UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads Version 7/8 Support Paypal Subscription

Hi all,

I updated my forum to 7.3.1 prior to my move to a new server in the USA and since then people making subscriptions are not showing up as active only pending.

Yet in my paypal account the payment has been approved. Usually the process only takes around 15 minutes to go through and be active on the forum.

If anyone has any information on how to correct this it would be appreciated.

It could be that you haven't activated IPN on the paypal side. Here's the steps you need to follow:

In order to use PayPal for automated subscriptions you must perform the following steps:

1. Log in to your Business or Premier account in Paypal.
2. Click the Profile subtab.
3. In the Selling Preferences column, click the Instant Payment Notification Preferences
link.
4. Click the Edit button.
5. Select the checkbox to activate IPN.
6. In the Notification URL text box, you can either leave this blank or enter the url to the paypal-ipn script, ie. https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=paypal-ipn
7. Click the Save button.

Thanks Rick for you help it is greatly appreciated.

I set it up, now I hope my members send me some money to help pay for the new server I'm putting it on, lol.

In actuality, you don't need to activate it in paypal and here is the reason why i haven't done so.

i have multiple IPN locations and paypal IPN activation sets you up for one site address.

it also doesn't let you just activate it and leave the site blank, sooo you're kinda screwed there.

you'd be ok, if you're receiving all the goods from one URL however..

i leave it 'deactivated', but paypal plays nice with ubbthreads and responds to the proper URL, because Ricks interface tells it where to respond to.. this has been tested to work fine on 5 7.3.1 sites i am involved with..

just my

Thanks Rick and guys for your help, I will be testing today to see if all is ok.

I did not realise that the site move would cause so many different issues but it is a learning curve and thank god all the members here are so helpful with good advice.

Rick,

Here is the information regarding my paypal which is on a Linux server:

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) On
Instant Payment Notification (IPN) URL: http://www.outdoorking.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=paypal-ipn

The members are not being activated just sit as pending.

Do I need to change any other files for it to work as it all worked great on a windows server prior to the shift.

Any help would be appreciated as it is getting really frustrating.

The script name is actually wrong, my fault, but not exactly sure that's the issue, because we send them the URL to notify when a request is made. However, since it's declared there it might be overriding it.

The script name should be paypal_ipn instead of paypal-ipn.

Other than that, the only thing that could be preventing this is if your php configuration doesn't allow an fsockopen call (you might want to check with your host on that).

Rick,

I have changed the link with paypal and will check with my host today regarding the fsockopen.

Thanks for your assistance again.

Your host is likely blocking fsockopen; i've seen a lot doing this for "security"

we should add a little fsockopen test in the admin cpanel, kinda like the captcha preview dealio..

Rick I have checked with paypal and the payments are going through ok but still sitting as pending on the forum. The web host is saying that fsockopen call is not restricted.

They are pointing to the software or Host which is running Linux.

Would it have anything to do with the MySQL data base as the files had to be changed from lower case to upper case in order for the forum to work.

I have noticed this error in my log but don't know if it has anything to do with paypal:


Script:

/home/content/o/u/t/outdoorking/html/forum/scripts/grabnext.inc.php - Line: 194
SELECT t2.POST_ID,t2.TOPIC_IS_STICKY
FROM ubbt_POSTS as t1,
ubbt_TOPICS as t2
WHERE t2.FORUM_ID = 11
AND t2.TOPIC_IS_STICKY='0'
AND t2.TOPIC_LAST_REPLY_TIME < 1214139872
AND t1.TOPIC_ID = t2.TOPIC_ID
ORDER BY t3.USER_DISPLAY_NAME desc
LIMIT 1
- Unknown column 't3.USER_DISPLAY_NAME' in 'order clause'

hrm.. that might be totally unrelated to paypal.. but also might be a bug in other stuff

I think we're going to need a support ticket for this one. Since it sounds like it was working before the move to the new server and now it's not it's kinda hard to say what it is.

he also moved from outdooking.com.au to plain ole outdoorking.com

Rick I have submitted a support ticket.

Rick,

I have submitted a ticket some time back but have not had a reply yet.

Hi all,

I have installed zencart software on my site and it works with paypal no problems so I thinking that since the move from one server .com.au to .com maybe causing the issue that I have with the forum regarding paypal payments.

The other thing is that it was on a windows server and then moved to a Linux server.

Any help would be appreciated.

Available Subscription Groups
Version 7.4.1

I don't seem to be able to get "Trial Settings" Set-up
to show in the Available Subscription Groups Page.

(Ive amended a donation setting to trail and the donation
subscription will not show in the list ?)

Allow a trial period: Ticked
Trial Amount: 2:00
Trial Period: 1 Month

Donations will work
And Subscription Settings will also show up.

Ive enabled the IPN in Paypal and added my url with this.
/ubbthreads.php?ubb=paypal-ipn

I'm trying to test this before i go live with it.

I thought it was "paypal_ipn".

ok your right on that one lol
Updating my pay pal now lol

But i cant see that changing the fact that its not showing up?

The Pay Pal stuff needs tons of work, It works for some sites and not others. It should work equally on every site. It is very lacking.

Perhaps this may get addressed and fixed someday.

do you have the trial period working on your sites ?

Next question as i'm still setting all this up,

Anuual Subscriptions No PENDING 03/07/09 09:26 PM

How long is it going to say PENDING in my Subscriptions Page ?

What i done was tested it went to pay pal and just canceled it.
Will they dissapear soon enough or stay there and be a pain?

Pending will remain on your subscriptions page for 24 hours.

Oh, and if there is ONLY a trial period with no actual subscription then it won't show.

ok

So how does that work?
Do you have an example a can understand?

How does Trial Period and a cost work with the subscription
with a cost? I'm not getting it.

> Scratches Head <

What's your thinking on the Trial period box?
How does that fit in?

thanks

ok

1 month trial say £1
12 Month subscription £10

What would happen after the 1 Month ?
Is the users account charged £10 or is it a manual thing
they have to re-submit the subscription.

I'm asking to the end how would a member cancel say
after 20 days and not wanting to go into the 12 month.

What would they do and if any thing would i have to do.

thanks

We are starting to see a lot of questions on this feature with little documentation.
Maybe since this is a monetary thing this feature should be in it's own forum.

That's what ive asked for in the past as were dealing with money and members in one swoop not the best mix.

A Subscriptions forum
A Permissions forum too.

Im stuck testing it as its late in the UK and no one is on line
with a dam pay pal account.

I registered for a pay pal sand box but i will be buggered
if i understand how that works,

Yeah, I registered a sand box as well, but the forms they have you fill out to test a transaction are rather cryptic. I managed to get it to connect to my server and update the database, but it was put in as pending; I had to approve it.

The Pay Pal subscription on my site does not work. When someone tries to do a subscription it will show as pending even though the transaction has went through. If I do not manually edit the data base it will stay pending forever not allowing the subscription to be active.

I turned off the subscription stuff on my site just for this reason as you can not do anything with it unless you edit the database directly using PHPMyAdmin. Rick has in the thing that you need to make all the adjustments in PayPal but if it does not communicate with the message board and or you can not make the changes in PayPal that you need to make then it is pretty much useless to us or have.

I got one of my members to test out the donation part of it
and it worked a treat.

Sorry yours is not working Thelockman.

Ive decided to go down the road of an enhanced account
as in more pm's and images in signatures for a donation.

Will see how that pan's out and then i may have to look
at the subscriptions thing, but i would like to know
how the trial and subscription work together?

What happens when the trial is over?
Is it automated and the next payment of a full subscription taken?
Or will a user have to manually agree to the next part?
And can a user cancel before the subscription begins while
in a trial period?

Rick ? Anyone?

When a user signs up for a trial, they can cancel anytime during that trial and that's it. If they keep their trial active the entire length then it will automatically turn into the full subscription that you have setup.

This is one of the things where the inline documentation is definitely needed.

Anyone having problems with it where it's sticking as pending I'd certainly like to help as I'd like to make sure everything is workng as it should be. When it gets stuck at pending that means paypal hasn't posted back to the paypal_ipn script for some reason.

I pretty much gave up on it. No documentation and do not wish to spend hours playing around with PayPal and the message board.

cheers rick

Its getting a little clear now.
I'm treading softly so i'm not making any mistakes.

But up to now its working sweet and its doing what it says
on the tin for my Donations Set up.

I have checked the MySQL database and see PayPal has sent back through the "paypal_ipn" as the information is in the database and nothing is missing. Like I stated earlier is that is remained "Pending" untill I manually edited the database and then it went into an active subscription. After the subscription period ran out it remained "Active" for those users and still remains that way today. Those subscriptions ran out in December.

Like I said unless you have a way to do it in the message board software and not through PayPal it is cumbersome and really more of a hassle then it is worth. If you wish to setup a test board or use the area I had set aside for you several months ago and test and play with it feel free to do so but other then that unless you can control it through the Administration Control Panel I'm pretty much done with that idea, like I stated repeatedly it is to much of a hassle.

humm me gonna test that one out !

I have had generally good luck with the system EXCEPT (and Rick, I think this was discussed a few versions ago), it seems I have that problem of it sticking on Pending when the person uses an "eCheck" instead of a straight Paypal transaction from their PayPal account or a Credit Card.

Now, as it happens, I have a fellow who just today signed up for a subscription via Paypal using an eCheck. When I look at my Pay Pal account I can see the check is still "pending" with expected completion date of 11 March (3 days from now). It will be interesting to see if the subscription database updates once the eCheck has cleared. Right now my Database says "PAYMENT PENDING". I'll report back,

Basil

I have used this subscription feature before and it works very well. It is fantastic.
The problem is that Paypal did not like my kind of site and turned me off.
Would be nice if this worked with other payment options.