NSN Paypal Integration post 1.61 with Raven Nuke

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 9:50 am

I have noticed some pretty extensive changes that needed to be made in the NSN Paypal 1.61 - most appear due to Paypal IPN changes that were made, some may be Raven Nuke related - and some may just be me. I was wondering if anyone out there is still successfully using this module under Raven Nuke?

I have the Subscription portion of it working under RN, and will be going back to tweak the Payment module next - anyone else out there using this?

-sting

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:17 am

I started with it, but I only used the code to get started with. And honestly the code in there is not that much different than what you can download from the Paypal site. I used the payment part.

Given the pace of change on Paypal unless a module like this is actively supported I really think you'd be better off just going to Paypal and getting their code. You are going to have to monitor their forums anyway to keep the scripts running properly.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:40 am

How often have you found their changes to occur? I ended up with a hybrid - some of the nsn group logic had to be re-worked to account for the paypal changes but other than that they were minor changes on the paypal end from what I could tell.

-sting

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 1:28 pm

I haven't worked on my module in almost a year so my memory is failing in terms of numbers of changes. I just recall that I had to spend a lot of time going thru the Paypal documentation and reading their Forums to get my application to work the way I wanted. There are extensive variable lists, for instance, that you can download and read. And there are PHP coding samples which are quite similar to NSNpaypal.

Like you, I used nsnpaypal as a base and it is very inexpensive and worth every penny. My only concern is that people may think they can get by without spending much time on the PAYPAL site and that's not true in my experience. Just getting the accounts set up there and getting your sandbox working for testing can be complicated and they are things you need to do.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 1:52 pm

I've had to tweak my customized Nuke Treasury code at least twice in two years because of Paypal changes. I love how they just make the change on their end without any kind of announcement or updating their PDF documenatation.

I suggested they start an RSS feed for API changes but my suggestion apparently fell on deaf ears.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:15 pm

I actually saw an RSS feed on the developers site, but not specific to the API changes of course.

What a pain. I can't imagine what places with multiple online storefronts do when these hit. .

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:25 pm

I noticed a difference between the NSN version of the post statements and the ones from Paypal - basically the old NSN one uses

Code:

$HTTP_POST_VARS['variable'];

where as the Paypal scripts only use

Code:

 $_POST['variable']

Know of any reason for the difference or was that one of the many Paypal changes of late?

-sting

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:28 pm

fkelly wrote:

I haven't worked on my module in almost a year so my memory is failing in terms of numbers of changes. I just recall that I had to spend a lot of time going thru the Paypal documentation and reading their Forums to get my application to work the way I wanted. There are extensive variable lists, for instance, that you can download and read. And there are PHP coding samples which are quite similar to NSNpaypal.

Like you, I used nsnpaypal as a base and it is very inexpensive and worth every penny. My only concern is that people may think they can get by without spending much time on the PAYPAL site and that's not true in my experience. Just getting the accounts set up there and getting your sandbox working for testing can be complicated and they are things you need to do.

You know - I got so irritated with the sandbox that I reverted to testing things out by charging .01 for my item or subscription and just refunding when I was done with all the testing. It gave me live data - granted refunding gets old. . .lol.

-sting

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:01 pm

I think that HTTP_POST_VARS was the old way of doing things in PHP. _POST supercedes it.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:03 pm

sting wrote:

I actually saw an RSS feed on the developers site, but not specific to the API changes of course.

Exactly. They told me that they have a developer's blog with an RSS feed, but if you go check it, it is just about how much fun they are having at some developer's conference or irrelevant things like that. Razz