• Resolved sdarnowsky

    (@sdarnowsky)


    I first installed the GiveWP plug-in in 2017, but we never got around to using it. Now we’re ready, but having some trouble. For one thing, when I go to the page I created for the form back in 2017 and click Update, I get the following message: “Updating failed. The response is not a valid JSON response.” I notice that although the rest of the site uses WordPress classic, the GiveWP page is using blocks. I doubt that has anything to do with the error, or if this error will cause any problems with using the form, but I don’t want to make it live without knowing that everything will be OK.

    I also previewed the page and since I’m still in test mode, I thought I would try to make both PayPal and credit card donations. When I used PayPal, I got a message that said, “We can’t complete this donation. The receiver doesn’t have a valid PayPal account.” Is this because I’m in test mode, or is there a problem with the settings? The only thing the GiveWP settings asked for was the PayPal account email address, which I provided.

    When I tried to do a credit card donation, the GiveWP form displayed the following message: “The Stripe Gateway returned an error while processing the donation.” Again, is this because I’m in test mode?

    I just want to make sure everything is working properly before I present this functionality to our website visitors. (Incidentally, I am only moderately technical, so will need explicit steps to correct the problems if there are any.)

    Thanks so much!

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Author Matt Cromwell

    (@webdevmattcrom)

    HI there,

    There’s a lot of variation in how I might potentially be able to help, but with the detail you’ve provided I’d say I need to know a lot more in general before we can isolate what might be many different potential causes.

    Can you first make sure all your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are updated to their latest versions? That would help eliminate outdated plugins from the potential cause.

    But when I navigate to this Give form on your site, it looks like it’s functioning really well: https://cincinnatifriends.org/donations/cincinnati_friends_meeting

    I did a test donation, choosing PayPal as the option and had no problem being redirected to PayPal to complete the donation (which I did not do, but just confirmed it’s working).

    So it very well can be that there’s a Gutenberg-related problem on that page you have your donation form embedded on. I’d suggest creating a new page and try embedding with our GiveWP Block and also try using the Gutenberg shortcode block and use our [give_form] shortcode to test as well.

    Let me know how that goes for you. Thanks!

    Thread Starter sdarnowsky

    (@sdarnowsky)

    Thanks for responding! In spite of the JSON error, I decided to activate the page, make a couple donations myself, and see how it worked. (I later noticed on the GiveWP page that if I wanted to test the payment methods without actually making any payments, I would have to set up “sandbox” accounts for each gateway, and that seemed like a lot of trouble.) Anyway, the form worked great, and deposits went through, everything worked like a charm! (The credit card deposit is still labeled Pending, but I’m assuming that’s a bank thing rather than a GiveWP thing. If it doesn’t change to Completed in a week or so, I might post another issue!)

    Our Financial Secretary was a little concerned that the donor’s name didn’t immediately appear on the Donations page. Initially, it just showed as (donor missing) until I looked at the Details page for the transaction and manually added the person to the Donors list. We’re a small organization, so creating a Donor list of 40-50 people shouldn’t be too onerous, but if there’s an automated way of doing it, that would be wonderful!

    Plugin Author Matt Cromwell

    (@webdevmattcrom)

    Glad to hear it! The “Pending” issue is common with Stripe, you have one more thing to do there, and that’s to set your “Webhook” so that Stripe can tell GiveWP what the status is and GiveWP knows how to handle that communication.

    See our docs on that here:
    https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/stripe-free/

    Thanks!

    Thread Starter sdarnowsky

    (@sdarnowsky)

    Thanks for the link to the documentation! I had created the webhook, but neglected to set it to receive all events. Now that that’s done, we should be good to go! Thanks you so much!

    Hi Matt,
    Can I piggyback on this thread with the same issue for test transactions?

    I’m getting the same error using PayPal sandbox ‘personal’ credentials.

    Test mode = enabled
    Transaction type = donation
    PayPal IPN Verification = enabled
    Plugins and WP = current
    I’ve disabled all 8 plugins to rule out potential conflicts
    I’ve disabled all caching settings that I have access to (plugins and hosting access to DNS Zone).
    The page is built using Elementor’s shortcode with, [give_form id=”101″]

    I’m also experiencing “pending” problems with Stripe, if that provides a clue that I’m doing something wrong on my end (perfectly feasible).

    I’ve ready as much online documentation that I can find, including YT videos and I haven’t found an applicable solution yet. ANY advice would be welcome ??

    I hate to admit this but my PayPal problem had to do with me not using my sandbox ‘business’ email in my GiveWP PayPal settings.

    As for my “Pending” woes, turns out that that had to do with my hosting account’s CDN caching settings (downgraded from “Advanced” to “simple”).

    Total user error! ??

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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