Blank page after donation

Hi, here is my log which contains many Session already exists errors followed by a successful one…

[Seamless Donations Log Data]
2015-12-10 00:06:15 PHP Version: 5.4.42
2015-12-10 00:06:15 Seamless Donations Version: 4.0.13
2015-12-10 00:06:15 User browser: Chrome 47.0.2526.73
2015-12-10 00:06:15 IPN: https://stevenunruhe.com/wp-content/plugins/seamless-donations/dgx-donate-paypalstd-ipn.php
2015-12-10 00:06:15 Payment process nonce 436f435916 validated.
2015-12-10 00:06:15 Session ID retrieved from _POST: 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 00:06:15 Looking for pre-existing session data (guid/audit db mode): 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 00:06:15 Session data already exists, returning false
2015-12-10 01:07:45 —————————————-
2015-12-10 01:07:45 DONATION TRANSACTION STARTED
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Test mode: A
2015-12-10 01:07:45 PHP Version: 5.4.42
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Seamless Donations Version: 4.0.13
2015-12-10 01:07:45 User browser: Chrome 47.0.2526.73
2015-12-10 01:07:45 IPN: https://stevenunruhe.com/wp-content/plugins/seamless-donations/dgx-donate-paypalstd-ipn.php
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Payment process nonce 436f435916 validated.
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Session ID retrieved from _POST: 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Looking for pre-existing session data (guid/audit db mode): 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 01:07:45 Session data already exists, returning false
2015-12-10 01:09:23 —————————————-
2015-12-10 01:09:23 DONATION TRANSACTION STARTED
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Test mode: A
2015-12-10 01:09:23 PHP Version: 5.4.42
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Seamless Donations Version: 4.0.13
2015-12-10 01:09:23 User browser: Chrome 47.0.2526.73
2015-12-10 01:09:23 IPN: https://stevenunruhe.com/wp-content/plugins/seamless-donations/dgx-donate-paypalstd-ipn.php
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Payment process nonce 436f435916 validated.
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Session ID retrieved from _POST: 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Looking for pre-existing session data (guid/audit db mode): 7CE7855E-1542-7222-3789-F88AF9AC7618
2015-12-10 01:09:23 Session data already exists, returning false
2015-12-10 01:31:40 —————————————-
2015-12-10 01:31:40 PREPARING DONATION FORM
2015-12-10 01:31:40 Seamless Donations Version: 4.0.13
2015-12-10 01:31:40 User browser: Safari 9.0.1
2015-12-10 01:31:40 Assigning hidden field session ID to 97779F7B-8F29-8CF4-67D0-D3BBBFA0C440
2015-12-10 01:31:40 Form action: https://stevenunruhe.com/wp-content/plugins/seamless-donations/seamless-donations-payment.php
2015-12-10 01:32:09 —————————————-
2015-12-10 01:32:09 DONATION TRANSACTION STARTED
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Test mode: A
2015-12-10 01:32:09 PHP Version: 5.4.42
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Seamless Donations Version: 4.0.13
2015-12-10 01:32:09 User browser: Safari 9.0.1
2015-12-10 01:32:09 IPN: https://stevenunruhe.com/wp-content/plugins/seamless-donations/dgx-donate-paypalstd-ipn.php
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Payment process nonce ccb91c89a5 validated.
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Session ID retrieved from _POST: 97779F7B-8F29-8CF4-67D0-D3BBBFA0C440
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Looking for pre-existing session data (guid/audit db mode): 97779F7B-8F29-8CF4-67D0-D3BBBFA0C440
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Duplicate session data not found. Payment process data assembly can proceed.
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Success URL: https://stevenunruhe.com/donations/?thanks=true
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Saving transaction data using guid/audit db mode
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Name: Marcus Hesse
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Amount: 5
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Preparation complete. Entering PHP post code.
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Checking for repeat. REPEAT value is [].
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Computed RETURN value: 'https://stevenunruhe.com/donations/?thanks=true'
2015-12-10 01:32:09 Redirecting to PayPal… now!

I’m only seeing one form load, so I can’t tell if you’re not getting fresh session IDs. Session IDs should always be fresh unless something is preventing them from computing new data on the page. Usually, that’s caching of some sort or the other and it’s almost always something out of the control of the plugin.

–David

Thank you so much for all that you do and your assistance. Your advice lead to fixing my issue!

You hit the nail on the head. You are correct about the log and every donation having the same session ID. So I looked into caching, and I found with GoDaddy that there isn’t a way to disable all caching – but there is a way to disable caching on a specific page – via this knowledge base article on GoDaddy’s support site:

https://www.godaddy.com/help/bypassing-your-managed-wordpress-cache-15894

When adding ?nocache=1 to the end of the donation URL (in this case https://stevenunruhe.com/donate/?nocache=1) the PayPal forwarding works every time in all browsers.

So I went ahead and edited my WordPress Menu options to send to the custom link of https://stevenunruhe.com/donate/?nocache=1 instead of just the normal Donate page.

Many people are on GoDaddy with the Seamless Donations I’m sure – perhaps would be good to include this revelation in a FAQ or with a “GoDaddy” support checkbox which adds the ?nocache=1 option.

For anyone on GoDaddy out there on the internet – you may also have this issue.

Thanks so much David!

– Marcus

Good catch in regards to identifying the problem.

This would solve the problem for anyone running the plugin on its own separate page, however, in our case we wanted to run the donation form on the home page of the site as well!

We could possibly do some convoluted htaccesss stuff, but at a high level that seems pretty impractical!

Seems like finding a different plugin or switching hosts would be a better high level fix. Unless I am missing something obvious.

There is definitely a difference between how hosts handle caching (beyond what you can select). I had to switch hosts for the shopping cart on my main site because I just couldn’t get the software to work properly on the original host.

Caching on a given host is universal to all the plugins, by which I mean that if one form has some problems, another might as well. However, since I give each form a unique ID as a way of tracking the transaction, and others may not use that mechanism, it might be possible to use another plugin and not hit that particular caching issue.

Good luck!

–David

Hello,

I’m having the same blank screen after you hit the “donate” button.

Here is the site: https://www.31forclimate.org/donate

Just for clarification – If I am hosting on Bluehost, am I going to have to figure out a solution with them? Related to Caching?

David, would you mind explaining to me the nature of this problem? I don’t understand well Caching, and how it related to connecting with paypal.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Marisa

Marisa, briefly (there are a few videos that explain it in detail, see the beginning of https://youtu.be/X8btdGoCw5E), each time the form loads, it generates a unique ID, which ties that form instance to the user. That’s a transaction ID and it travels all the way through the process, to PayPal, and back.

If there is a duplicate unique ID, that’s considered a failure condition, so it disposes of the payment request.

But caching means the form page isn’t updated, so sometimes you’ll get multiple pages, each using the same ID. And that causes a fail.

–David

Marcushe,

You did:

When adding ?nocache=1 to the end of the donation URL (in this case https://stevenunruhe.com/donate/?nocache=1) the PayPal forwarding works every time in all browsers.

How did you do this? I am hosting on godaddy. I tried creating a custom URL, but it hasn’t solved the problem. Where did you create the custom URL?

Thanks in advance,

Marisa

Hi Marissa I did the custom link to the direct page with the added ?nocache=1 suffix in two places – the menu bar editor where the menus are made, and then in the diplomat settings for the red “donate!” button. Hope this helps.