Protx Changes from August 1

[Darren B]

I had this yesterday, and had to cancel 2 transaction for the same customer, but not today

D

[TraceyHand]

looking at the Protx forums, Mark, I don't think you're alone by a long shot.
The best we can do is keep an eye on orders/payments coming in ensuring duplicates are voided where possible.
It certainly seems to have been one problem after another with plenty still ongoing.

[mccanm]

Thanks if anybody else has the same experience or advice please post. It all seemed to be getting a bit quiet on this issue, and I am wondering if it is specific to us.

Any news on that damn url patch from actinic would be bloody useful

[Darren B]

Mark unfortunately , the scripts are written by PROTX, the way i see it actinic have offered to write them but are still waiting for PROTX, just my interpretation

D

[jxm28788]

I have got an email from Protx's CEO to say that their system is now hunky dory.

I particularly like the bit in the middle where he blamed us for not reading their instructions properly!

[mccanm]

The Ball Is In Actinics Court

Mark unfortunately , the scripts are written by PROTX, the way i see it actinic have offered to write them but are still waiting for PROTX, just my interpretation

I spent 1hr 30 mins queuing on the phone to protx listening to the classical music loop. Finally got through to support about the issue of customers not being redirected back to actinic sites to view receipt pages.

The blame game has now begun with fingers pointing in both directions and actinic businesses caught in the middle.

The upshot is that protx are unlikely to fix this issue, the protx view was that the new system is more tightly coded than the old system and has exposed weaknesses in the code of many of the shopping cart providers including actinic.

Their view was that only 1 shopping cart provider () worked with protx to recode their scripts in accordance with the new system requirements.

So that facts are that whoever is to blame we need a patch from actinic immediately. I have spoken to Phil Rothwell (Actinic UK MD) this morning to relay this message and aside from being insulted by protx's finger pointing he is picking it up with the actinic developers to come back with a status update.

Depending on the timescales all actinic/protx users may need to consider moving psp providers if a patch cannot be issued in the immediate short term.

Whoever is to blame the ball is firmly in Actinic's court to sort it out quickly.

Mark

[cbarling]

Hi ,

As Mark says we (Actinic) are looking into this, but trouble is the ball isn’t fully in our court for a number of reasons; the main one is that we don’t own and control the Protx system.

To give you some background, the integration with Actinic was written by Mat Peck of Protx in 2002 and we wrote no code in the integration. We only heard on Tuesday this week (after we contacted Protx) that changes were being made to their system. We were assured that there was no immediate problem with the integration although in due course we would have to change the URL’s used. This is scheduled for the next Actinic maintenance release.

I understand that Mark’s problem seems to be that the 5% of his transactions aren’t completing correctly with customers not being forwarded to the receipt page. We are looking into this to see if there is a quick fix. Pretty much the only thing we can try is using the new URLs. If it works we will make the change available to anyone affected in the same way.

Of course, if this doesn't work we will carry on pressing Protx at the highest level.

Chris

[TraceyHand]

We only heard on Tuesday this week (after we contacted Protx) that changes were being made to their system.

I'm sorry, but how can that possibly be the case when we have all been discussing it at great length for months now??

did it not occur to someone, wayyyy back when WE first mentioned it, to get hold of Protx and find out whether this would affect Actinic/Protx users?

Instead, the likes of poor Bruce (sorry, Bruce ) et al have been battered over and over again on the forums in the last few days when really the "powers that be" should have been looking into this months ago

ok..I'll step down off my soapbox now

[Darren B]

We only heard on Tuesday this week (after we contacted Protx) that changes were being made to their system. We were assured that there was no immediate problem with the integration although in due course we would have to change the URL’s used. This is scheduled for the next Actinic maintenance release.

sorry chris dont wash with me

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=31432 ooooooh is that the 10th of July i see

[mccanm]

Our issues are specific and generic

1. Specifically we were getting customers not being redirected to the actinic receipt page. This appears to be because we had the customer email function switched off in the script to stop protx bombarding our customers with payment processing emails. They already get an autogenerated order confirmation out of actinic and that should be enough. So anybody who has this switched off they need to make sure it is switched back on by including

my $sConfirmationEMail = 'test@test.com';

under the password code.

2. Generic issue being as stated throughout the forum the need for an actinic patch upgrade which in spec terms should do the following.

a) Use the new urls
b) Pass the basket variables for inclusion in the protx email
c) Enable us to switch off the protx payment email from being sent but still allow the customer to proceed through the protx payment pages and back to actinic receipt pages

Mark

[TraceyHand]

Our issues are specific and generic

1. Specifically we were getting customers not being redirected to the actinic receipt page. This appears to be because we had the customer email function switched off in the script to stop protx bombarding our customers with payment processing emails. They already get an autogenerated order confirmation out of actinic and that should be enough. So anybody who has this switched off they need to make sure it is switched back on by including

my $sConfirmationEMail = 'test@test.com';

under the password code.

can you just clarify, Mark... by "customers" as above, you mean the merchant, right? Because the confirmation email change you made above
dictates where the merchant payment confirmation is sent to, isn't it?
I can't understand why anyone would switch this function off... it's invaluable if you need to check payment has come along with an order if it's sat in your psp pending box! I just filter mine into their own email folder where I can read or ignore as required!

[edit] so did filling this email address in actually fix your redirect problem? Doesn't make sense that it would.

[Darren B]

Im a tad confused here aswell, i thought that was the email for what was sent to me?

D

[mccanm]

Sorry for confusion yes you are right this is the email that gets sent to us as the vendor. We had this switched off to stop them generating because we focus on VSP admin for reconciling payments to orders.

This was a tweak we did many years ago based on a forum post about how to switch it off, so there may be the a few other people who followed the advice way back when.

Putting this back on does seem to have done the trick but not sure why, guess the new protx system is hyper sensitive to making sure everything is included.

[siwalker]

I can't understand why anyone would switch this function off...

Mark is referring to the customer (as in customer of your website) copy of this email, and he's right in that this email is essentially superfluous (and with the new changes is downright confusing until order lines are passed through). Presumably turning it off for the customer doesn't stop it coming through to the merchant. However we filter these straight into a mail sub-folder and automatically mark them as read - we review the PSP-Pending tab without reference to these emails. I didn't realise they could be turned off, but we've never customised our Protx pages (fortunately!).

(Later) OK, I sit corrected and should have waited for Mark to clarify. I assumed Mark had managed to turn off the customer copy of this email, which I still believe to be superfluous - the customer has our Actinic order acknowledgement and Protx's email to them adds no real useful information.

Cheers,
simon

[Phil Rothwell]

Protx Integration and Email Suppression

Hi,

Mark has explained the problem with the Protx email to me and has offered to send a sample. I will ask Protx whether it is possible to either suppress the email or add the contents of the cart to it, so it makes more sense.

Just to clarify, the Protx URL changes will be made in Actinic v7 and v8. In v7 by way of a new PSPSetup.exe and in v8 as part of v8.5.2. Both are currently slated for release later this month.