paypal mod working well without paypal IPN setting!!??

Hi,

I have been using zen-cart for 1 year and more.
And operating 2 sites with it.

My paypal IPN was setted to 'off'.
And I am using a same paypal email for those 2 sites.

I never got any errors. And have processed nearly 10000 orders.

I have no idea if it's neccessary to set the IPN at paypal's profile page.

And am I missing any function of zen-cart?

I am using 1.30 zen now.

Confused.

BTW,
I never read those paypal mod installation instructions until mins ago I found this one: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

It mentioned these:

1. you should set paypal IPN on. And Set the URL to: http://www.myzdomain.com/ipn_main_handler.php
2. you need to sest Auto Return for Website Payments on. and provide return URL
3. You can only use primary Paypal email.

While it's realy strange that, ever since 2004 when I first time tried zen-cart, I never touched paypal IPN setting. And I was always using non-primary email instead of the primary one. Also I never set on the Auto Return.

And everything works pretty well.

And everything is ok until hours ago that I found order confirmation no longer showing up at the admin page. And I can't recieve confirmation email from paypal either.

At first I thought paypal may be down for maintenance.

Then I checked my paypal primary email and found the confirmation email recieved there.

Then I go to the zen-cart admin page, and change the paypal module's business ID back to my paypal's primary email. Thanks god, it works.

Although most problems solved to me, but I still have a few questions.

1. Can I use one paypal account for more than 2 seperated zen-cart sites?

I didn't see the paypal IPN allowing me to setup more than one ipn_main_handler address, or even more than one auto return URL.

So if I have to operate 2 zen-cart sites, I have to use 2 seperate paypal accounts?

2. Why don't I need to use my primary paypal email before? Did paypal updated its system reacently?

3. My paypal IPN status is still off. My customer can press the 'Return to merchant botton' to get to my checkout-success page. But can't be redirected automaticaly. I remember it could redirect before without the paypal auto-return function. So now if I still want an auto redirecting, what should I do?
   And because I am operating 2 sites with one paypal account, then if I set up AUTO-Return at paypal, does that mean my customers on both 2 sites will be redirected to a same URL?

Confused.

I am not a programer. And English is not my mother Language, so forgive me if my English is not that smooth.

Thanks

1. Yes you can use it for multiple sites. Zen Cart sends override information to keep the stores separate.

2. I don't know.

3. Zen Cart will send the proper return URL to override the one you specify in your profile. You just need "something valid" in there so that the feature is properly activated.

dosnt look like they are using the IPN

My paypal IPN status is still off. My customer can press the 'Return to merchant botton' to get to my checkout-success page

DrByte:

1. Yes you can use it for multiple sites. Zen Cart sends override information to keep the stores separate.

2. I don't know.

3. Zen Cart will send the proper return URL to override the one you specify in your profile. You just need "something valid" in there so that the feature is properly activated.

Thanks DrByte,

Does that mean, I can set my paypal IPN on and put any URL as ipn_main_handler.php URL and zen-cart will override it?
So is the Auto-Return?

Then can I active Auto-Return sololy and leave IPN off? And put anything as the Auto-Return URL at paypal's profile page. Then my customers will be auto redirected to each site's checkout success page?

Or do I have to turn on IPN too as it's required by:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal
?

:)

I've not seen the Zen Cart "PayPal IPN" module work properly with IPN disabled in the PayPal profile/preferences settings.
Thus, I don't recommend turning it off.

after reading this thread i dicovered that mine was "off" too.
my cart has been up and running since feb. with never a problem.

i switched the IPN settings in my paypal profile
& it appears to be working with the few tests i've done.
(tho, my orders from yesterday have yet to come thru...)

Pipi,
seems like everytime paypal upgrades something your ipn settings get turned off,
this has happened to several people

Merlinpa1969:

Pipi,
seems like everytime paypal upgrades something your ipn settings get turned off,
this has happened to several people

YUP!
remember the great outage of 02? when they upgraded their servers and left everyone without paypal for a few days? AYE!

but, i am really grateful for all the threads i've read here, and hope that everyone else is starting to get some resoulution!