Paypal Express Checkout - Special Characters Problem

[zgap111]

Using Paypal Express:

When details from Paypal are transferred back to Sellerdeck website,
any special characters eg. �, �, �, �, �, �, �, �, �, �
are received back to Sellerdeck incorrectly

eg.
Paypal Shows: Sch�tte-Lanz-Stra�e
Sellerdeck receive as: Schütte-Lanz-Stra�?e

It is received incorrectly at checkout... so subsequent emails etc all have the corrupted text...
- and we have to email everytime to ask for the correct address...

SD Support has not helped... currenlty I've submitted a ticket with Paypal MTS...

Anyone had this problem?

[guccij]

Yes it's been a problem since the link with PayPal Express was launched and I have reported it before. Last week an order from Greece came as complete Gobbledegook (see below). If PayPal can do it properly why can't Sellerdeck?

ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΥ ΧΑΤΖΗΔΑΚΗ 15 ΑΘΗΝΑ

[zgap111]

Thanks for responding... at least I know it's not just me that's having this problem...

I don't think the gibberish is random... but without a proper table to translate it, it's gibberish to us (I remember we used to have ASCII codes on the Sellerdeck emails, and the ASCII table helped...)

The last meaningful response from SD support was this:

Ok it looks like there are two problems here: -

1. A PayPal issue to do proper encoding
2. Once PayPal encodes it, we need to handle that encoding

PayPal should ensure that the input data is acceptable when entered and then properly encode it for transmission to the merchant's server.
At this point we can determine if we handle the characters properly, although in honesty is it unlikely as the software is Latin based.

Obviously one we can deal with, the other we cannot. I have found an existing wish list item for this ([1]WL-749) to which I will add a field report for this ticket.

Paypal MTS advised there is a "Paypal Button Language Encoding" setting, which I found...

- our encoding was set on Windows-12xx, and MTS advised to change to UTF-8... changing it made no difference...
- I've relayed that info to Paypal MTS
- I've also advised SD support and asked what should the encoding be from Paypal... waiting.

[MattSMR]

UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 is what I'd expect to see used zgap.

This has not impacted us as of yet, but it'll only be a matter of time!

[Mike Hughes]

This thread on a different forum ( I can't post a working link as the forum removes the word of a competitor in the url) suggests you may need to set the language to UTF-8 in paypal as follows

PayPal Account Setting



Go to "My Account" -> "Profile" -> "My selling tools" -> "PayPal button language encoding"



Then setup



Your website's language: Western European Languages (including English)



click the "more options" button and set Encoding to UTF-8.

Below where it says "Do you want to use the same encoding for data sent from PayPal to you (e.g., IPN, downloadable logs, emails)?"

tick the "Yes" checkbox.

Click "Save" and logout of your PayPal account.

and then decode the UTF-8 in PERL before using the variables.

[guccij]

That's incredibly helpful, thank you Mike. However I don't understand this part or how to make any PERL changes

and then decode the UTF-8 in PERL before using the variables.

I'm also am not sure why we are having to make the changes when it's a Sellerdeck issue.

[guccij]

Actually I can't find anything in our PayPal account set up which mentions anything to do with PayPal buttons and language encoding. So I'm back to square 1.

[zgap111]

See image of where I found that button...

I am set for UTF-8... problem persists.
Just tried ISO-8859-1... problem persists...

and then decode the UTF-8 in PERL before using the variables.

How?

[Mike Hughes]

I don't think this will work without doing the utf-8 decoding of the data once it get's to sellerdeck.

It's not clear where this is done but it looks to me as if it's in the OrderScript Perl as it seems paypal express bypasses the standard PSP scripts.

This is something Sellerdeck should really do and release. I'm just trying to give pointers if someone who knows what they're doing wants to give it a try. The decode function is a fairly standard Perl function so once we know where it goes it's not that complicated a piece of coding. Still something Sellerdeck should really do though.

In essence, 'All' you have to do is decode the data as it's passed back into the Sellerdeck variables.

Mike

[zgap111]

Paypal MTS replied today:

Our servers do show the correct encoding/format in the GetExpressCheckout Response. When there is an issue with special characters, the problem appears on multiple merchants.
In this case, we cannot see issue. Please get in touch with your developer/admin to see why the Shipping Address is not showing special characters appropriately.

It's a Sellerdeck problem according to Paypal...

[Mike Hughes]

It's a Sellerdeck problem according to Paypal...

I'd agree with that.

[guccij]

See image of where I found that button...

Thank you!

[zgap111]

Paypal today advised:

that is not what our server is responding your API requests with. This is what your system is formatting on your side.

Please check your server logs for parsing issues, the issue is not from PayPal's encoding.

I don't think I'm going to get more out of Paypal...

[guccij]

Thank you for trying. It would be seriously helpful if someone from Sellerdeck could get stuck into this.

[zgap111]

They did say this

Obviously one we can deal with, the other we cannot. I have found an existing wish list item for this ([1]WL-749) to which I will add a field report for this ticket.

I don't know what that wish is for...
If it is to fix this... it's a little annoying it's not down as a bug
(I assume bugs are higher priority to be fixed...)