PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN) Failing

[Stuart J Sykes]

Iv'e just got this from PAYPAL:
Please check your server that handles PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN). Instant Payment Notifications sent to the following URL(s) are failing:

Then theres a link to my actinic perl script in the cgi-bin

If you do not recognize this URL you may be using a service provider that is using IPN on your behalf. Please contact your service provider with the above information. If this problem continues, IPNs may be disabled for your account.

So are they saying they could turn my PAYPAL online payments off?

[GeertK]

Iv'e just got this from PAYPAL:
Please check your server that handles PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN). Instant Payment Notifications sent to the following URL(s) are failing:

Then theres a link to my actinic perl script in the cgi-bin

If you do not recognize this URL, you may be using a service provider that is using IPN on your behalf. Please contact your service provider with the above information. If this problem continues, IPNs may be disabled for your account.

So are they saying they could turn my PAYPAL online payments off?

But that link has worked in the past, before this all happened. Check your IPN History, and check older links that didn't need any retries and just worked instantly.

My thought is that Actinic maybe has sort of an expiration date set on the script?!?!?!

edit: I'm now trying a complete refresh through Actinic, praying this will work...
edit 2: Not succesfull on the refresh..still having the problem

[pmsupport]

Hi all,

Just to give you an update, we have been in contact with Pay Pal support about this issue and they have given us the same response you are getting.

We have a couple of customers testing a different solution, I will let you know what the result of that is.

Paul

[owdboot]

Just to say, we are also having problems. Hosting completely different to all other hosts mentioned. Problem also looks as if it might stretch back to 16th September, but only became very noticeable yesterday? Very confusing...

Alix
www.cheeksandcherries.co.uk

[Fairyglass]

Add me to those with problems- five sites on two completely separate servers/hosts, and I've made no changes to any site recently which would relate to this.

[Andy Warner]

my guess is that some really small change has occured - i dunno, like a variable name having a capital instead of lower case, and the actinic perl scripts are parsing it wrong....

guess guess guess!

[GeertK]

my guess is that some really small change has occured - i dunno, like a variable name having a capital instead of lower case, and the actinic perl scripts are parsing it wrong....

guess guess guess!

I checked this..not the case..

[Andy Warner]

does anyone know yet if the errors showing in the error file shed any clues?

error:
Program = ORDERSCR, Program version = 20697 , HTTP Server = Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) PHP/5.2.9, Return code = 999 , Date and Time = 2010/09/27 20:49, Internal Errors = CallPlugInScript, execute: Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, subscript -15 at sc000001.pm line 616.


this seems to mean:
You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array backwards

this is (i think) line 616:

$decrypted_payload->[$len - 16 - 1] = undef;

have they shortened a string perhaps??, or changed the order of a name pair..
i dunno what teh code means, but teh error says "subscript -15 " so im assuming if the $len -16 -1 is moving around in a string (or array more likely), and it moves below zero, this might be the issue??

hmmm....

in another shop i get this error line:
$decrypted_payload->[$len - 16 - 1] = undef; # new byte[len - 16]

which also points to an arrar length issue....


i'm not a programmer!!!

can a programmy type take a look?????

[GeertK]

Trying to put it through manually the payment also gives a 500 message...
Changing ACTION=AUTHORIZE_900 to ACTION=AUTHORIZE (so leaving out the Payment method..ie paypal etc.etc..) gives you the finish slip, but still doesn't "authorize" the order..

[Andy Warner]

can you see a difference between an IPN from last week and one of the failed ones? that might show a change.

[Mike Hughes]

I wouldn't have thought it would take an Actinic developer very long to create a modified script that could capture the IPN and dump the data and key variables to a log file when the error happens.

Mike

[GeertK]

can you see a difference between an IPN from last week and one of the failed ones? that might show a change.

Nothing! And I checked 5 orders from today and yesterday against 5 from beginning of this month..

[BeccaHemmings]

I am having the same problem - but it seems to have only started on the 25th September. Only just noticed it today!
This (Paypal orders sitting in 'pending' even though the payment has been recieved in paypal) has happened before, but very rarely. I discovered it when a customer called to find out where their order is, I say it appears they haven't paid, and then find out they have!! Embarassing...
I couldn't put a start time on this problem, but it was so rare (as in 2-3 times a year!) that I didn't think much of it. Did anyone else experience this problem with Paypal before these orders went AWOL?

[Stuart J Sykes]

Here's the reply to my email from PAYPAL

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding IPN.

Mr. Sykes, I do regret to hear about this issue on your account and
website. Honestly I don’t have any record that Actinic has made contact
to PayPal, maybe because I don’t work for the technical department,
hence I don’t have access to such information.

Please you can get this issue looked into by our technical team by
logging a ticket via www.paypal.com/mts, and click on the contact
support link, and fill out the fields there and a technician will take a
look at the issue and resolve it for you.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter and regret any
inconvenience this might have caused.

Anyway....at least we now know how to contact PAYPAL with this issue

[Fairyglass]

I contacted Paypal using the link above last night and received this response this morning:

"Hello Ben,

The problem is not with how PayPal is posting the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) posts to your script. The problem is with the script itself. The IPN posts that are sent out are the same as ever. There have been absolutely no changes made to how we post out the script. If there was a change this problem would be affecting more than just Actinic users.

We have received multiple contacts about this and there isn't anything wrong with what we're posting back. None of the variables we're posting back have changed and neither has the post back system itself. The IPN posts are the exact same as before. It doesn't matter the server configuration if you're using the same script and Actinic uses the same IPN script for each installation.
We don't have access to the connection logs to your IPN script or access to the script itself so we cannot help the Actinic developer's resolve the problem.

I apologize for the inconvenience but please contact Actinic for further assistance."

Over to Actinic, I guess...