Disheartened

I spent days learning and setting up s2member. Then I got to the point where all I need to do is add a Paypal button to my sales page. Simple right? Wrong, instead I spend double the hours I spent setting up s2member in the first place trying to troubleshoot a freakin glitch with the Paypal button (huge amount of space above the button). I have researched and tried pretty much EVERYTHING on this forum and I am still cannot get a paypal button to work properly.

I just do not know what to do any more. Your software is useless and all the hours spent learning and setting up your software will be huge wastes or valuable time if I cannot remove the space above the paypal button or use the paypal hosted button.

How is it that a seemingly great plugin like this, that is built and supported by seemingly smart people, is rendered completely useless by something so seemingly trivial? WTF?

Is there anyone here that can help me so that I can continue using s2member and not have to move on?

• This topic was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Corey Koehler.

While I just experienced the same issue, I’m not sure you are wording it the right way to optimize your (our) chances to get an answer, so I’ll try to balance this out (I need an answer too!):)

I’m sure there is an explanation to this, otherwise the plugin wouldn’t be useful, and therefore wouldn’t be happily used by so many, including Websharks themselves (there is no huge gap before the Paypal button when you attempt to buy the pro version, which proves there must be a solution:)).

Why not give someone more knowledgeable a chance to explain to us what WE are doing wrong, instead of assuming it’s the plugin’s fault, that it’s not fixable, and declare the software “useless”?

You need to chill out and be patient:). Hopefully someone will show us the way.

In case it’s relevant, I’m using genesis with the prose theme.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.

Did a bit more searching, and thanks to advice by Eduan in this thread (thanks Eduan!):

http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/extra-white-space-around-paypal-button/

I was able to identify the cause. In my case, it’s the WPautop filter. If I disable it, the paypal button appears where it should and the blank space is gone.

Corey, I suggest you do the following:
– Install and activate the TRUEdit plugin (add/new plugin/search)
– Make a note of which filters are disabled already so you can go back to your starting point
– In the TRUEdit settings, disable the WPautop filter. If you’re lucky, the cause will be the same as mine.
– Otherwise, try to disable all filters, until you find the culprit. Make sure you refresh the page in your browser between each attempt to make sure the latest version is loaded.

If this fails too, try to select the default WP 2013 theme, and disable all the plugins (except S2member, of course) until you find a possible conflicting plugin. I had done this already and it didn’t help.

Good luck!

PS: anyone has any idea what the WPautop filter does, and if it’s ok to disable it using TRUEdit?

EDIT: found the definition here http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wpautop. It looks like it’s an internal filter that deals with spaces in content and comments. Maybe the devs could have a look at the reason why this filter interferes with Paypal buttons?

EDIT2: Looking more closely into this definition, I also found this other plugin http://wordpress.org/plugins/wpautop-control/ which theoretically gives more control over the filter. You enable or disable it by default, and then change the default option for each post. That means you can have it enabled for normal content and only disable it for the posts/pages with Paypal buttons.

EDIT3: Unfortunately, while this identifies the issue more precisely, the above isn’t a solution as when the wpautop filter is disabled for the whole site (using either TRUEdit or WPautop Control), the pages/posts with text are not readable anymore. I haven’t been able to apply the per post/per page solution offered by the wpautop control, so please could we get a solution to this issue? As mentioned above, selecting default theme and disabling all the plugins doesn’t resolve this issue, at least in my case.

Thanks!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.

Okay, I think I have found a (partial) solution:

The blank above the button seems to be only added if you use long form code (i.e. you copy and paste in your page the full paypal button code generated by s2member).

If you use the WordPress shortcode instead, there are no blanks in the page above the button, even with the wpautop filter enabled.

Hopefully this will help the devs to understand better what’s happening.

So Corey, try to insert the WP shortcode for the button instead of the full form code, and let us know if it solves your issue.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Manni01.

The reason why the above is only a partial solution for some is because If I try to embed the shortcode into a snippet of php code like this:

<?php
echo do_shortcode('[s2Member-PayPal-Button etc…

using ezphp to execute it, the blank lines above the paypal button are back.

I need to do this to enable a sophisticated drip content hack, so it would be good if this was solved.

Of course this is not a problem for users who can use the generated paypal button shortcode as it is.

Manni01,

The shortcode still has the white space. I tried both ways before I came to the forum. Sorry I wasn’t more specific.

I will try the TRUEEdit plugin but if it is like any of the other 4 html/filter type plugins i tried I doubt it will work. If that doesn’t work I am just going to have to cut my losses and find another solution. I am way behind on this project as it is and do not have time to change themes and go through every plugin.

And I am sorry if I am coming off like an ass and I really hate to be a downer about this but I have spent a lot of time with this plugin and have ZERO to show for it. It is frustrating.

Thank you for the help.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Corey Koehler.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Corey Koehler.

Don’t worry I understand the frustration, especially if you are under a deadline.

You might want to try something, which is to use the long php code (the form, not the shortcodes) and delete all the HTML comments (lines starting with <–). This didn't work for me, but apparently it can work in some cases.

Disabling the WPautop filter isn't a solution, unless you are prepared to enter manual new paragraphs in the rest of your site.

I tried to move the php code (for the shortcode) into s2-hacks.php and to define a new function, and the blank lines disappear but unfortunately the button is stuck at the top of the page, above everything else, instead of appearing where the shortcode is placed into the page/post, so that's not a solution unless I find out why the button doesn't appear where it should.

I hope someone else will come up with an explanation/solution for this behaviour.

Hi Corey,

I have found a solution that works for me when I need to add custom feature to the button, so you might want to give it a try.

I tried using the plugin My Shortcodes (great plugin by the way, no affiliation), and if I paste the full form code into the html tab of this plugin, I can use the generated shortcode to display the button, and it appears where I want it (where I inserted the shortcode) and without any blank lines.

I suggest you read the first few pages of doc on the developpers site to make sure you get this right, but it took me a few minutes to understand how it works. The only thing to be aware of is that the element name is NOT the shortcode, the shortcode is what they call slug and which they populate with a unique ID. You can give this slug a comprehensible name, that way you can simply type the shortcode instead of using their insertion tool in the editor. Will be clearer when you try it.

I didn’t need to enable this, but there is an option when you create the shortcode to delete blank lines, you might need to use it with your theme.

Probably overkill to simply solve this annoying issue, but it’s a much easier way to create your shortcodes that having to edit s2-hacks, it keeps them in categories and makes it very easy to insert them in your pages/posts. I really like the plugin and am going to use it for other stuff.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

My $0.02 – I have had success putting the whole area inside of a DIV then modifying aspects of the style such as lineheight and table formatting.

Guys, the easiest thing to do is put your button in raw shortcodes

I don’t know how to type them here without them disappearing but remove the spaces from the below tags and youll be sorted!

[r a w] [/ r a w]

In my case the button code works fine, but when I try to wrap it in php code (using echo do shortcode etc) the blank lines are back.

The My shortcodes plugin solves the issue completely though using the form in the html tab.

To display some code in a post, you need to select it and click on the code button in the editor, like this

sample of code