Pay with Paypal without a Paypal account

[Darkest Web]

Using VM 1.1.5.  Using Paypal API New . I can't for the life of me figure out why when users are redirected to paypal they are not given the option to pay without an account.  I've checked all of my customers paypal account settings and they are set to allow unverified users.  Could someone offer me any suggestions.  Should I have my client contact Paypal and see if they have it turned off on their account or could this be something related to the VM paypal payment module?  I've searched here and havn't really found anything other than someone who said they reinstalled and everything is working now.  This however did not work for me.

[antwaing]

I'm trying to find the same answer.  Any look?

[klattr1]

I am having the same issues too.

[TimDavis]

I have the same problem. This is what pay pal sent me but I do not know how or where to make the correction.(Thank you for contacting Merchant Services.
Your website is using Express Checkout as the payment method.
When you are using the Express Checkout payment method, by default the buyers can only pay by logging in to their PayPal account. To allow card payments within PayPal's page you'd need to send the variable:
SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole
in your initial SetExpressCheckout API request.
Looking in your account logs, it appears that your website is not sending this value:
Timestamp Jan. 23, 2011 15:04:31 GMT (1295795071)
SetExpressCheckoutRequest
SOLUTIONTYPE
Sole: Buyer does not need to create a PayPal account to check out. This is referred to as PayPal Account Optional.
Mark: Buyer must have a PayPal account to check out.
It may be simply a matter of changing an option in your internal website administration page, but please seek the assistance of VirtueMart on this matter.
As a workaround, you can just use a PayPal Standard module, where the credit card option only depends on your account having the "PayPal Account Optional" feature enabled.

[Darkest Web]

No I still have not got this working.  I've had to force the paypal api new to use express checkout to avoid the credit card errors associated with the module at this time so I'm not sure I'll be able to make it use guest checkout by using the information above.  Quite frustrating.

[cristian607]

Hello,

I am looking for the same thing. From this thread I understand that this is not currently supported by VirtueMart; php code modification of VirtueMart is required to make this work, right?

Best regards,
CS.

[zanardi]

@cristian607:
yes i think so. Unfortunately, PayPal API module was made by an external source and we ourselves don't know all its features and issues. Of course, it being open source, any good PHP developer should be able to tell for sure.

[cristian607]

But this module is the most commonly used in production as PayPal integration gateway, right? Or should I use PayPal legacy instead?

I have just installed XDebug and I'll take a look tomorrow at it more closely.

Best regards,
CS.

[zanardi]

Well, it is a relatively new payment method, it was introduced hurriedly (and against my will :-) ) less then 9 months ago, last July. It is surely better than Legacy from a "features" point of view, but Legacy is more stable since is older.
Anyway, we'll try to fix every issue with due time, so please feel free to report bugs and, even better, propose code fixes.
Thank you!

[cristian607]

Thanks for your reply.

I think I will use the old method, which seems more stable indeed and easier to debug in case of problems.

I think that one of the major features is the possibility to integrate with PayPal Website Payments Pro (without having a PayPal redirect/UI). For the moment I won't use this.

Best regards,
CS.

[jnovice1]

On VM 1.1.8 I made the following change to allow no paypal account payment:

File to modify:
\administrator\components\com_virtuemart\classes\payment\ps_paypal_api.php

Find the following code:

Code Select Expand

$resArray=hash_call("SetExpressCheckout",$nvpstr);

Add the following code right above the previous found code:

Code Select Expand

$nvpstr .= "&SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole" . "&LANDINGPAGE=Billing";

[Dog_Guy]

being completely new to VM and not a programmer, I would have thought that the universal payment option of paypal would have been the first thing coded right for a shopping cart application?

From this thread it appears that in 2011 that it still doesnt work properly? Or can I use whatever was loaded with VM and it will work OK?

[fearless924]

Is there an answer for this?  I'm using 1.1.8 and the issue is still coming up.  Has anyone got this to work?

[cristian607]

I think that for the moment it's more productive to use the old/legacy PayPal interface. At least this is what I did, because it's simpler and easier to modify/debug in case of problems.

Regards,
Cristian.

[Dog_Guy]

I am using VM 1.1.8 too.

I am using this because I want a shopping cart. I am not a programmer, and with little explanation between the difference between paypal modules I took other thread advice to use the API version. I got the info for the config screen but like everyone else am getting errors.

I have unpublished the pp api version, but at least that had keys etc that hook up with the pp site. SO how does legacy work? what payment type do you select in the config screens etc?  Why does the 'payment Extra info' screen just have lines of code rather than comments?

I think if this application is going to be considered seriously in the wider community, fundamentals like pp payment need to work and documentation must be simple, programming needs to be minimal. What did earlier version look like if this doesnt work?

Sorry if this seems like a rant, but it has consumed too many weeks of my time already, with no genuine answers. So many questions, and so little programming ability. I just want make a shop and to get paid, dont we all? Thank you to anyone who contributes towards getting this issue fixed!

I have registered for the sandbox but dont see a lot of step by step info in vm as to how this works.

With the std settings I have tried to check out with the legacy version. I have it TEST setting mode - is that the same as SANDBOX???

Amazingly it works up to the point that it sends me to the paypal site asking me to put in a password for the faux customer that i was logged in as on my site.

However as this is https://www.paypal.com and not the sandbox site, I am thinking that this is for real and not a test?

as they say in hangover 2. WHAT IS GOING ON ?!?

will keep searching searching searching ...

IF (and only IF) legacy works, what does the API version do better (IF it was working).