PayPal problems

PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -
Number of replies: 23

I'm having a problem with my PayPal setup.  Actually it is at the enrollment side.  The fee is listed and the PayPal link is there.  Money is accepted and notification is recevied from PayPal. Both user and admin.

Then there is the link back the course which when clicked says it hasn't been approved yet, check back later.  Several hours later, there is no enrollment in the course.

Am I doing something wrong?  I read the documentation about changing the Profile settings which I did.  I'm using 1.8.

I'm due to go live with course payments in the morning.

I'm not using an enrolment key, but wondering if I should.

Really need help on this ASAP.

Thanks

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Francisco Gómez -
I had a similar problem and the cause was a blank space in the email field of your account in Paypal. Have a look.
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In reply to Francisco Gómez

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

I checked that and that was not it.  This is what happens.

  1. Click on Paypal button and it takes me to PayPal
  2. Payment is successfuuly made
  3. Tells me that I have enrolled and to click here to go to course
  4. When clicked says it hasn't been processed, to wait a few moments
  5. Notification from Paypal is received by both school and student
  6. Wecome message to class goes to student to updtae profile
  7. Notification is received by admin and instructor
  8. Go back click on button to take me to class....takes me to class enrollment page and tells me I need to pay.
  9. I check My Course (which doesn't show up at all of course)
  10. Checked participants of class and only show instructor and course creator
  11. If student trys to click on the course from the front page they are taken back to enrollment

Should this not show up under My Courses on the front page? And shouldn't they be taken to the Summary of the class, even if it hasn't started yet? Am I missing some settings here?

Not being a programmer, I have no idea where to look next.  I've reviewed my settings and they seem to be correct.  But then that could be me being blind or just not knowing what to look for.

I'm suppose to open for enrollment today but I'm afraid to.  Class won't start until May 19th but I need time for enrollment.

Thanks,

Sandy

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In reply to Francisco Gómez

Re: PayPal problems

by Suzanne James -

Thanks - this was our problem.

Our programmer came back to work and fixed the problem in 15 seconds - sigh.

The new moodle does not tolerate dollar signs in the 'cost' section in the course settings section. Our old version just ignored the dollar signs.

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In reply to Suzanne James

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Thanks.  I checked and I didn't have a $ sign.  I even erased what was there and tried again and tested same thing.  All emails and payments successful.  It just isn't showing up in Moodle as being registered for a course. Either at the admin level or the student level.

Any other ideas anyone?  I'm hoping......

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Wanted to give an update.  It is showing now that there is a student enrolled.  At least at the instructor/admin level.

The student does not know if they are enrolled as it isn't showing in My Courses after they are logged in.  Is this a setting that I'm doing wrong.

The same person paid 2 times but showed registration in the course only once.  Is there a way to let them know they have already enrolled in the course?

And how do I go about making sure that My Courses shows up for the student?

Plus, when I click on the page at PayPal after it says I'm enrolled, it takes me back to the page to enroll again. Is this something I'm doing?

And lastly (I know..lots of questions) when I enroll in a course at Moodle it asks me if this is what I want to do.  Is that option totally disabled when PayPal is used?  Right now the student has no idea whether they are enrolled or not.  (Other than the email)

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Still having problems. I thought the person was enrolled but it turns out they were not. The were listed as a new user (?) but when I click on th namer, it says they are not enrolled in the class.  And they are not listed under Participants.

I'm getting frustrated because I have people waiting to register and I'm afraid to open it.  I'm sure it is probably something simple.

If I use the enrollment key, it shows up below the PayPal link.  I'm going to test this but I can't believe that I would have to have it.  If so, it is in a strange location.

Thoughts anyone?  Please?

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Okay,  I think I've tried just abut everything that I can think of.  I'm willing to pay someone to help me work through this PayPal issue.

Actually, I even set a 0 dollar amount and used an enrollment key instead and they STILL could get enrolled.  I'm so ready to open and fustrated that I can't.

If someone can help I can talk thru Skype or even email if preferred. 

Thanks

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Suzanne James -

Hi,

If you let me into your site, I might be able to 'see' something. If you are interested, go to www.novel-writer.com and leave a message for admin. I'll check for your message.

suz

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In reply to Suzanne James

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Do I need to register at your site?  If I click on admin it asks me to login at Joomla admin.  I can't find another email on the page.

I also just tested, NOTHING will allow someone to be enrolled in any course.  Even manual registration.  It goes in a continuous loop.

This must have happened maybe when my software was upgraded to 1.8.  I have another test site up on  version 1.7 , I may try there and see what happens.

I appreciate your help so much.

Sandy Norton

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Suzanne James -

are you getting paypal receipts showing that these people pay? I get a lot of people who get 1/2 way through the paypal program then just come back to the course. Of course, the transaction is cancelled - and they are wondering why they are on in the course.

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In reply to Suzanne James

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Yes, I am.  In fact that was working when nothing else was.  Now that I have defaulted the role permissions and started fresh, I haven't had any problems at all.

Just have to be careful that the enrollment code isn't given out prior to payment.  Otherwise they can get in without paying.  Not sure I like that.  In fact, we are going to put a plan in place that will change the enrollment code daily or at least a couple of time a week to play it safe. 

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Mike Allen -

Please help...what did you do to get it working? I have similar problems.

I am using 1.6.4 and can not get Paypal to work. I have set up my Paypal using Auto Return On, IPN On and PDT On, plus tried all combinations of these. Do I need an API certificate from Paypal? Paypal takes the money and sends an email to both student and site. Auto redirects make to Moodle site, but student is not enroled. Standard message received. I've tried all varieties of user and site settings without success. The firewall has been disabled, so it's not that. In all cases the standard message is received:

"Thank you for your payment! Unfortunately your payment has not yet been fully processed, and you are not yet registered to enter the course "Course Name". Please try continuing to the course in a few seconds, but if you continue to have trouble then please alert the Instructor or the site administrator "

Just what settings do I have to make. You say that you set the User and Autentication settings to default? Which settings, where, and does that work for 1.6.4? The documentation in this area is very poor - please, please help! On-line payment is essential for our site. If Paypal does not work then I'll have to stop using Moodle in total - which I don't want to do (apart from sending 6 months work down the drain!).

Mike

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In reply to Mike Allen

Re: PayPal problems

by Guy Hancock -

Hi Mike,

I'm new to moodle but recently developed a paypal payment mod for a similar open source elearning system and had the same error which nearly drove me insane. There is a lot of paypal developer forum info which is very helpful as the paypal specs are way too underdone, but there's one big catch.

If you are using IPN to just pass the form variables back you MUST turn of PDT. Leave Autoreturn on, IPN on, PDT off.

I hope this helps, do search their forums and even google it using specific error details as there are many in your, and once my, boat.

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In reply to Guy Hancock

Re: PayPal problems

by Mike Allen -

Regret that we are still unable to activate Paypal. The first stage goes OK then we get an email saying:

Transaction failed.
Could not access paypal.com to verify payment

All the data on the email is correct and Paypal has taken the monies. This "stop" appears to come from the enrol/paypal/ipn.php file at line 62. It appears that the $fp = fsockopen function at line 60 is not being succesful. I've checked all the script, and the URLs, are all OK. Nothing is being written to the SQL files. The initial IPN, and payment appears OK but the verifiaction check is failing. Confirmation of payment emails are corrcctly sent by Paypal to both user and admin.
So HELP - what is going wrong, or what setting have I missed. This is really very frustrating, and very annoying for what should be a core capability.

Mike

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In reply to Mike Allen

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Hello,

Mine isn't perfect, but I found they have to use the enrollment key.  So as soon as we receive the notice that they are enrolled we send the enrollment key.  Thius has worked most of the time but we have to stay on top of it.

However, I have had a couple of students who had said they could get into the course ASAP after paying through PayPal without the key.  I can't identify what they are doing different, if anything.  I've tried to duplicate but can't.

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Monica Messaggi de Souza -
I also need help and still get the message "Thank you for your payment! Unfortunately your payment has not yet been fully processed, and you are not yet registered to enter the course "Course XYZ". Please try continuing to the course in a few seconds, but if you continue to have trouble then please alert the Teacher or the site administrator"

What I did:
The installation of the Moodle itself (I tried 1.6x, 1.7x, 1.8) worked fine. I setup the enrolment plugin simply by entering the general cost, the business Paypal account and also set the default enrolment via Paypal. After that, I add the cost of course itself on the course settings. I use the Paypal sandbox as described in the documentation link in all Moodle versions.

What happens:
When the student pays for the course, the money is taken from his account, the Moodle business account receives the money taken, however the student is still not able to login. The message (as above) "Thank you for your payment! Unfortunately ...". Doesn't matter how long you wait or how many times you subscribe to the course, the money is taken and the student is not able to enter the course.

My question to you is: once you setup the Paypal business account (either on Paypal or PaypalSandbox site) you have to make some options available on the PROFILE section to make the Paypal return to the correct page and possibly enable the Instand Payment Notification and I am thinking that I might have wrong settings.

It would be very kind if you can send/publish your settings located at the "PROFILE > Website Payment Preferences" once you are logged with your business account at Paypal. You don't need (of course) send any direct path to your site, but can you let me know, for example, if you have auto return ON, and which final path suppose to return to (/enrol/paypal/return.php? /enrol/paypal/enrol.php? other?). If you have Payment Data Transfer ON, etc...

Also on "Instant Payment Notification Preferences" should I include www.mysite.com/enrol/paypal/ipn.php address there? or you even if you have IPN switch off.

Also, as far as I can see, on Moodle documentation and implementation the Payment Data Transfer is NOT used (since the scripts are not passing any token as described on the Paypal documentation). Please correct me if I am wrong.

I tried many configurations and also many different setting combinations and so far nothing is working and I couldn't find any answer on the forums so far (not only me has this problem!) Please advise which version of Moodle you made it work and the settings on Moodle and on Paypal were used.

Thanks in advance,
Monica
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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Great news!!!  I'm not sure what the actual problem was, but I went back and set the permissions back toi default for student and authenticated user.  Miraculously everything started working as it should.  I then need to make just a couple of changes but checked them right away and everything was still fine.

I wish I knew which setting caused the problem but I will be watching carefully in the future and testing every change I make before doing another.

Thanks to all who responded with ideas.  They were greatly appreciated.

BTW, it even eliminated the strange date I was getting with an enrollment key.

I am so relieved!!

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Great news!!!  I'm not sure what the actual problem was, but I went back and set the permissions back toi default for student and authenticated user.  Miraculously everything started working as it should.  I then need to make just a couple of changes but checked them right away and everything was still fine.

I wish I knew which setting caused the problem but I will be watching carefully in the future and testing every change I make before doing another.

Thanks to all who responded with ideas.  They were greatly appreciated.

BTW, it even eliminated the strange date I was getting with an enrollment key.

I am so relieved!!

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by J. Bird -
Hi Sandy,

I was hoping you could walk me though "setting the permissions back to default for student and authenticated user"

I am experiencing similar enrollment problems with Moodle and Paypal.

Students can enroll and pay, but are not enrolled when they are redirected to my moodle site.

I hope this will correct the error.

Thanks!
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In reply to J. Bird

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

Hi,

I went to Administration, Users, Permissions, Define Roles.  Under that there is a setting called ReStore to defaults.  You have to go into each role to do it.  It worked for me.  There might be an easier way, but it's the only thing that I could find.  Hope it helps.

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Mike Allen -
Hi Sandy,
I suspect you are using 1.7, or higher? The define roles route you mention is not available in 1.6.4. Do you have any other options?
Thanks,
Mike
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In reply to Mike Allen

Re: PayPal problems

by Sandy Norton -

I am using 1.8+    I never used the version yiu are on, so I'm sorry, I can be of much help.

Sandy

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In reply to Sandy Norton

Re: PayPal problems

by Mike Allen -

I'm using 1.7.2+ and get the same problem (using the Paypal sandbox).

Nothing seems to be getting back into my site from Paypal. I've tried all mentioned in this thread and still no joy

Help please.

Mike

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