_url_fopen and I cannot find any official documentation to say it is.

Can whoever did the paypal ipn module (Chris?) tell me why allow_url_fopen needs to be enabled?

Many thanks,
Christian.

[CJPinder]

I've had a close look at each of the fopen() statements used in the PayPal IPN module. It looks as though the only place that uses fopen() to a URL is ipn_simulate_ipn_handler(). So as far as I can tell, using PayPal IPN in Test mode requires allow_url_fopen to be ON but to use PayPal IPN for live transactions the value of allow_url_fopen does not matter (can be ON or OFF).

Can someone in the Dev Team confirm this for me?

Many thanks,
Christian.

[DrByte]

fsockopen($ssl . $proxy['host'], $proxy['port'], $errnum, $errstr, 30)

If you've got a setting on your server that blocks fsockopen() from connecting to an outside URL, you'll have problems.
If you have no blocks, then it should work okay.


And, this is *not* new to 1.3.8 ... the use of fsockopen to do postbacks to PayPal to validate transaction details has been around since PayPal IPN support was added to Zen Cart in v1.2.

[CJPinder]

fsockopen($ssl . $proxy['host'], $proxy['port'], $errnum, $errstr, 30)

If you've got a setting on your server that blocks fsockopen() from connecting to an outside URL, you'll have problems.
If you have no blocks, then it should work okay.

Thanks Chris. This doesn't really answer the question though. fsockopen() is not affected by the allow_url_fopen setting. It can be blocked separately but not by allow_url_fopen. So what I'm trying to understand is why the admin information says that having allow_url_fopen enabled is a requirement. Do you know why that was stated as a requirement?

Many thanks,
Christian.

[DrByte]

Do you know why that was stated as a requirement?

I believe that was a result of troubleshooting outcomes from working with people on the forum whose host had allow_url_fopen disabled. Once enabling it, the IPN transactions worked normally.
It's informational, and not related specifically to any coding changes.

[CJPinder]

Cool. Thanks for taking the time to help Chris. Much appreciated.

Regards,
Christian.