PayPal IPN Unexpected Changes - paypal

Beginning sometime around 03/08/2017 we have noticed some unusual behavior with some (not all) of our PayPal IPNs. PayPal seems to be rolling out some kind of changes, there are a few others reporting other things, like: QueryString values removed from the IPN endpoint by PayPal
It looks like there are multiple versions of PayPal's system sending the IPNs, some of them contain notify_version=3.8 and some contain notify_version=UNVERSIONED.
The main problem is IPNs from "3.8" have receiver_email, but ones from "UNVERSIONED" do not.
In some cases we receive duplicate IPNs at the same time, one is the "3.8" version and one is the "UNVERSIONED" version. It seems like both versions of PayPal are handling the same thing at the same time. The "3.8" version seems to always successfully confirm the IPN and the "UNVERSIONED" version seems to always respond with "INVALID".
Some users are reporting that PayPal is unencoding the value we send for return (the URL that comes after the checkout). For example, a URL like http://example.com/some%3Dvalue sometimes gets decoded to http://example.com/some=value which is not correct and leads to a 404.
I am aware PayPal is set to roll out new changes on 03/29, relating to stricter compliance with their data formats, but we have already verified we are in compliance with this and this is still a few weeks away.

After a few days, IPNs returned to normal without any changes. PayPal never responded to our support emails or acknowledged any issue.

Related

Paypal IPN suddenly just stopped sending back item_number POST var

Causing havoc on the site. Full dump of all post vars during the notify callback doesn't show the item_number variable at all. But it was sent.
Has something happened with IPN that I missed?
I just had this problem. The issue is that earlier today, without notice, Paypal have started sending this as item_number1 (note the suffix '1'). This surely must be a bug, because a Google search suggests this behaviour is only supposed to trigger for shopping cart checkouts, and in that case it would be item_number_1 (note the suffix '_1').
If this situation continues, the solution is to update your scripts to read from item_number1, as well as item_number. Paypal may revert this behaviour, if it is a bug (which presumably it is). It might be wise to make them also check for item_number_1, in case they make a change to treat the checkout as a shopping cart in future.
Looks like item_number is now item_number1, which is creating some issues.

paypal express checkout digital goods testing in sandbox

I used PayPal's Integration Wiz to generate the code (PHP) for the Express Checkout Digital Goods functionality. I'll admit, I made a few minor changes to it so that it could work with my site... My site is a single page Angular.js app - so I need to pass back parameters to the app, and not go back to a different page (as it is, I'm not keen on leaving the page at all, but I'm not ready to shell out for a business pro account yet.. the PCI compliance is something I don't relish being on the hook for...but maybe one day... certainly not until I know I can get "basic" things working).
I would not expect any of my changes (basically changing the hardcoded URLS to being PHP session vars) to interrupt any of the flow of the Integration Wiz's processing.
However, when I test things in the sanbox, the process stops at the point of redirection to:
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/incontext?token={somevariabletokenconent}
The token always starts with "EC-" so I'm assuming this is telling me I've been able to successfully start the Express Checkout process.
All I am seeing is a blank page, with Chrome telling me I'm getting:
Failed to load resource: net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET
AFAICT my sandbox account is set up for EC/DG:
Your payment solution: PayPal Digital Goods (Express Checkout)
I HAVE updated my sandbox details in paypalfunctions.php
And other than the changes in checkout.php, I havent messed with any other code from the integration wizard... should this not "just work" ??
Or have I missed something else?
[Edit]
Update a few hours later...
I actually was able to get things to progress end to end. Once. But no record of the transaction can be seen on either side of the sandbox accounts. It did sit thinking for a long time... so I'm not sure what it was doing, but the final redirect was back with a success parameter, so I have to think that something behind the scenes must be having issues...
But now its not working anymore. Its stopping in the same spot again.
For the life of me, I don't believe I made any code changes to the PP wiz produced code prior to it working, or prior to it not working again.
I have logged into the sandbox to check the transaction as I mentioned. Both accounts are showing nothing. And the transactions are not processing.
[EDIT 2]
Ok - strange things are afoot. I know I did absolutely no changes since my last test...I havent even been at the keyboard. And upon trying again, the test proceeds to allow me to log into the sandbox, and approve a payment, but gets stuck processing at
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/webapps/checkout/webflow/sparta/expresscheckoutvalidatedataflow?execution=e1s2
with the PayPal "Loading" icon spinning...
Is this a configuration issue on my side? With the Integration Wiz writing all the Express Checkout code, there's not to change, but it seems really flakey to me.
[EDIT3]
I've been hanging my head on this for about a day now, and got nowhere. My App is a single page Angular.js site, and triggers the PayPal purchase out of a Bootstrap Modal popup window.
As mentioned above, my process would get to the point of approving and confirming payment, then spin wildly at the point it should be redirecting back to the success (or failure) page.
Using the PP integration Wiz, the form code that was produced (and used) was:
<form name='ppcheckout' action='checkout.php' METHOD='POST'>
And it fails to proceed to the final redirect.
However, if I change the code to:
<form name='ppcheckout' action='checkout.php' METHOD='POST' target="_blank">
The processing occurs as expected.
Is there some interaction between PayPal's JS and Angular (or Bootstrap) that I'm not aware of? It seems strange that it "just works" when the target is added.

IPN Delivery Failed:I/O error

been trying to wrap my head around an issue I have with the IPN tester, not 100% sure if its my hosting company's problem or Paypal Developer 'beta' to be honest but my IPN's have worked fine on a few sites I have for atleast a year and now it doesn't on any of them. I've not changed anything and now im getting
IPN Delivery Failed:I/O error: www.mywebsitesname.co.uk; nested exception is java.net.UnknownHostException: www.mywebsitesname.co.uk
and none of my NotifyUrl.ashx handlers are working.
any ideas what this actually means in english? any more info. from me required to help you diagnose my issue?
#
AS AN UPDATE (27-08-2013), I thought I would try out the original C# SDK sample code from Paypal that I used to set up my IPN's with about a year or three ago (ie. it worked great with the IPN simulator). I have put it onto two different hosting companies servers to check its not an issue with a particular hosting server and my results using the IPN Simulator show "error 500: internal server error" for one and "IPN Delivery Failed:I/O error: www.ang##########.co.uk; nested exception is java.net.UnknownHostException: www.ang############.co.uk".
In short, I have the same identical sample file from Paypal (that used to work) in the root of each hosting companies servers and im using the same IPN simulator settings, with the exception of the IPN handler URL has the webaddress of the server followed by '/Handler.ashx' (which is the handler file) but i'm getting different errors.
Also to make this a bit more interesting, today I correctly received an IPN from Paypal to one of the same hosting server webaddress, with a 'transaction_subject : PayPal money request from xxxxxxxx' which was received and processed by my existing IPN handler (not the sample one from Paypal) and returned the correct info. to receive 'IPN Response: VERIFIED DateTime: 27-08-2013 19:05' so this got through and worked fine.
So in conclusion, I wonder if Paypal have either changed something and not informed the community or have an issue with their IPN simulator / CART IPN. If anyone can help or if a Paypal support engineer would like to work with me to try out some code, etc, please get back to me as I will keep trying to solve this but to be honest I see not what else I can do from my end as I've seen working IPN and a non working IPN simulator.
As extra info. here is an IPN Message as from my sandbox seller test account, that can't get through to my IPN handler on one of the same hosting servers (returns error 500) yet this used to get through and nothing has changed.
'mc_gross=2.75&protection_eligibility=Ineligible&address_status=confirmed&item_number1=BabyGrow2&payer_id=KHJGBQZNAFB7L&tax=0.00&address_street=1 Main St&payment_date=14:34:07 Aug 27, 2013 PDT&payment_status=Pending&charset=windows-1252&address_zip=95131&mc_shipping=0.00&mc_handling=0.00&first_name=Test&mc_fee=0.28&address_country_code=US&address_name=Test Buyer&notify_version=3.7&custom=1csi4t45gy4gkz45r5r4t0ey&payer_status=verified&business=wow####gmail.com&address_country=United States&num_cart_items=1&mc_handling1=0.00&address_city=San Jose&verify_sign=AFcWxV21C7fd0v3bYYYRCpSSRl31A1fBAmiE5lcDRsQKQNaqoyQI7ucQ&payer_email=wow#######gmail.com&mc_shipping1=0.00&tax1=0.00&txn_id=8SG98957G0030294Y&payment_type=instant&last_name=Buyer&address_state=CA&item_name1=Baby Grow Age 0 - 1&receiver_email=wow#########gmail.com&payment_fee=&quantity1=1&receiver_id=8QRMB3QFHCL56&pending_reason=paymentreview&txn_type=cart&mc_gross_1=2.75&mc_currency=GBP&residence_country=US&test_ipn=1&transaction_subject=1csi4t45gy4gkz45r5r4t0ey&payment_gross=&ipn_track_id=7b4507c8c4313'
Still hoping we can resolve this soon.
Many Thanks.
Trev.
Asp.net / C# / HTML / CSS3

Every alternate Paypal IPN transaction is failing (HTTP code 400)

I have a weird issue with Paypal IPN. Every alternate transaction is failing. So let's say if first transactions goes well then second one fails. Similarly if 3rd one goes well then 4th one fails.
HTTP status code I am getting for failed transactions in IPN history is 400.
I have implemented the new Paypal host header changes that were newly introduced by them.
Any idea why this is happening?
IPN History
http://i.imgur.com/NfqRsGi.png
IPN Detail
http://i.imgur.com/hcKdasw.png
EDIT
I am using PHP with curl to do IPN work (using same sample code as available on Paypal website)
ANOTHER EDIT
Ok I found another code sample for PHP 5.2 from Paypal site. This one is slightly different than the one I am currently using. I tested it on Paypal Sandbox twice and it worked. Later on I will test it on live to see if it is working fine or not.
Error 400 = bad request, this means that the get requests being made on the application layer (by your browser) may contain errors or the transport layer (syn, syn, ack, syn) 3 way hand shack is being interrupted. I would check your PC for Mallware to be on the safe side. Do a netstat -b in dos and see what's trying to get connections to the external network.
Also do a scan with malware bytes and a good virus scanner like Eset nod32.. Let us know how you get on^^
The new script I downloaded from Paypal website fixed the issue.

Paypal Sandbox IPN error

After paypal updated their interface (sandbox.paypal.com for example is not working, now you have to go to developer.paypal.com) many of the things are not working: 2 of them are particularly frustrating and I was hoping someone here knew how to get around them:
Am I the only one whose sandbox customer test accounts are not able to make purchases? The transaction page says they are not available.
IPN validation is not letting me send a https request. When I do it says there is something wrong with the server name. Yesterday however before the update I could get verified status. If I dont put https, now my handler gives me an invalid responde status, code: 400. What does it mean?
To fix the HTTP 400 error, follow the instructions in https://www.x.com/content/bulletin-ipn-and-pdt-scripts-and-http-1-1 and update your code to pass "Host" information. Ideally, things should work with just the recommended changes from the above link. Apparently, thats not the case. Here is a fix from one of the PayPal MTS person - PalPAL sandbox IPN processor rejecting all messages?
Remove the "cmd=notify-validate" option from the validation URL. I tried this and it worked. Though it doesn't return the right string, atleast it doesnt break with the 400 error.
While we wait for a fix from Paypal, I wonder how a company like PayPal can cause such a huge blunder and not post anything on their status page - https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/site-status/pp-cri. It just makes you think that even smaller companies can do a better job than companies like PayPal.
For the code:400 issue, you have to update the post to version 1.1. That information is located here.
https://www.x.com/content/bulletin-ipn-and-pdt-scripts-and-http-1-1 in this bulletin.
However, as I posted before the asp.net example uses a call, that does not exist, so I was only able to get mine partly working. After fixing this, the servers appear to be rejecting calls to https, or the cert they have installed is invalid.
Action Required before February 1, 2013
Merchants need to update their IPN and/or PDT scripts to use HTTP 1.1, and include the “Host” header in the IPN postback script. In addition to this bulletin, these merchants will be notified via a direct email.
Alright, seems to be fixed!
If you are having trouble logging in, like suggested above, clear cache and cookies and try again.
Regarding the error 400, seems to have been solved by paypal!