Paypal doesn't return confirmed

Sorry for placing this topic in the wrong category. Please change the category since I can't..

-- url of the page with the problem -- : www.artlantismedia.com
-- HikaShop version -- : 2.2.2
-- Joomla version -- : 2.5

Hi,

Until yesterday my clients could pay via Paypal. The order was confirmed by Paypal and clients could download their products.

Since yesterday Paypal does not return 'Confirmed'. I do receive an email from Paypal that payment was done but the status of the order remains 'Created'. I now have to set the orderstatus to 'Confirmed' manually with every order. To my knowledge I never changed anything with Paypal nor the payment plugin.

Any ideas?

Sjaak

Hi Sjaak,
Can you show me how did you configured your Paypal payment method through some screenshots ?
Thank you .

HI Mohamed,

Thanks for your quick reply.
No problem, I should have done that with my first post, already :blush:

Sjaak

Ok, so can you :
- Put your debug mode option ON through your Paypal payment configuration page
- Test it again
- Show me your Payment log file through "Hikashop->System->Configuration->Main"

So that I can see what exactly happened through your Paypal transaction.

After setting debug mode on in my paypal plugin I Purchased one product.
During the checkout process I was able to pay for the product.
A payment confirmation email was sent to me.
In the meanwhile I also received an email that somebody (me) purchased a product.

So far so good.

Only the order was not set to confirmed thus the product could not be downloaded.
The Payment log file appeared to be empty.

The hikashop account is still available in my shop. feel Free to look.

Sjaak

Hi,

This means that HikaShop is not receiving anymore the payment notifications from PayPal.
We have a list of potential causes here:
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/i...or.html#notification
You or your hosting company must have changed something in your website/web server in that list.
Please review each point.

Well the mist around this is getting thicker.

I reviewed the points in that list. Like said; nothing has been changed recently but anyway....
Most of the things are OK. Where the list mentions Hikashop menus and checkout menu....I never really understood the menusystem of hikashop so those 2 are a bit unsure for me. Believe me when I say they are not changed recently and the problem occurs since a few days now.
I also contacted my HSP to check whether settings on the server where changed.....negative.

So now I don't know where to look further.

As it is now I am watching my mailbox like a frantic dog. Now that I need to confirm every order manually there's an urge to keep clients happy. They paid so they expect a download to become available right after checkout.

Sjaak

Hi,

Can you change your paypal configuration so the "pending status" for the plugin won't be anymore "created" but something else (you can create a new order status if required).
At this moment it will be easier to know if paypal is right triggering your website or not.
Because it is possible that paypal make the trigger (IPN) but does not confirm the order, so the order still stay "pending".
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/i...l-error.html#pending

Having a specific status for the pending status is easier to check (more visible).
Otherwise, you have to see the order history and check if paypal have modify the order (you see a line with the paypal IP, stating with "173.0").

Regards,

Hi Jerome,

I haven't created the new status yet as you advised.

First I went into the order history to check where Paypal lastly confirmed an order correct. That was on Nov 8.
So probably the problem exists longer. I had no orders for a few days, so who knows.

I began thinking. between nov 8 and today I had another issue with the confirmation of orders. It was discussed in the forum in this topic: www.hikashop.com/forum/checkout/863448-f...-thank-you-page.html
My problem was solved. Clients that 'purchased' free products are now directed to the correct 'thank you page'.

Now the question: Can it be that the hack we used also influenced the Paypal confirmation, and thus caused the problem I have now??

Hi,

First, the modification of the view files are not hacks but overrides. The difference is that with hacks, you modify directly the files and you loose your modifications when you update, while with overrides, you keep them after updates.

And no, it's not linked to that. The customer doesn't see any page related to the payment notification. The payment notification is done with PayPal servers calling directly a HikaShop page on your server.
Also, I must say that it could also potentially come from a change in your PayPal account. Like for example if you deactivated the IPN notifications.

Well,

I dug into my Paypalaccount. New stuff to me: IPN. I didn't even know of the existance. And indeed IPN was set off.
How can that be? I never changed anything in my Paypal account.

Anyway. I can only turn IPN ON by giving Payapl a URL where the notification can be sent to....??????

Any advice. I really have no clue.

Sjaak

Hi,

The IPN should be activated in your paypal plugin configuration and authorized in Paypal website.
Sometimes the url given by the plugin is not right accepted by paypal (for strange and unknown reasons) so you have to give them the url for all notifications.

You will see more details here:
www.hikashop.com/forum/install-update/86...-payment.html#124400

Regards,

I followed those instructions but it was not the solution.
Orders still remain created instead of confirmed, after payment.

Sjaak

Hi,

And the order history log ?
And the paypal history in their website ?
And you webserver log ? (in order to see if paypal can and have triggered your website)

Regards,

Hi Jerome,

The order history log in Hikashop is empty
The paypal log from their website has been sent to you via PM.
I can choose between many logs on my server. Which one do you need?

Sjaak

Hi,

So you are not called by Paypal.
- Paypal can't reach the IPN webpage in your website
- The IPN callback url is not the right one

So you have to check your web server logs in order to see if paypal called the IPN return url Regards,

Hi Jerome,

Knowing what to look for helps

I checked the log file on my server and a few seconds after payment Paypal tried to do something.
This is what I read: 173.0.81.1 - - [27/Nov/2013:11:29:13 +0100] "POST /index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=checkout&task=notify&notif_payment=paypal&tmpl=component&lang=en&Itemid=2161 HTTP/1.0" 303 298 "-" "PayPal IPN ( www.paypal.com/ipn )"

I don't know what it means though. Is this correct. Do I need to change something?

Sjaak

Hi,

As the log said, the page result is a 303, it means that paypal is calling the page but your server redirect paypal.
The fact is, when the call without the itemId is made, it works but when there is the itemId 2161, Joomla redirect to a login page (I just test it in my browser).

So I think that the best will be to force the paypal IPN url in your Paypal configuration (in their website). Just giving the full url but without the itemId.
Otherwise, you have to authorize the page with the itemid 2161 without redirect it to the login page.

Regards,

Hi Jerome.

What I showed you was the text in the logfile on my server.

This is what I use for the URL in my paypal account: www.artlantismedia.com/index.php?option=...component&lang=en-US

There is no ItemID mentioned.

Is that not OK? What should it be?

Sjaak

Sjaak

The issue is that the current menu item during the checkout is a menu item which is not public. And when PayPal calls HikaShop back via that menu item, it is redirected to the login form as the PayPal server is not logged in on your website.
So the solution is simple. Use the "force a menu on checkout" option of the configuration to force the checkout to be displayed on a public menu of your website so that PayPal can access it without being logged in.

PS: this issue is listed in the link I gave you regarding all the potential issues which can cause orders not being confirmed automatically with PayPal:
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/i...or.html#notification