One Last Try To Resolve Post Vars Error
Posted: February 24th, 2011, 6:50 pmTo make a long story short, sometimes when people are purchasing through the PayPal button (verified, unverified, or even unregistered) it sometimes works. The times that it doesn't work, the customer is getting the "Unable to verify Post Vars" message after paying through PayPal. Reference to this post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2329
I printed out my s2member logs and studied them. After looking through the logs, I noticed a further explanation as to why the redirection was failing, but I don't know how to fix it. Below is what I found out:
After a customer purchases content via the PayPal button that was generated through s2member, s2member goes through a 6 step process.
Below is the 6 steps that make a successful transaction:
's2member_log' =>
array (
0 => 'Return-Data received on: Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:25:15 pm UTC',
1 => 's2Member POST vars verified through a POST back to PayPal®.',
2 => 's2Member originating domain ( _SERVER[HTTP_HOST] ) validated.',
3 => 's2Member txn_type identified as (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment).',
4 => 's2Member txn_type identified as (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment) w/o update vars.',
5 => 'Registration Cookies set on (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment) w/o update vars.',
6 => 'Redirecting Customer to Registration Page. They need to Register now.',
Below is the log file that shows the 6 steps that are unsuccessful and then generates that Unable to Verify Post Vars error:
's2member_log' =>
array (
0 => 'Return-Data received on: Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:21:28 pm UTC',
1 => 's2Member POST vars verified through a POST back to PayPal®.',
2 => 'Unable to verify _SERVER[HTTP_HOST]. Possibly caused by a fraudulent request. If this error continues, please check the `custom` value in your Form and/or Button Code. It MUST always start with your domain name.',
3 => 'Redirecting Customer to the Login Page, due to an error that occurred.',
Now, I double-checked my button (I am using the shortcode version of the button generated from s2member on the website) and the custom field starts with my domain. Below is the button that I am using:
[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="MobileCoach 28 Day App Module" ps="paypal" cc="USD" ns="1" custom="example.com" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="9.95" rp="1" rt="Y" rr="BN" image="default" output="button" /]
Do I need to add the http:// before the domain name? That is the only other thing I can think of. Instead of using the shortcode, should I just use the snippet (long code)? In addition, the payments to PayPal are all successful, the only thing that is not working 50% of the time, is the redirection to the registration page. My entire site is built around s2member.
I have until tomorrow (Friday, 2/25/11) to figure this out and I have been working on it for over a week. No response from the developers of s2member yet.
Thank you for your help! Any ideas will help me and I'm sure many others out there that are experiencing this SAME problem. I just hope it is an easy fix.
I printed out my s2member logs and studied them. After looking through the logs, I noticed a further explanation as to why the redirection was failing, but I don't know how to fix it. Below is what I found out:
After a customer purchases content via the PayPal button that was generated through s2member, s2member goes through a 6 step process.
Below is the 6 steps that make a successful transaction:
's2member_log' =>
array (
0 => 'Return-Data received on: Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:25:15 pm UTC',
1 => 's2Member POST vars verified through a POST back to PayPal®.',
2 => 's2Member originating domain ( _SERVER[HTTP_HOST] ) validated.',
3 => 's2Member txn_type identified as (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment).',
4 => 's2Member txn_type identified as (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment) w/o update vars.',
5 => 'Registration Cookies set on (web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment) w/o update vars.',
6 => 'Redirecting Customer to Registration Page. They need to Register now.',
Below is the log file that shows the 6 steps that are unsuccessful and then generates that Unable to Verify Post Vars error:
's2member_log' =>
array (
0 => 'Return-Data received on: Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:21:28 pm UTC',
1 => 's2Member POST vars verified through a POST back to PayPal®.',
2 => 'Unable to verify _SERVER[HTTP_HOST]. Possibly caused by a fraudulent request. If this error continues, please check the `custom` value in your Form and/or Button Code. It MUST always start with your domain name.',
3 => 'Redirecting Customer to the Login Page, due to an error that occurred.',
Now, I double-checked my button (I am using the shortcode version of the button generated from s2member on the website) and the custom field starts with my domain. Below is the button that I am using:
[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="MobileCoach 28 Day App Module" ps="paypal" cc="USD" ns="1" custom="example.com" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="9.95" rp="1" rt="Y" rr="BN" image="default" output="button" /]
Do I need to add the http:// before the domain name? That is the only other thing I can think of. Instead of using the shortcode, should I just use the snippet (long code)? In addition, the payments to PayPal are all successful, the only thing that is not working 50% of the time, is the redirection to the registration page. My entire site is built around s2member.
I have until tomorrow (Friday, 2/25/11) to figure this out and I have been working on it for over a week. No response from the developers of s2member yet.
Thank you for your help! Any ideas will help me and I'm sure many others out there that are experiencing this SAME problem. I just hope it is an easy fix.