The language code for the PayPal site is defined in the button using a hidden field.

So for English language use
<input type=’hidden’ name=’lc’ value=’US’ />

Possible values are France(FR), Spain (ES), Italy (IT), Germany (DE), China (CN), English (US).

The customer should hopefully see the login page in the defined language.

To change the language code, go to the file ipnfunction.php open in a text editor and you should see the default language code of
<input type=’hidden’ name=’lc’ value=’US’ />

Change the value to what ever code you require and upload the file back to your server.

With PHP-eSeller, PHP-SecureArea or PHP-KeyCodes, if you get an error during installation where the admin keeps on logging out, it is usually because there is an issue with session variables on your server.

First check using the test file a_session_test.php  When the page is first loaded there will be a link, click the link and it should say ‘Welcome back’.  If it does not, then it means there is a sessions issue on your server.

There could be a number of reasons for this, usually it is caused by a configuration problem on the server.  There should be a folder on the server which is used to store sessions and somtimes the host has not set this correctly.  Or it could be that it is a shared server and the server does not know the path.

Contact your hosting and ask them to investigate.

Sometimes they will reply that you include the following code at the top of any PHP script that uses sessions:

session_save_path(“path to session folder”);

If you use session_save_path on the page that registers a variable, you have also to use session_save_path on all the pages, where you access the session-variable. Under win32 you can use the double \\ to specify eg “c:\\temp\\”

This is possible to do but is not really practical.

If they do reply with the above, it is worth asking them again to check the php.ini configuration and also ask if there is a global method where you can set the path and where you do not have to change every instance in the application.

One possible solution is to set the session.save_path in an .htaccess file.  You may not have access to the php.ini file so this may be the way to do it.  You can do that in the .htaccess file, which is kind of configuration file for Apache, and put it in your root web folder. 

If you add :

php_value session.save_path /home/groups/f/f4/f4l/tmp/

where the folder name is the absolute path to the folder.  You should be able to get the absolute path by logging into your control panel.

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is the method that PayPal uses to automatically notify a defined web page when a PayPal payment has been made. For a complete description refer to the PayPal IPN Manual which you can find on the http://www.paypal.com/ipn site.

The principle that PayPal uses is as follows : You first create a PayPal ‘buy now’ button and place it on your web page or create the buttons dynamically from a database. When someone clicks on your ‘buy now’ button, (or ‘proceed to checkout’ button in the case of a shopping cart system), PayPal posts data to the web page you defined during IPN set up. Your web page must then respond back to the paypal site.

After PayPal has confirmed the payment, it posts data back to your web page. Your web page then sends the data back to PayPal to act as a security handshake. Then PayPal will send ‘completed’ if payment has been correctly completed.

Once ‘completed’ has been received by your web page, you process the data in whatever way you want. The IPN method provides a relativly simple method of checking when a purchase has been made but remaining secure. The handshake principle of IPN makes it impossible to trick a web site that payment has been completed.

For digital goods, PHP-eSeller takes the IPN data from PayPal, carries out security checks to make sure the details are correct, then emails the purchaser with a username/password, all without any intervention by yourself. The purchaser is then able to login to a secure area where they can download their items.

The list of items which the purchaser sees does not have any urls as that could compromise the security. The list is made up of buttons which are then translated into filenames by PHP.

The purchaser only sees the files he has purchased and cannot access the file in any other way.

For physical goods the processing is not as complicated. It checks the details received from PayPal, sends a confirmation email to the purchaser if there are no problems, and stores the sales details in the database. Obviously, there is no login process required for physical goods.

An eCheck is when the customer only has a bank account, and not a credit card or additional form of payment to back up their account should their account be overdrawn when PayPal tries to debit it, so PayPal doesn’t pay you for 3-5 days while they wait for the money to transfer.

All withinweb applications (PHP-SecureArea, PHP-eSeller, or PHP-Keycodes) are able to handle Checks and in addition, will automatically send an email to the purchaser informing them that they have paid by eCheck and that there will be a delay before purchase is complete. Once the eCheck has cleared the application (PHP-SecureArea, PHP-eSeller, or PHP-Keycodes) will complete the process in the normal way and send the appropriate emails to the customer all without intervention by yourself.

When we recieve an eCheck purchase we often send an additional email to the customer just to further explain the situation and maintain a relationship with the customer.

In fact there are many situations where there can be a delay in payment being completed. All these situations are automatically handled by Withinweb.com applications.

There can be customer service nightmares when people use eChecks in PayPal. Most customers don’t know what it is, and PayPal appears not to warn them. Providing that you inform the customer, there should not be a problem and you can maintain your relationship with the customer.