Paypal recurring billing module for Website Payment Pro

I recently had a recurring billing system created utilizing Paypal Website Payments Pro, and since I am about to provide my customers with an expanded version of this module, I figured it might help some people providing it on the addons page.

All the instructions are included, and there is a installation instructions included. This works out of the box for Zencart 1.3.8, I have tested it. If you have any questions, please post them on this forum rather then email.

broken link removed

I just installed it as this is exactly what my client needs for subscriptions. But does this place recurring billing on all items in my clients' store. Or just specific ones? These are the items that should have recurring billing added:

http://www.granolagourmet.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

The first step is to create the product, then you have a new drop down in the product details where you can select subscription. It is important that you enter a price of $0 in the product details page.

Once the product is made, and subsciption type selected, you would click on the subscriptions link in the upper navigation, and enter the details of the subscription, including the price. There is a drop down to select the product it will be associated with.

The one issue is this, in the checkout area, the price will be displayed as $0, and the actual price is displayed in the details area where attributes are listed. This is because of the recurring billing for paypal. If you enter the products price in the product details, and not the subsciption page, it will only bill the customer once.

Hope that answered the question.

I must have done something wrong. I can't find this new dropdown anywhere. I'm in the Categories/Products area and clicked on New Product and I don't see any pulldown offering subscriptions. Am I in the right area?

OK, it's working. Sort of. I filled out the form in the Subscriptions/Recurring area and got this SQL error:

1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'd like us to send in the text box below.','0', 'Month', '0','','0')' at line 4
in:
[insert into zen_subscription (name, product_id, sub_price, billing_frequency, duration_in, sub_description, sub_trial_confirm, trial_billing_period1, trial_billing_frequency1, trial_amount1, trial_to_total_billing_cycles1) values ('Personal Subscription','11', '23.95', '12','Month','You receive 2 boxes of Granola Bars each month. Each box includes 10, 1.25 ounce Granola Bars. Each box in your shipment will be a different flavor unless you specify which flavors and quantities of those flavors you'd like us to send in the text box below.','0', 'Month', '0','','0')]
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.

Another problem. Seems that on Checkout, I get this message:

We are sorry for the inconvenience. The PayPal account authentication settings are not yet set up, or the API security information is incorrect. We are unable to complete your transaction. Please notify the store owner so they can correct this problem. (10002)

We did set it up and now it doesn't work. Is it because I turned off the original PayPal Express Checkout area?

There is a database upgrade in the folder that you will need to install. Make sure to check out the readme doc, and it explains how to update your tables. That is why you are receiving the sql error.

Hopefully sometime this week, I will have a screenshot tutorial on my site to help out with the installation.

JF

You mean the info on Page 3 of the Word document? I did all that. Just checked it out in PHPmyAdmin and the row was added to zen_products and the two new tables, zen_subscription and zen_customer_subscription were also added with all necessary rows. So am I missing something here?

No, you're not missing anything. The addon code just can't handle using apostrophes, which suggests it may also be vulnerable to SQL injection attempts.

I eliminated the apostrophes and the problem is gone. Could I use ' like I do in some MySQL databases?

Also, I have frequency set for months with the pulldown set at 1. That does mean that the customer will be charged once a month?

I did an order and sure enough, it came up as $0.00 in the cart. When I completed the order, the cart did not take me to the PayPal screen like it does at the end of standard non-subscription orders. Is this normal?
Posted via Mobile Device

Big Problem. The orders for the subscriptions are not going through at all. Regular orders are but anything involving a subscription is not. The receipt that goes thru ZC shows up as $0.00 Here's a portion of the ZenCart receipt (store.com doesn't really exist...I also covered up the order id for security purposes):

There is no PayPal receipt since the order never makes it to PayPal. Only regular, non-subscription orders do.

Thanks for shopping with us today!
The following are the details of your order.

Order Number: 53
Date Ordered: Tuesday 07 October, 2008
Detailed Invoice:
http://www.store.com/store/index.php?main_page=account_history_info&order_id=xx

Products

1 x Granola Gourmet Personal Subscription (GC 02) = $0.00
Enter your flavor preferences: all of em

Sub-Total: $0.00
FREE SHIPPING! (Free Shipping Only): $0.00
Total: $0.00

Yes, with PWPP customers do not have to be redirected to the paypal site. It processes the order through Zencart. Setting the payment to 1/month does make it a monthly payment, once a month.

The price should have been displayed in the attribute details of the shopping cart order, rather then the typical order total area to the right. My developers informed me that was the only way to make it process payments on a recurring basis.

Thanks for letting me know about the possible sql issue, I will have them address this in the new version.

Well, my client does have PWPP already and he just signed up for PP's recurring billing feature for an additional $30/month. Does he still need that?

Whatever the case, he losing a lot of money and potential orders because this isn't working.

Try it yourself. Go to http://www.granolagourmet.com/store and click on the Monthly Granola Club button on the homepage and order any of the three clubs and go thru the process. You'll see you end up getting an order for $0.00 and nothing goes thru PP.
Posted via Mobile Device

Hello, I am getting an error when I log in to the admin section and click on the Subscriptions/Recurring at the top of the screen just under "logoff". The error I get is

1146 Table 'xxxxxxxxxx.subscription' doesn't exist

:huh:

Do you know offhand where I went wrong with the install? I am using ZC v1.3.8, PHP Version: 5.2.5 (Zend: 2.2.0), and MySQL 5.0.67 .

Thanks!!

I have attached the shopping cart image from the granola site. It shows the subscription price in the attributes. That is what is the amount charged through Paypal on the subscription basis.

In order to show the customer the amount they are being charged in the checkout, you have to display the attributes from the cart. As mentioned with the first version of the recurring mod, and I mention above, the checkout price will show $0, but the amount that is being deducted on the schedule you set, is the amount in the attributes area.

It was tested through Paypal sandbox, and the checkout went through with no issues.

You can use the paypal recurring, but unless they have upgraded it, it will require alot of coding inside zen to get it to work through zencarts checkout system.

blakdeth77:

Hello, I am getting an error when I log in to the admin section and click on the Subscriptions/Recurring at the top of the screen just under "logoff". The error I get is

1146 Table 'xxxxxxxxxx.subscription' doesn't exist

:huh:

Do you know offhand where I went wrong with the install? I am using ZC v1.3.8, PHP Version: 5.2.5 (Zend: 2.2.0), and MySQL 5.0.67 .

Thanks!!

Did you do the sql table update?

I know about the attributes showing up on that page. That's not the problem. The order does go through ZenCart. We get an email about it for $0.00. However, nothing happens on the PayPal side. We get no confirmation that the subscription goes through and no record on the PP side either. So essentially, no order actually happens.

The client does have Website Payments Pro with the Recurring Billing setup. So where are we going wrong? Why can't we get any proof of an order on the PayPal side?
Posted via Mobile Device

New problem...and an update. Client decided to call PayPal today with me in a conference call. PP said we needed to turn the Website Payments Pro and both the Express Checkout as well as the Express Checkout with recurring billing. He also said to turn on all credit cards PP suggests. So we did that too. Still having problems including a new one that only appears when attempting to make a recurring billing order. In this case, it's on Step 2 of the Checkout Process where this message appears under Payment Method:

Sorry, we are not accepting payments from your region at this time.
Please contact us for alternate arrangements.

Why did this show up? How do we lose it?
Posted via Mobile Device

I have uploaded the files for this module, and run the SQL statements, but I cant see a Subscription menu.
Can someone tell me what I have missed?

fscproductions:

Did you do the sql table update?

Yes I copied and pasted each section to the SQL update box. Does the whole thing need to be done at one shot or can I cut and paste one paragraph of the update at a time? It looked to me like they were almost 3 separate pieces with closing brackets so I did one section at a time, copy and paste. I'm not a programmer but it was not stated that I had to copy and paste the entire section at one time in to the SQL patch input. I'll try it that way I guess. Didn't occur to me when I was actually installing it that maybe all three sections of code had to go at one time. Is that maybe the reason? :blush: