Tips and Tricks HQ Forum » Forum: WP eStore F.A.Q/Instructions

Tips and Tricks HQ Forum » Forum: WP eStore F.A.Q/Instructions - Recent Topics http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/forum/wp-estore-faq Support Forum for Tips and Tricks HQ Products en-US Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:14:07 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/search.php apeterka on "Renewal or double pay questions" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/renewal-or-double-pay-questions#post-28934 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:05:58 +0000 apeterka 28934@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ I'm using Buy Now buttons and thinking about having the membership level attached expire in 1 year. When a member renews via eStore prior to their original expiration date, does the renewal begin when the first membership ends, or does it begin at the time of renewal? And a possibly related question: What happens if I have a 1 yr membership duration set and a member decides to process a payment twice? Would that extend their membership to two years? Power Kitten on "Displaying Shopping Cart" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/displaying-shopping-cart#post-28724 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:34:33 +0000 Power Kitten 28724@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ Hello How do I get a shopping cart to display? At the moment, customers click on the buy button on the product page and it goes straight to PayPal. I am sure when I first started with eStore that I could see the cart when I made a test purchase, but it seems no more! I must have checked or unchecked something along the way... Hope someone can help, as I'm very keen to use the shipping variation option for international sales. I am assuming that these shipping options only show up on a shopping cart page, as opposed to within PayPal. Thanks! momentum34 on "When filling in estore general settings, what do I put in "checkout Page" box" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/when-filling-in-estore-general-settings-what-do-i-put-in-checkout-page-box#post-28647 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:10:22 +0000 momentum34 28647@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ Hello, I am going through the setup in the estore general setting section and there is a "Checkout Page" and then an empty box. What am I suppose to put there? Right now my website is set up to use Paypal Merchant Standard. Is "checkout page" a different page I can create? amin007 on "PHP Session not working correctly" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/php-session-not-working-correctly#post-4181 Sat, 15 May 2010 09:14:44 +0000 amin007 4181@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ 1. Issue Related to PHP Session Occasionally a server may not have it's PHP session configured correctly. Please note that you won't be able to use a shopping cart software without the PHP session working correctly. It is your hosting provider's responsibility to give you a server where the PHP session is setup properly. Making the PHP session to work is a very easy task. You mainly have to make sure the following two things are in place: 1) Check if your server's PHP config is set to allow sessions. 2) Check to make sure the session save path has been configured correctly. This is just a matter of adding a line similar to the following in the php.ini file: <code>session.save_path = /tmp</code> It is best to contact your hosting provider so they can do this for you. All you have to do is request them to fix the PHP session issue on your server and they should know what to do. 2. Issue Related to incorrect Server Setup Please check this article that explains how this issue can come from incorrect server setup (check the 2nd point): <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/paypal-says-your-shopping-cart-is-empty" rel="nofollow">http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/paypal-says-your-shopping-cart-is-empty</a> How To Find Out If You Are Having a PHP Session Issue This simple test should help you identify if you are having PHP Session issue on your server. Step 0: Make sure to empty the cache and deactivate any caching plugin before you do this test. Step 1: Add a product to the shopping cart (Check to make sure that the item is in the cart) Step 2: Now browse to a different page on your site (any page will do). Step 3: Go back to the page where you have your shopping cart that shows you the items in your cart. Can you see still the item that you added in step 1? If you can see the item in the cart after step 3 then your PHP Session is most likely working fine. If you cannot see the item the cart after step 3 then that means your PHP Session is not storing the data like it is supposed to. The PHP session is losing the value when you do another operation (step 2 in this case). admin on "WP eStore - Automatically Shorten the Encrypted Download Link" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/wp-estore-automatically-shorten-the-encrypted-download-link#post-27862 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:34:33 +0000 admin 27862@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ You can shorten the eStore's encrypted download link and then deliver the shortened link to your customers. To enable this option please do the following: 1. Open "eStore_advanced_configs.php" file and search for this line of code: <pre><code>define('WP_ESTORE_AUTO_SHORTEN_DOWNLOAD_LINKS', false);</code></pre> Once you find it, change it the following (basically change the "false" value to "true"): <pre><code>define('WP_ESTORE_AUTO_SHORTEN_DOWNLOAD_LINKS', true);</code></pre> This will make it so that the encrypted download links will be shortened using Google's URL Shortener service and given to your customers. admin on "Force a File to Download Instead of Showing Up in the Browser" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/force-a-file-to-download-instead-of-showing-up-in-the-browser#post-27822 Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:44:26 +0000 admin 27822@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ <h3>How Browsers Work With File Downloads</h3> Usually when a user goes to a file URL (for example: a download link), the file will show in the browser if the browser supports it. Image files like jpg, png, gif etc. will almost always show in the browser. Archive files like zip, tar, gzip etc. will always be downloaded. Some file types show up in some browsers but not others depending of if the browser can read the file or not. For example, Internet Explorer (IE) will usually try to show Microsoft Word files (doc and docx) in the browser, while most other browsers will download it. Google Chrome has its own PDF converter and it will try to convert a PDF file and render it in the browser. The key thing to understand is that some browsers maybe able to read a particular file type based on the addons you have installed for that browser while others may not be able to. If a browser can read the file type it will show it in the browser. If the browser cannot read a file type it will force a download to the hard disk. Usually this is not an issue since the users can save the file to there computer after it is shown in the browser. <h3>How to Force a File Download For All My Files </h3> Some users prefer that all the files should be forced downloaded (no showing in the browser). There are a few things you can do to ensure that. Option 1: The easiest solution is to put your file (example: a PDF file) inside a zip file if possible (If you are using the <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wp-pdf-stamper-plugin-2332">PDF Stamper</a> plugin then you can't do this unfortunately). Browsers cannot read zip file so it will force a download. Most computer users know to unzip the file and get the content from inside. Option 2: Most browsers have a settings where it lets the users specify if they want to force download a certain type of files (for example: a pdf file). You can instruct your users to use this option if you think it will help them (again this is common knowledge and most internet users know this). Option 3: You can add the following lines of code in your .htaccess file of your server to force a download of a particular file type from your server (in this example it is for PDF file types): <pre><code><FilesMatch "\.(?i:pdf)$"> ForceType application/octet-stream Header set Content-Disposition attachment </FilesMatch></code></pre> You can change "pdf" to any other file type based on your need (example: doc). admin on "Product Categorization Options in WP eStore Plugin" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/product-categorization-options-in-wp-estore-plugin#post-23895 Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:56:00 +0000 admin 23895@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ Two main options are: 1. Use eStore categories only or 2. Use WordPress categories Option 1: Use eStore Categories Only Create categories for your products from the "Categories" menu of eStore. For each category create a WordPress post or page and enter the following shortcode there: <pre><code>[wp_eStore_category_products:category_id:1:end]</code></pre> Replace 1 with the actual category ID There are other shortcodes that you can also use to display products from a particular category, check the shortcodes list documentation. When you are done, you can use the following shortcode on your "Store" or "Products" page to display a list of all your categories. This lets your visitors browse your store based on the category they are interested in. Each category will be linked to the respective category page where all the products from that category is displayed: <pre><code>[wp_eStore_list_categories]</code></pre> or Use the following shortcode that lists all the categories in your store using a fancy display: <pre><code>[wp_eStore_list_categories_fancy]</code></pre> Check the eStore shortcodes reference documentation for a list of available shortcodes: <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460" rel="nofollow">http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460</a> Option 2: Use WordPress Categories For this method you need to have a separate post for each product (you can use custom post types too if you want). Simply create a WordPress post for each product and place the product details and a buy button on that post. Then add this post to a category like you normally would for any WordPress post. When you are done you will end up with a lot of posts (each post being a product) and categories. Now, you just place a WordPress category list on your "Store" page so that your visitors can browse your store/products. markluchauer on "How to make a Free Download?" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/how-to-make-a-free-download#post-16063 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:36:08 +0000 markluchauer 16063@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ I would like to offer a Free Download using WP-Estore. I have tried the following options and neither work: 1. Make product price $0.00 2. Create coupon for 100% off In both situations, Paypal will not checkout the item and says, "Please enter an amount greater than zero." Any suggestions on how to offer a free download using WP-Estore? Thank you! amin007 on "How and When to Enable Debug and What does it do?" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/how-and-when-to-enable-debug-and-what-does-it-do#post-2096 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:46:40 +0000 amin007 2096@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ What does enable debug do? Once someone makes a payment, PayPal sends a payment notification (IPN) to the WP eStore plugin's post payment processing script. The plugin then does a range of verification checks and perform the post payment work (e.g. send emails to the customers, award affiliate commission, update stock quantities etc). When the debug is enabled the plugin will log every step of the post payment processing tasks in a log file which can be analyzed to find out any failures that maybe stopping the plugin from completing the full post payment processing steps. When to enable debug? Basically, if something is not functioning as expected after the payment is made on PayPal (e.g. emails are not getting sent out) it is a good idea to enable debug and perform a test transaction so you can analyze the log file to identify the issue. How to Enable Debug? Simply check the "Enable Debug" checkbox from the "Testing and Debugging Settings" section of the eStore's settings page and save the settings. It is also a good idea to use the "Reset Debug Log Files" button to reset your debug files before doing the test transaction so you can capture a clean debug output from the transaction you are about to do. Where to find this Log file? After you have ran a transaction with debug enabled, you will most likely want to check the log file. You can access all the log files from the settings menu of the eStore plugin (Check under the "Debugging and Testing" section of the settings menu. If you are doing a transaction testing then the debug files you want to look for are: - ipn_handle_debug.log - eStore_post_payment_debug.log - subscription_handle_debug.log (for membership payment) All the debug files are stored in this plugin's (wp-cart-for-digital-product) directory in case you want to manually check them using FTP. Look for the word "Failure" in that file and it will tell you exactly what is failing. If you need a hand with understanding/reading the file let us know and we should be able to guide you. When contacting us for an issue related to this please send us the debug file or your website address. How do You Know if You are Looking at New Debug info or Old Debug info? Ideally you should be resetting the debug file by emptying out the content of the debug file so that you have a fresh file to look at. If you forgot to do this or you don't want to do this then use the date and timestamp value in the debug file to determine the freshness of the debug info. Each debug line in the debug file has a date and timestamp value which should help you identify if certain debug info is new or old (from a previous transaction). What to do if the Log file is empty or new debug is not getting added to the file? The following post will tell you what to do if the debug log file is empty even after running a transaction with debug enabled. <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/what-to-do-if-the-debug-file-is-empty" rel="nofollow">http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/what-to-do-if-the-debug-file-is-empty</a> amin007 on "What to do if the Debug file is empty or New Debug info is not getting added" http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/what-to-do-if-the-debug-file-is-empty#post-2099 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:42:40 +0000 amin007 2099@http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/ If you are trying to troubleshoot a problem by running the plugin with the debug enabled option but not getting any output in the debug log file (ipn_handle_debug.log) then follow the steps outlined in this post. Not sure what "Enable Debug" mean? Read this post first that explains what enable debug option does: <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/how-and-when-to-enable-debug-and-what-does-it-do" rel="nofollow">http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/how-and-when-to-enable-debug-and-what-does-it-do</a> Debug File Empty Troubleshooting Checklist Step 1: First, check to make sure that you have turned debug on from the settings menu of the WP eStore plugin. If the "Enable Debug" checkbox is not checked then the plugin won't write to the log file. If step 1 is not the issue then move to step 2. Step 2: Check that the "Use Automatic Post Payment Processing" checkbox is checked in the settings menu of the eStore plugin. If this option is not checked then the plugin won't tell PayPal to send the IPN and no post payment processing will happen, hence no debug output. If this is not the issue then continue to step 3. Step 3: Make sure you don't have any "Maintenance Mode" or "Coming Soon" type plugin active. These type of plugins will block the payment notifications sent by PayPal so the plugin will never receive any notification after a payment and nothing will happen. Step 4: Now lets check to make sure that the plugin is not facing any permission issue when trying to write to this file. Access the "paypal.php" file that is stored in this plugin's directory (wp-cart-for-digital-product) directly from a browser. The URL should be something similar to the following: <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-cart-for-digital-products/paypal.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.yoursite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-cart-for-digital-products/paypal.php</a> change "yoursite.com" to the domain name of your site. When you enter that URL in the browsers address bar you should see the following line: <code>Debug is enabled. Check the ipn_handle_debug.log file for debug output.</code> Accessing the "paypal.php" file directly will trigger the plugin to write something in the debug file so lets check the "ipn_handle_debug.log" file again. If the file is still blank then it would mean that the debug log file "ipn_handle_debug.log" doesn't have write permission. Give it write permission. On the other hand if you see some content in the debug log file then we do not have any file permission issue... move to step 5. Step 5: Now the options get narrowed down to... a) something is blocking the PayPal IPN. b) Your paypal profile is not set correctly to send the IPN. If you have a paypal sandbox account then we can rule out option a) by doing another simple test. Log into your paypal sandbox account and go to the IPN simulator test tools page at the following URL: <a href="https://developer.paypal.com/cgi-bin/devscr?cmd=_ipn-link-session" rel="nofollow">https://developer.paypal.com/cgi-bin/devscr?cmd=_ipn-link-session</a> Enter the URL from step 3 (URL of the paypal.php file) in the "IPN handler URL" field and select "Web Accept" from the transaction type drop down menu. Now hit send IPN button and see if you get any failure. If you receive an error message saying the "IPN sending failed" then that could mean that something on your server is blocking paypal's IPN (maybe your servers firewall or a plugin is blocking it). If the IPN was sent successfully then check the debug log file explained in step 3 and make sure that there is a new entry in the file for the IPN that was just sent to the plugin. Step 6: At this point there is only one possible cause left. You may have specified to not receive IPN in your PayPal profile. Please check the "Instant Payment Notification Preferences" settings in your PayPal profile to make sure you have IPN enabled in your account. See the following post to make sure your PayPal profile settings are correct too: <a href="http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/wp-estore-and-paypal-profile-settings" rel="nofollow">http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forum/topic/wp-estore-and-paypal-profile-settings</a>