Probems with PayPal Sandbox Testing and s2Member Plugin?

[merchant]

Hello,
Earlier I was able to successfully complete test transactions in the Sandbox environment of PayPal. However for the last 2 weeks or so I have been getting error messages. I have the latest update to the s2member plugin.

It will let me click on the button once and get to the correct Paypal Sandbox payment login page, but will fail at all subsequent attempts.

This happens only for the subscription option (Level 1) and not for direct purchases that are one time buys (non-subscription).

Anyone has had this issue?

It does take me to the PayPal site but I get an error message. I know the issue is not with PayPal as even on the s2Member plugin screen for the generating PayPal buttons I can only click the button once and then I cannot click it anymore for it to redirect me to the PayPal site.
When I put the code in WordPress and then click on the PayPal button it works only once and then does not at subsequent attempts.

Appreciate any insight that anyone can provide.

[Eduan]

Does it show an error message?
If it does, what's the message?

[merchant]

I figured out the issue. When I select encrypt code option for the paypal button on s2Member and also on paypal i get this error message. Not sure if I need security certificate or not. But I unchecked the encryption option from both s2Member and PP and the transactions are flowing thru. This happens only with subcription based payment options and not the one time payment option for specific pages. Unfortunately since the problem is fixed I have not recreated the problem to take the screenshot or the error message. But if it will help with fixing a bug in the software I will be happy to recreate the issue and send a screen shot. Let me know.
Thanks much for your response.

[Eduan]

Well I'm sure Jason would appreciate a bug to fix .
And if someone already had this issue maybe they could help, so yeah please post a screenshot.

Thanks

[merchant]

Attached are the screen shots for the paypal payments for subscriptions.
I have enabled the
1. button encryption on s2Member (see screenshot)
2. enabled to accept only encrypted buttons on Paypal website payments (see screenshot)
3. screen shot of error message.

If I disable encryption on both sides the transactions work fine but am not able to encrypt the buttons or accept encrypted payments.
Do I need an SSL certificate? If so what is involved in getting one and how does one install SSL certificates and where does one install PayPal's public key certificate?

Also this happens only for subscription based buttons and not for one time specific page purchases which just does not make sense as to why it would work for one and not the other.

s2Member option for encryption selected:

s2Member encryption option

PayPal Option for encryptions selected:

PayPal option for encryptions

Error Message:

Error Message

[Eduan]

Great thanks!

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for sharing those! I'm emailing Jason about it now.

[merchant]

Thanks. and yes I did put in all the correct parameters. It works the first time and then it stops working with the above error message.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

No, you don't need an SSL certificate to run encrypted PayPal Buttons. This problem in the Sandbox environment has been reported in the past, and unfortunately, it's a bug on the PayPal side. However, this ONLY affects Sandbox implementations, so once you go live the problem should disappear. See this bug report: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=309&p=25777&hilit=button+encryption+sandbox#p28461

[merchant]

Hi Jason and others,
Thanks for the prompt response. When I am ready to launch I will try it out on the production paypal to ensure this works.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Cool. Looking forward to your report.