Community Support Forums

I am dabbing into making a separate page for a pro-form so it would still look neat on the sales page. I put the pro-form on a test page and tried to go through a transaction using my husband's credit card (good thing, i set the transaction for only $1!).

Problem: i get this error:
Error# 10501. Invalid Configuration. This transaction cannot be processed due to an invalid merchant configuration.

I tried searching the forum as i am sure i asked the question before, but i cannot find it to save my life. Can i use the pro-form without Paypal Pro and without Paypal Express Checkout? Is that what is causing the invalid configuration since i do not have either one. I want to make sure if i use the pro-form that the user does not HAVE to have a paypal account, and can only use the form and that's it.

You won't require a PayPal account only if it's a free registration pro-form. Any paying PayPal pro-form will require PayPal. If you use Express Checkout the user will be required to have a PayPal account, if you use PayPal Pro then you can take payments on-site and the user won't be required a PayPal account.

Does that help?

Kind of helps. However, it does not explain why i got that error message. Any idea?

So,
if i want to use a simple paypal button, the customer can pay by CC without a PP account?

if i want to use the pro-form, i dont have paypal pro, and i dont have express checkout. My customer will have to have a paypal account even if they want to pay by CC? meaning i am more limited as a merchant with the pro-form than the basic simple paypal button?

Doesn't that seems contradictory?

The pro-form was originally created so payments could be taken on-site instead of taking the person to the gateway's website. This is only possible with PayPal Pro and Authorize.Net at the moment, they weren't designed to be used without those gateway services. The PayPal pro-form can be used with just Express Checkout, but Express Checkout requires a person to have a PayPal account, it's not something the pro-form can change.

Buttons were always meant to take person to PayPal and PayPal now lets him just pay with a card instead of requiring a PayPal account.

We are looking at how to use PayPal with the pro-form without requiring the user to have a PayPal account. I hope it won't be long before we can do it and release it, but I don't have time estimates.

About the 10501 error, Jason explains it here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14259&p=32479&hilit=10501#p32479 So I believe you got the error because you're using the pro-form without the right configuration in your PayPal settings.

I've got my pro forms set up and when going through to paypal with express checkout, the user doesn't need to have an account, they can just click continue and enter their card details. So a paypal account is NOT required with Express checkout and paypal.

The BIG problem I have is the user has to enter the billing info twice, I can;t get "auto fill" to work from the info entered into pro forms. Alternatively, if I use a button, still they have to enter billing info into paypal, then after payment, register with the site.

My client wants address details stored in wordpress but doesn't want the customer to enter them twice.

So I need to use IPN to pass shipping info back to paypal (possible)
or SetExpressCheckout to send info to paypal.

18 hours on this and I've got nowhere... where's support gone my deadline is in a few hours and I've loads to do...

I'm sorry you've been waiting for a reply on that one, although we try to be around also during weekends, sometimes it's not possible. Yet, I've been around, but Jason couldn't this time, and he's quite busy preparing the new release. I expect him to be around tomorrow.

By the way, could you share your settings to make Express Checkout work without requiring the user to have a PayPal account? I'm very interested in this because many users will appreciate it.

HI Cristian,
Great to hear a new version is on the way! Yeh I appreciate it was weekend and thanks for your help.
I've set my paypal up in the way I thought was as per the instructions but maybe I did something different, lets run through:

Website Preferences / Bring customers back to my website after they pay with PayPal / UPDATE
Auto Return for Website Payments ON - Return URL http://www.xxxxxx.co.uk/?s2member_paypal_return=1
Payment Data Transfer (optional) ON
Encrypted Website Payments ON
PayPal Account Optional ON

API Access configured

Instant payment notifications / Instant payment notificationsIntegrate PayPal payment notifications with my website.Update
ENABLED and url is http://www.xxxxxx.co.uk/?s2member_paypal_notify=1

I think it must be this which does the trick:
PayPal Account Optional
When this feature is turned on, your customers will go through an optimized checkout experience. This feature is available for Buy Now, Donations and Shopping Cart buttons, but not for Subscription buttons.

I see Jason already replied in your other thread.

Thanks a lot for sharing the settings! They sound like what I know, but if you really are having customers pay without a PayPal account using the pro-form with Express Checkout (no PayPal Pro), then other admins are doing something different. In the future I'll point them to your post to check if it helps them.

It could be different depending on the country, maybe Paypal allow some things in the Uk and not the US. However, yes, please refer them to this thread and if anyone wants me to send screenshots or double check a setting I'd be happy to do that.

Cool, thanks.

Yeah, it could be due to the country.