Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-02-2009 06:00 AM |
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I have read through the manual and several related posts, but unfortunately I am still confused on how to accomplish the following series of events. I would appreciate some help please, thanks.
I have a form that collects some standard information, allows the user to pick a donation level, and then sends the user to PayPal. Currently using Sandbox. The PayPal payment interaction is working perfectly, my issue is with the completion event.
Objective: If the user completes the transaction, capture that information in the database for later reference, and redirect the user to a "Success" page on my site. If the user either cancels out of PayPal without completing the transaction, or the payment is denied, or failed, capture that information in the database and redirect the user to a "Falied" page on my site. (not working). Ultimately I would like to fire off an email to the user and an email to the administrator, but for know I can't get the completion event to simply return the user to the correct page.
Status:
a) The Dynamic Forms page is set to be visible to all users.
b) In Payment Gateway settings are:
Enable Payment Gateway = Yes
Payment Gateway = PayPal
Test Mode = unchecked
Calculation Total = blank
c) In PayPal Gateway settings are:
- PayPal URL = Sandbox (Test)
- PayPal Last Status = PayPal Return (a hidden field in the Dynamic Form)
- I have defined two Form Completion Events in the PayPal Settings, PayPal Complete (with the Completed Standard box checked) and PayPal Failed (with the Failed and Denied boxes checked).
d) In Form Completion Events I have PayPal Complete set to URL/Page Direction, the redirect page my "Success" page, and the Dynamic Field set to my PayPal Return field. However, I have left the User Response blank, as I do not know what value PayPal sends back. I think this is my issue. (The PayPal Failed is set up the same way, but points to the "Failed" page.
So:
1. What, if any, value do I put in my User Response Field for the two Completion Events?
2. How does the form reconcile those Completion Events with the fact that under "General Settings" there is a "Redirect Page After Save" that sends the user to another page (in this case I set it to my home page). Is this an issue?
Many thanks,
Bud |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-02-2009 06:41 AM |
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I should add two things, sorry:
I have left Auto Return for Website Payments "off" on the PayPal Sandbox site.
When I complete the PayPal transaction, it returns me to my site's home page, not the Success page. I assume this is because this is the setting I have in the General Settings, "Redirect Page after Save" setting. It seems that this setting :overrides" the PayPal Completion Event, which is perhaps happening because I have no text for what the PayPal message is supposed to be....
Thanks |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-02-2009 08:58 AM |
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Hi Bud,
We appreciate your comments as these help us troubleshoot. Let's work on your 2 redirect pages.
1. On your success redirect completion event, set that for any field response. (this is actually referring to the user response and not the PayPal IPN). Then, in Module Configuration, PayPal Gateway, link this event to Redirect Successfully.
2. For your Failed completion event (when the customer aborts the transaction at the PayPal page), again set this this for any field response. Then, link this event to Redirect after Cancel. The failed and denied are for different scenarios so we don't use them for this particular redirect.
These should actually override the redirect settings in module configuration. Let me know how these settings work for you. Thanks!
Candace |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-02-2009 10:50 AM |
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Candace,
Thanks so much, that works perfectly now. OK, step two!
If the payment completes properly (I am using a Redirect Successfully as a proxy for this) I want to send an email to the contributor, and an email to the treasurer. I also want to save the amount actually paid at PayPal.
a) I created a third Completion Event called "PayPal Complete Email 1" referencing the same Dynamic field ("PayPal Return") as the two Completion Events for the redirect pages you just helped me fix, and I left the User Response blank as in the others but selected dynamic e-mail. I created an e-mail with some fixed information and some dynamic fields like e-mail to $(Email).
Two questions -
a) The e-mail does not appear to be sent even though the redirection is occurring properly (coming back to the "Success" page). However, I tested the Bulk Mailer and it too is not working (even though the SMTP test and other applications works fine), so I think this is my site's issue.
b) This seems like the e-mail event is predicated on the user clicking the "return to XYZ website" link on the PayPal site. It would seem to make more sense to trigger these e-mail events on "Completed - Standard". However, that doesn't trigger the e-mail either now, but should that be the way to go?
2. I created a second hidden field in the Dynamic Form to hold a record of whether or not the PayPal transaction was completed. What is the best way to save a value or flag to that field? Or is there a better way to save it to the Forms database?
Thanks again for your help.
Bud |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-02-2009 11:08 AM |
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Hi Bud,
Yay on the redirects! Ok, let's work on your email events.
1. Your PayPal Complete email should again be set to 'any field response.' Good job at using the tokens within your email. Now just link this email event(s) to Completed (Standard) if you're using regular purchase. You'll need either Completed (Subscription Payment or Signup) if it's a subscription.
While you're at it, you might as well create an email event for pending transactions. These are helpful especially when the customer uses an e-check or if they just signed up for a PayPal account. Then tie this to Pending status.
Test these first and let me know if you are able to receive the emails.
2. Your hidden field can be tied to the Last PayPal Status, under the parameters box in the PayPal Gateway section in Module Configuration. Then you can see the value when you view form results.
Candace |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-03-2009 12:34 PM |
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Thanks again Candace. Progress, and a few questions.
1. I discovered something interesting that was causing my e-mail events not to trigger. So far I have been testing the form events using PayPal Sandbox, not the live PayPal site. When I couldn't figure out why I could send emails via the newsletter but not via the event trigger I went to Admin/Event Viewer and looked at the contents of the message traffic between PayPal and my site. It turns out that (somewhat logically, but frustrating nonetheless) PayPal Sandbox does not send a "COMPLETED" message when it is done, because it doesn't actually take the user's money, it sends a "PENDING" message. So I changed the event trigger to PENDING for the sake of testing on Sandbox and it works great. I will switch it to Completed (Standard) when I go to the live PayPal implementation and I will test it there with some insiders live. I don't know if you have seen this before, but you may want to try it yourself and make developers aware of it so they don't pull their hair out. Your suggestion to create an email event for PENDING was a good one, it would have caught this if I had implemented it.
I am having an issue with gmail addresses not receiving e-mail from the site, but it is happening in both newsletter and the form, so my guess is that it is some sort of anti-spam issue unrelated to Dynamic Forms.
2. I am still a bit confused on how to save the actual amount that PayPal collected into the DF database. Is your point that the already created DF hidden database field "PayPal Return" that is used for triggering the events will have the last value saved in it after the session? Or do you want me to create a second hidden field? Could you please clarify this? Thanks very much.
Bud |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-03-2009 12:45 PM |
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The Gmail issue was a spam setting issue, thanks. |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-03-2009 12:55 PM |
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Actually, PayPal does send 'completed' at the right conditions. Check for these common reasons for pending transactions while using a sandbox account:
1. Payment Review -- this should be disabled. This just forces your accounts to manually 'approve' the payment.
2. Your buyer account has no funds. Check the PayPal logs and see if there are any uncleared transactions. After you add funds, you can actually force the transaction to go through. (or fail it if you wish). Then your Dynamic Form should receive the right IPN's.
3. The PayPal login under Module Configuration is incorrect. This should be the 'seller' test account and not your sandbox login. If this is the case, you should see your transactions labeled as unclaimed.
The Sandbox simulates the live account pretty well and should send the same IPNs for the same situations. Let me know what happens. Thanks!
Candace |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-03-2009 01:07 PM |
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Oh, I forgot to answer your other question. What is the &amount=$(Field) that goes into your PayPal parameters? When you view form results, does the $(Field) name not display? |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-03-2009 01:21 PM |
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Tks, sorry I was not clear. I capture the amount, but there is nothing in the db that tells me if the PayPal transaction was actually completed. So if the user fills out the form and hits save, gets taken to the PayPal site and never pays, I can't tell from the db for control purposes. I was trying to figure out the best way to save any marker that indicated that it was a completed transaction. |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-06-2009 08:38 AM |
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Candace,
All of your advice has been spot on and very helpful, thanks. Sorry for my torrent of questions. Everything is working perfectly except one issue which I was trying unsuccessfully to explain above.
For control purposes I wanted the Forms database to save some manner of record (it doesn't matter what it is) that PayPal successfully completed the transaction and collected a payment. I know what the amount of the payment is, but I need proof that after the form was submitted that the payment was actually completed. I am triggering an e-mail to the treasurer based on the Completed (Standard) event that is being captured by the Dynamic field "PayPal Return". My goal was to also have the database have this information. (Audit trail).
Under "Advanced Field Options" I had originally set the hidden PayPalReturn dynamic field to be both "Do not display field results within the view results module" and "Do not save field results to the database". When this is set like that, all of the e-mails fire correctly. My original thought on having "proof" in the database was to uncheck those two boxes. When I did so, I could now see the result for PayPalReturn in the database, and if successful it appeared with the value "web_accept". However, for some reason this prevents the e-mails from firing. When I recheck those two boxes the e-mails fire perfectly.
Do I need to fire a SQL table update event when there is a Completed (Standard) result that saves some value to another hidden dynamic field which I display in the report, or is there a way to simply view the PayPalReturn value in the report without disrupting the e-mail events?
Thanks,
Bud |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-08-2009 09:11 AM |
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Hi Bud,
The 'Last PayPal Status' feature is meant to do what you're looking for. Generally, you set a hidden field and tie this to Last PayPal Status in the PayPal Gateway under Module Configuration. That way, when you go to View Form Results, it should display the last status (IPN) received from PayPal pertaining this transaction.
Having said that, we just found that it's not displaying the right results. Our developers are aware of this and already have it in their list for review. Will let you know once it's working right and will give you further instructions at that point. Thanks for your patience!
Candace |
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-08-2009 11:07 AM |
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Thank you. I believe this is just what I am doing, and the bug you describe may be causing my issue that I describe above. In Module Configuration/General "Settings/PayPal Gateway I bound the "PayPal Last Status" to a hidden dynamic field I created called "PayPal Return". I was planning on "PayPal Return" filling two roles:
1. Triggering my various e-mails, which it does perfectly.
2. Storing the last value from PayPal in the db as a control.
As I describe above, when I set the hidden PayPalReturn dynamic field to be both "Do not display field results within the view results module" and "Do not save field results to the database", all of the e-mails fire correctly but of course I cannot see the result in the db.
When I uncheck those two boxes I can see the result for PayPalReturn in the database, and if successful it appeared with the value "web_accept". However, this prevents the e-mails from firing. When I recheck those two boxes the e-mails fire perfectly.
Have I implemented it properly and am just seeing the result of the bug, or am I describing something different from what you are referring to?
Many thanks.
Bud
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Bud Kroll
skipping stones
Posts:10
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| 06-22-2009 11:28 AM |
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Candace -
Was this fixed in the 3.0 update I just downloaded?
Thanks,
Bud |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-22-2009 03:23 PM |
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Hi Bud,
No, this fix was not included in the 3.0 release. I know they were reviewing this last week but I'll follow up with the dev team on this. Thanks for your patience!
Candace |
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Candace
river guide
Posts:2431
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| 06-23-2009 09:08 AM |
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Hi Bud,
I just spoke with Chad regarding this and he's got this mostly fixed but we're just waiting on a few more pieces then we'll release a new patch for this and some other items in the next 2 weeks or so. Thanks for following up on this!
Candace |
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