ADD TO CART does not add the item to the cart

[wayneft]

Hi,
I installed this plugin about a month ago on my website and was very pleased with it's ease of use, however, now I appear to be having a weird problem. I have two buttons on my product page, ADD TO CART and VIEW CART. I got an email from a customer trying to order my product and he said that when he clicks the ADD TO CART button it immediately takes him to the Paypal login screen. He then puts his username and password in to login and it takes him right to his account balance screen...no shopping cart. I tried to reproduce this problem on my end but each time I clicked ADD TO CART it went straight to the shopping cart screen with my item in the basket. I had several other people try to reproduce the error but they all had no problems. I then returned to my computer a couple of hours later and clicked the ADD TO CART button and sure enough it took me directly to the Paypal login screen and then after logging in I had the same issue as my customer. From that point I went back to my website and tried again it worked without issue. I'm confused as to what could cause this problem and why it would be intermittent on my computer and consistent on a customer's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Michael]

Hi,

That is a weird one. If you would like to private message me a link to the button, I would be happy test it from my end.

It is most likely, a change that PayPal made to their system. Some update they implemented that had a unexpected side effect. This sort of thing happens from time to time. When they roll out changes, its not just one site that changes, but hundreds of servers in their server farm have to be updated. It can take time for a change to propagate itself across all the servers in the farm. Perhaps, your customer was connecting one of the first servers in the farm to receive the change. When PayPal dev team finds an error it can take time to correct for the same reason.

Also, the report you received from your customer is subject to the perspective of the customer. What does "persistent" or "always happens" mean to them? Does it mean that they tried it 2 or 3 times in a span of a half hour and got the same result each time? To me, as a developer, persistent implies that I have test the exact steps to duplicate an expected outcome repeatedly 20 or 30 times over the course of a large span of time, say like over a day or week. And every outcome that I experience during this process is the same with out fail. That's a big difference in definition, but it is based on the perception of the one experiencing the anomaly. So, it may be that the customer's unexpected results have been resolved by now, just like yours.

In any event, I am more than happy to take a look and ensure that the button code is formated correctly and that it is submitting correctly to PayPal.

~ Best regards

[Michael]

Hi wayneft,

I took a look at the button form source code generated by the extension and it looks correct. I also tested the button submission to the PayPal cart a half a dozen times (each) on the following browsers.

Internet Explorer
FireFox
Chrome
Safari
Opera

Everything seems to checkout alright. I believe that the reported matter was a result of a temporary anomaly on PayPal's site. You will most likely never experience it again.

Please let me know if this matter occurs again in the future.

~ Best regards

[wayneft]

Thank you Michael. I appreciate you looking into this matter. The customer never was able to complete the order so we just did it the long way. Again thanks for the help.

[Michael]

You're most welcome!

[wayneft]

Hi Michael,
I was just wondering if there could be any settings in the browser that would cause this to happen? I just received an email from that same customer letting me know he received his item and was looking for a little help with something. I replied back and asked him if he could check the button again for me. He told me it was still doing the same thing. What do you think?

Wayne

[Michael]

Hi Wayne,

I researched this issue some more. I have not found any definitive information on why this might be happening. Generally speaking, when an anomaly occurs only for one individual, or a small group of individuals, it can be assumed that the anomaly is a result of environmental elements. Meaning, influences from outside the system. Such influences may be browser type or version, browser add-ons, ISP providers, etc. If the anomaly were caused by something internal to the system, the anomaly would occur for most or all of the system users.

I did find a few online posts that suggested AOL may interfere with the proper functioning of the PayPal Cart. However, I did not find any definitive information on this topic, only suspicion. Also, not that it should matter, but the hosted button code works a bit differently than PayPal's standard HTML buttons. Have you considered using the standard HTML buttons?

Also, I was curious, is your PayPal seller's account a Business Account?

~ Best regards

[wayneft]

Hi Michael it's me again. I just got an email from another customer for a different product (http://www.dsscircuits.com/hmc5883l-breakout-board.html) I'm selling with the exact same problem. I tried the button and it works fine for me. To answer your follow up question...yes I'm using a paypal business account. Now I don't sell a lot of items but so far I have yet to have anyone report a problem when they are purchasing from within the United States (where I am). Both individuals are from outside the US, the first was from Switzerland and the other individual is from Turkey. Any ideas?

Wayne

edit* better make that 3 people international customers with the same problem

[Michael]

Hi Wayne,

I did experience this myself a few days ago. I was running some development tests on a related PayPal (unreleased) extension. When I attempted to make a test purchase, I was directed to the PayPal log in page, not the transaction page. Absent minded, I logged in and found myself staring at the test accounts balance page.

After careful inspection, I realized that in the hidden button form the "cmd" parameter was defined incorrectly. In my case the input field looked like this:

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick-">

But should have looked like this:

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">

So, when the form was submitted to PayPal, PayPal's transaction processing application didn't recognize the command "_xclick-". Not knowing what to do, it dumped me to the default PayPal log in page.

Now, I am in the middle of developing this extension, so, I had made a typo when entering in the parameter value. I went back to the code set deleted the extra "-" character and the problem was solved.

In your case, the extension you are using is mature and void of any typos, like the one mentioned above. So, this leaves me wondering, why some of your international buyers are running into a similar issue. My extensions sell internationally. And to my recollection, your's is the first time I have heard of this issue.

What I am wondering is this, are your buyer's who are running into this issue using an online translator? And if so, could this translator be effecting the hidden form values, like "_xclick"?

~ Best regards

[wayneft]

What I am wondering is this, are your buyer's who are running into this issue using an online translator? And if so, could this translator be effecting the hidden form values, like "_xclick"?

My best guess would be no as I just received another email from someone in the UK who is having the same problem with the first product I mentioned in my original post. If you can think of anything I would appreciate it. In the mean time I'm going to have to find another alternative because I'm not sure how customers I'm losing over this issue.

Wayne

[Michael]

Hi Wayne,

I am sorry to hear that this issue still protists for you. What version of the extension are you using?

~ Best regards

[Michael]

Also, have you considered not using PayPal's hosted buttons and using the standard HTML buttons instead? The extension supports both kinds (hosted and standard HTML).

I don't know why this would effect international buyer's, but it may be at the root of the issue. It is the only thing that I can see that is apparently different than the buttons I use on my site to sell extensions.

~ All the best

[wayneft]

Sorry I'm not a software guy so I'm not sure what you mean by hosted and HTML. If you had a link to point to some reading on the subject I'll be happy to take a look see and implement whatever changes I can. At this point I'm willing to try anything.

Thanks,
Wayne

[Michael]

Hi Wayne,

PayPal offers two kinds of button functionality, hosted and standard html. With hosted buttons, all of the product information is stored by PayPal. The button code houses a serial number that PayPal uses to look up the product information (price, shipping, etc.) in their database when the user arrives at the PayPal checkout page. Your site is currently using hosted buttons (at least the example you should me is a hosted button).

With the standard HTML button code, all of the product information is stored in the button's HTML form on your site. When the buyer clicks the button all of the product info is sent to PayPal from your site, along with the buyer.

So, in your article, the Add to Cart button tag, probably looks something like this:

Code: Select all

{nicepaypal:hosted-cart_noview|JK8U665S}

Note the serial number on the end and the lack of any product information.

And your View Cart button probably looks something like this:

Code: Select all

{nicepaypal:hosted-cart_view|-----BEGIN PxCx9-----vcNAQcEoIIGzjCCBsoCAQExggEwMIIBLAI...............n5ceE3RAW/DYsdw78QH+-----END PxCx9-----}

Except the code hash is much longer.

To place a standard HTML button, you would need to specify all of the product information in the button tag that appears in your article.

It might look something like this:

Code: Select all

{nicepaypal:cart|10.00|HMC5883L Breakout PCB|SKU DSSC-0103}

In fact, could use the tag above if you like. There is a robust amount of options available to you when using the standard HTML button type. So, I don't think you would be lacking any features you might need to sell your product using this kind of button. Below is the button tag syntax, and you can read more about button tag configurations starting here http://trinitronic.com/index.php/Downloads/nice-paypal-button-documentation.html#basictagusage

Button Tag Syntax

Code: Select all

{nicepaypal:button type|amount|item name|item number|shipping|shipping2|tax|item quantity|weight|option1|option2}

If you decide to try the standard HTML button type, let me know if you need help configuring the tag.

~ All the best

[wayneft]

Thanks Michael. This is, hopefully, the last question I have for you. I've always found it's easier if I tell the person what needs I need met and have them tell me if it's possible so I'll try that here. After reading over the link you provided I just wanted to clarify a few things.
- I use the paypal profile for shipping based off total weight of items (looks like that is not a problem from what I read)
- I use the paypal profile for tax rate to only be applied for my home state (again looks like that is not a problem)
- I use paypal to track my inventory and alert me when the item is low on stock and I do not allow the buyer to checkout if the item is out of stock. Tracking inventory is the most important aspect for me and I couldn't tell if this was available or not from that link.

If using the HTML configuration will allow me to use the buttons in this manner please let me know and I'll go ahead and configure them as such. One of my friends has a buddy that lives in Germany and I'm going to try and get him to check my buttons so I can tell when and if they are fixed after any changes I make.

Thanks for all the help.

Wayne