Protx Changes from August 1

[paulh69]

certainly works in test mode but not on the live site

Status: INVALID
Status Detail: 3087 : The SuccessURL format is invalid.

[mccanm]

Still getting time outs

We are still getting time outs, not as many as 2-3 days ago but enough to be alarmed. e.g We had 24 orders overnight and I downloaded 16 with authorisations. 6 of the fails had the following error

"Transaction CANCELLED by Protx systems after 15 minutes of inactivity, or no reply from Notification POSTs."

I would be interested to know about anyone elses run rate on transaction time outs

We are spending a lot of unnecessary time calling and emailing the failed customers to reassure them about their transaction. In my view this is now totally unacceptable 1 week after go live.

I got my customised templates in on 30th of July after busting a gut to get them reworked over the weekend before go live, so we did not have to run on generic pages only to be told yesterday that their is no chance of getting them loaded this week and maybe they'll get round to them next week.

The conclusion that I have now come to is that Protx is now false economy for our business, we used to run our site as a sideline to other jobs and careers and protx may still be a sensible option for start ups and hobby sites that can afford a bit of down time, but now we are full time and we need to cover mortgages and living costs from it, so the exposure of significant down time is too great.

If I look at the revenue we have lost because of this over the last week, it would have easily covered 2-3 years worth of PSP charges with a reliable provider.

The letter from the Protx MD talked about the loyalty of the customer base who have been through other difficult times with them and we were there in 2005 when they suffered the DOS attacks, but this situation is entirely of their own making so his call to empathy is totally misplaced.

These situations can be forgotten when the dust finally settles and things get back to normal but if you need to break the inertia about moving PSPs, ask yourself how you will feel when you receive the next email in your inbox informing you that Protx will be undertaking a systems upgrade on such and such a date.

Rant over going for a lie down

[TraceyHand]

ask yourself how you will feel when you receive the next email in your inbox informing you that Protx will be undertaking a systems upgrade on such and such a date.

the phrase "run a mile" springs to mind!

editted to say, I'm not getting any problems with time outs. Just to answer your question.
Have to looks on the Protx support forum to see if this is still a common problem?

[siwalker]

If I look at the revenue we have lost because of this over the last week, it would have easily covered 2-3 years worth of PSP charges with a reliable provider.

Absolutely. I spoke to WorldPay yesterday, and after I picked myself up off the floor sat down to calculate the likely premium over Protx. It's a lot, but as with you the economy option is no option.

In addition to the general problems we've all seen there are two other serious issues I'm trying to reconcile.

Although I've been roundly pooh-poohed by a certain forum member, there are now serious issues (for us) with the Protx deferred mode payment system known as Authenticate and Authorise, in that basic card checks are not being performed. See this thread: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=32126

In addition I have stumbled across this statement on Protx's site that I wasn't previously aware of:
"We do not support:
1. Purchasing or Corporate cards
* Protx are a 'Business to Consumer' service not a 'Business to Business' service and do not support the VGIS module, ('line item detail' features)."

Not a business to business!?

I have asked for clarification from Protx as to what that actually means as we have government customers who use Visa Purchasing cards. As to what 'corporate cards' means in this context I have no idea, although my own business Mastercard seems to work OK. Of course getting answers on anything from Protx at the moment is uphill work.

I'm going to post my WorldPay and SecPay discoveries in the thread that was started on alternative PSP's. May I humbly suggest any further discussion on the alternatives is taken up there as it could be a useful thread.

Regards,
simon

[jxm28788]

"Transaction CANCELLED by Protx systems after 15 minutes of inactivity, or no reply from Notification POSTs."

Yes, we're also getting quite a few of these. no doubt if you ask protx about them they will say that the customer just left the site...

So what's the verdict on this URL change - is it safe to make the change...?

[TraceyHand]

well, it works for me John.
Just check your OCCProtxScriptTemplate still contains your encryption password before uploading.

[Darren B]

well, it works for me John.
Just check your OCCProtxScriptTemplate still contains your encryption password before uploading.

Still have not got around to checking mine yet, but im betting this is the case, it always is with me

[Bruce]

Hi,

To answer a question asked about why the OCCPROTXScriptTemplate.pl gets overwritten in the site folder when you increment the version number on the 'OCCUpgrade.ini' file.

This happens because when you increment the version number of the 'OCCUpgrade.ini' file and then restart Actinic, it overwrites the site 'OCCPROTXScriptTemplate.pl' with the Original copy from within 'C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\OCCUpgrade\CommonOCC'.

For users with Single Sites:
When changing from 'Test' to 'Production' mode on PROTX you need to make the required changes on the 'OCCPROTXScriptTemplate.pl' file that resides within 'C:\Program Files\Actinic v8\OCCUpgrade\CommonOCC'. Then if you increment the version number on the 'OCCUpgrade.ini' file you will find that you need not make any changes to the site script template. This is where some integrations fall down.

For users with/ managing Multiple Sites:
When changing from 'Test' to 'Production' mode on PROTX you need to make the required changes on the 'OCCPROTXScriptTemplate.pl' file that resides within the {site}/CommonOCC folder. You will however have to redo the {site}/CommonOCC on incrementing the version number of the 'OCCUpgrade.ini' file for reasons mentioned above. Especially if each site has a different account.

Hope that helps clear up the process.

Kind regards,

[Darren B]

Bruce can i make a wish

Change the way it does it and put a unique occ file in the individual sites, and stop actinic over writing the file, if i cock it up then i am happy to get the original myself, they way the other things work,

To be honest it is a pain in the arse
Darren

[siwalker]

Change the way it does it and put a unique occ file in the individual sites, and stop actinic over writing the file, if i cock it up then i am happy to get the original myself, they way the other things work,

Seconded. Seems ridiculous to affect all sites with simple payment provider changes.

simon

[wjcampbe]

Seconded. Seems ridiculous to affect all sites with simple payment provider changes.

simon

That will be thirded then http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=32182

[siwalker]

Protx still not sorted

Impressively, Protx still haven't managed to get things under control:
Protx support admit problems. Database bottlenecks? Those pesky table indexes still aren't all in place then.

We've seen timeouts this morning and have had customers report that when they came to pay Protx responded with 'service temporarily unavailable' messages.

The Protx Monitor still shows everything is fine of course, as it has been since 2:30pm on August 1st.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08...tage_analysis/

However, I do appreciate the fact that they've taken the time to remove the detailed systems status graphics from the monitor page and replace it with something they presumably found in MS Office Clipart: http://www.protx.com/monitorvsp.asp

simon

[jxm28788]

However, I do appreciate the fact that they've taken the time to remove the detailed systems status graphics from the monitor page and replace it with something they presumably found in MS Office Clipart: http://www.protx.com/monitorvsp.asp

lol, yeah that's a lot more useful than the previous one - NOT!

[Tickle]

Doh!

For anyone, like me, who had their OCCPROTXScriptTemplate.pl reset after doing the url changes then don't forget to check your payment status is also set back to what you need. I've been passing payments through as the default 'payment' rather than 'deferred'.

I was about to have a moan at Protx but gave up when the message said there's a two hour queue. Fortunately I figured out the problem was down to me, or Actinic resetting the file in the first place depending on how you feel about things.

[jxm28788]

just started this thread on the protx forum, you might want to test your sites for this as it may be something that affects everyone...

https://support.protx.com/forum/Topic3583-26-1.aspx