Pay Pal Making Changes - Will These Effect our Modules?

[SamyT]

I am not so great at adding modules and I have a devosc Pay Pal module currently, it's certainly not the latest but it works perfectly and I couldn't uninstall and install a new one if i tried because I am lost in the code.

 

Today, Pay Pal sent an email out - I just want to know if these changes are likely to make the module no longer work - can anyone take a guess?

 

We're sending this notification today to inform you of enhancements to the Payment Review feature coming this September. Most importantly, if you are using Instant Payment Notification (IPN), Payment Data Transfer (PDT), or the GetTransactionDetails API, we want to make sure your integration will be ready for these enhancements.

 

As you may recall, the Payment Review feature identifies high-risk transactions and notifies merchants of the review so they can hold shipments until PayPal has evaluated the transaction risk. PayPal currently notifies merchants of the review via email, as well as transaction status within their PayPal account. For on-eBay transactions, eBay GetItemDetails API and payment status within My eBay also provides notifications of Payment Review.

 

Please note: Payment Review is typically applied prior to completing the transaction (instantly), but will occasionally be applied minutes after the transaction completes. PayPal plans to migrate entirely to instant Payment Review by early 2009.

 

In September, PayPal is introducing new ways to determine which payments are placed under review. The enhancements will allow you to access the status of all transactions under review through Instant Payment Notification (IPN), and by checking the status of transactions with the GetTransactionDetails API or with Payment Data Transfer (PDT).

 

Here’s what you need to know about the Payment Review enhancements. You should prepare for potential integration changes to ensure that you can support the new payment status and pending reason.

 

Changes to GetTransactionDetails API

 

When PayPal places a payment under review, the GetTransactionDetails response will contain the following:

 

The Status field will be set to Pending

The PendingReason field will be set to PaymentReview

We’ve also implemented a ProtectionEligibility field that tells the merchant what kind of protection applies to the transaction.

 

As Payment Review can be applied minutes after the initial payment, an API call 15 - 30 minutes post-payment would determine if the transaction has been placed under review.

 

Changes to IPN

 

Merchants will receive the following IPNs when PayPal places a payment under review prior to completing the transaction (with release 54.0, this will only occur for reviews applied instantly – in early 2009 Payment Review IPNs will be available for all transactions under review):

 

The payment_status IPN variable will be set to Pending

The pending_reason IPN variable will be set to PaymentReview

Note: A Payment Review IPN will not be sent if the transaction is placed under Payment Review minutes after the transaction completes. In this case, the GetTransactionDetails API can be used to determine status.

 

When the transaction review has been resolved, you’ll receive the following IPNs:

 

If the transaction was successful and the payment accepted, the IPN’s payment_status variable will be set to Completed

If the transaction failed and the payment rejected, the IPN’s payment_status variable will be set to Reversed

In addition, we have a new protection_eligibility IPN variable that notifies merchants of the kind of protection applicable for the transaction (e.g., ExpandedSellerProtection means the seller is protected by Expanded Seller Protection, and SellerProtection means the seller is protected by the PayPal Seller Protection Policy).

 

Changes to PDT

 

The following PDT variables reflect the status of a transaction placed under review:

 

The payment_status will be set to Pending

 

The pending_reason will be set to PaymentReview

 

As with the IPN and GetTransactionDetails API operations, you can also find out about seller protection through the new protection_eligibility variable.

 

Download the PayPal Order Management Integration Guide for more information on IPN and PDT.

 

For more information on GetTransactionDetails, review the Name-Value Pair API Developer Guide and Reference or the SOAP API Developer Reference.

 

If you have any questions or need support in integrating, visit the Integration Center.

 

Sincerely,

 

PayPal Merchant Support

[designgroop]

A quick look at this suggests that they are basically implementing new statuses - which will effectively be new stages in the completion of a Paypal transaction. If you run a late version of Paypal payment module, where the IPN updates order statuses each time Paypal posts variables back to your website, the principle won't change but I would guess that it will be necessary to accommodate the new variables and, let's say, keep an order as not completed if the payment is still being assessed for fraud.

 

These are the full payment_status variables now (half of which look new [but interesting] to me):

 

Canceled-Reversal

Completed

Denied

Expired

Failed

In-Progress

Pending

Processed

Refunded

Reversed

Voided

 

More information here: https://www.paypal.com/IntegrationCenter/ic...-reference.html

 

I would suggest that there is a small amount of work required here to update the OSCommerce Paypal modules.

[matchattaxoutlet]

I've also received this email and I am using the built in PayPal Standard module that comes pre-installed with RC2 2.2A - can anyone tell me what I will need to do?

[SamyT]

I don't think anyone knows yet. I may have to abandon my old devosc module and install a simpler stock standard one? I dont know!

[SamyT]

I'd have thought these changes would be important discussion since so many people use Pay Pal but I am unable to find any threads here - does anyone know where it is being discussed?

[matchattaxoutlet]

Nowhere yet as far as I am aware, PayPal is an official partner with Osc and their PP modules are all written and approved by PayPal so it should just work as normal - at the worst we may have to add a few status changes? But I wouldnt like to put my name to it lol

[PayPal_JohnF]

We are currently assessing the impact of these changes with the default module supplied with osc v2.2 RC2.

 

Please bear with me and I will give an update shortly.

 

Many thanks,

 

John.

[SamyT]

Thanks John - has there been any movement on this? I am really concerned I may not be able to fix my site since the module is so old but totally integrated with changes to many different files.

[Guest]

Thanks John - has there been any movement on this? I am really concerned I may not be able to fix my site since the module is so old but totally integrated with changes to many different files.

Hi SammyT

 

I disabled mine, it is the same version as yours, and it won't be going in the new shop.

[sargenle]

For those attempting to setup Paypal Express in osCommerce 2.2 RC2a and can not find out where to get the three required API's needed here is the information to make it work directly from Paypal.

 

My Paypal Express now works after following these steps from Paypal Developement Center.

 

 

How do I generate an API Signature?

You need to have a PayPal Business account. If you're testing with a Sandbox test account, repeat these steps for your Sandbox test accounts and your live accounts. We recommend having a pen and paper ready, and opening a separate web browser to perform these steps.

 

Here's How:

 

Click the My Account tab.

Click Profile at the top of the page.

Click the Request API credentials link in the Account Information column

Click the Set up PayPal API credentials and permissions link.

Click Request API Credentials link.

Select API signature.

Check the Agree and Submit button.

Click Done.

Write down your API username and API password information.

Copy the signature and save it to a file or some other location. This is your API signature.

 

Hope this helps you.

 

Leon Sargent

[dbmuller]

Thanks for the update John.

 

I have one store running that uses OSC version 1.2. If I don't make any changes, does anyone know possible consequences? I'm not sure that any new paypal module releases will be supported for it, and if I will need to ask him to upgrade to a later version of OSC or not.

[dbmuller]

I'm just bumping this in case there is any further progress with it. Is there any ETA on it? I don't mind if it's six months away - it would just be nice to know not to check the thread until then. Thanks.

[motorcity]

We are currently assessing the impact of these changes with the default module supplied with osc v2.2 RC2.

 

Please bear with me and I will give an update shortly.

 

Many thanks,

 

John.

Any progress to report?

[christiansees]

Seems like there would be some kind of information by now

[SamyT]

The module seems to work the same old way.. did Pay Pal not bring in the changes after all?

[Guest]

The module seems to work the same old way.. did Pay Pal not bring in the changes after all?

Hi Samy T

 

I renabled mine and it is still working. Who knows if the updates happened. There has been no respone on this thread, so I guess they just don't care if it works or not.

[dbmuller]

All of ours have continued to work. I think from the description it will continue, however the modules won't get the new statuses like fraud etc. Personally, I'm completely over PayPal.

[matchattaxoutlet]

Payment review has been introduced however the PP Modules that our bundled with osC do not contain the neccessary status changes.

 

I had my first payment review last week and it shows up as below on the order comments:

 

10/20/2008 16:38:35 Processing PayPal IPN Verified [Completed (Unverified; £12.59p)] No tracking ID applicable

10/20/2008 16:38:38 Processing No tracking ID applicable

10/23/2008 20:30:10 Processing PayPal IPN Verified [Completed (Unverified; £12.59p)] No tracking ID applicable

 

The first one is the inital order payment, and the second one is when PP successfully reviews the payment.

[Robbogeordie]

I'm just trying to integrate this Devosc Paypal IPN with CCGV and have been doing some testing. I do like it I must say...so I hope it continues to work ok with any of the PP changes going on right now.

Anyway,on my Sandbox tests when clicking for details it shows "pendingreview" status ok.

After just discovering this fine contribution I hope it continues to roll on.

[christiansees]

Hi All,

Still wondering about this topic, is it just a moot point by now? As to being "completely over paypal". All I can say is so am I, I mean what a bunch of highway bandits with their fees and all. Only problem is that the customers aren't