!!Error!! "Generic processor error: 11581"

Hi,

I rather urgently need help with this. I just sent my site live and everything else is working great (thanks!) BUT whenever anyone tries to pay using PayPal (in Pro Forms) they get an error that reads

Error #1000. Generic processor error: 11581-Profile description is invalid.

I contacted PayPal and they said the error was occurring before the request reaches them. They were confused though when I said that I was using PayPal payments pro as they said that paying with PayPal through website payments pro was not standard and that it must be using PayPal Express.

I am not too savvy with all this and I just really hope that you can help.

P.S. I have also sent login details etc. through private contact. Feel free to login and check things out.

PHP v5.2.17 :: WordPress® v3.4.2 :: s2Member® v121023 :: s2Member® Pro v121023
Memory 51.62 MB :: Real Memory 52.00 MB :: Peak Memory 51.73 MB :: Real Peak Memory 52.00 MB
woodworkingmasterclasses.com/my-account/which-currency/pay-in-gbp/?s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_return&token=EC-62U38382LJ9489847
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_5) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.94 Safari/537.4
-------- Input vars: ( Fri Nov 2, 2012 9:14:00 am UTC ) --------
array (
  'TRXTYPE' => 'R',
  'ACTION' => 'A',
  'EMAIL' => '??????????',
  'FIRSTNAME' => 'Joseph',
  'LASTNAME' => 'Sellers',
  'CLIENTIP' => '78.144.86.13',
  'DESC' => '30 Days @ $10.00 / then $10.00 GBP / Monthly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )',
  'BA_DESC' => '30 Days @ $10.00 / then $10.00 GBP / Monthly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )',
  'PROFILENAME' => '1354482839:30 D:1 M~woodworkingmasterclasses.com~1',
  'OPTIONALTRX' => 'S',
  'OPTIONALTRXAMT' => '10.00',
  'FAILEDOPTIONALTRXACTION' => 'CancelOnFailure',
  'FAILEDINITAMTACTION' => 'CancelOnFailure',
  'CURRENCY' => 'GBP',
  'AMT' => '10.00',
  'TAXAMT' => '0.00',
  'MAXFAILPAYMENTS' => '2',
  'AUTOBILLOUTSTANDINGAMT' => 'AddToNextBilling',
  'START' => '12022012',
  'PAYPERIOD' => 'MONT',
  'TERM' => '0',
  'TENDER' => 'P',
  'TOKEN' => 'EC-62U38382LJ9489847',
  'PAYERID' => 'ZDZ53YRQVE4CL',
  'L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0' => '30 Days @ $10.00 / then $10.00 GBP / Monthly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )',
  'VERBOSITY' => 'HIGH',
  'USER' => '???????????',
  'PARTNER' => '??????????',
  'VENDOR' => '??????????',
  'PWD' => '??????????????',
)
-------- Output string/vars: ( Fri Nov 2, 2012 9:14:00 am UTC ) --------
RESULT=1000&RESPMSG=Generic processor error: 11581-Profile description is invalid&HOSTCODE=11581&TRANSTIME=2012-11-02 02:14:00
array (
  'RESULT' => '1000',
  'RESPMSG' => 'Generic processor error: 11581-Profile description is invalid',
  'HOSTCODE' => '11581',
  'TRANSTIME' => '2012-11-02 02:14:00',
  '__error' => 'Error #1000. Generic processor error: 11581-Profile description is invalid.',
)

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

@ Joseph Sellers

That’s the first time we’ve seen that error come back. According to the PP docs, it indicates there is a mismatch between the original description used to setup this PayPal Express Checkout transaction, and the subsequent API call which is represented by the log entry you posted here.

While we continue to investigate this, please post the previous log entry (e.g. the one before this one). It should be a TRXTYPE=S, ACTION=S and also should have this number 1354482839 in the PROFILENAME.

I’d like to see what the original value of the description was set to on your installation, so we can compare it during testing on our end. With your help we should have a resolution for you soon.

FTP details received. We can access the log entries that way. Thank you.

I believe the underlying issue has been identified. We’ve had your installation patched and an official fix added to the next maintenance release. If you will please run a test transaction for us and provide feedback, that would be much appreciated. If there are no further issues, the next maintenance release will include this fix.

File patched on your installation:
/s2member-pro/includes/classes/gateways/paypal/paypal-checkout-pf-in.inc.php

Jason,

Thank you for helping me with this.

I just tried to pay through PayPal. Sadly the error persists.

Three thoughts that may help to diagnose the problem:

1, I originally installed s2member on a different URL and relocated it to the current URL.

2, I changed the description on the PayPal pro forms.

3, my PayPal account was originally used to take payments on a different site.

Could any of these things affect the problem we are dealing with?

Again thanks for taking the time to help.

Hi Joseph,

If you moved from another site, it’s possible that one of your s2Member-generated shortcodes (i.e., PayPal buttons or Pro-Forms) have a custom=”” attribute that contains the wrong site URL. The custom=”” attribute must contain the URL of the site your s2Member installation is hosted on. I recommend checking all of your s2Member configuration and trying to regenerate the shortcodes.

Also, if your PayPal was previously configured for a different site, you’ll want to check your PayPal configuration to make sure none of the settings over there are pointing to the old site.

Hi Raam,

Thank you for your reply.

I have checked the custom= in the shortcodes as you suggested but they are all in order. I have also checked in PayPal and I cannot see anything that could be affecting this. The only thing is that in my profile I have another site listed as the ‘business website’ I cannot, however, imagine that this is what is causing the error.

Any further help from you or Jason is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the update, Joseph. I’ll send Jason another email to see if he can offer any more thoughts.

Hi,

I may have a bit more clarity on this whole thing. I think that the problem is something to do with coupon codes.

I have tested the payments through PayPal and if I don’t enter a coupon code it works fine. Weirdly it works fine with or without the coupon code if you pay with one of the card options.

I found this here:

11581 Invalid Data Profile description is invalid.

a bit more digging and I found this here:

Add an L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION n field to correspond to each L_BILLINGTYPE n field you pass; n is a value in the range of 0 to 9, inclusive. Set the value of each field to the description of the goods or services associated with that billing agreement, for example:
L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0=Time Magazine subscription

In the error log when a customer tries to pay with PayPal without a coupon code it looks like this:

‘L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0’ => ‘$15.00 USD/Monthly Recurring Payments’

When the longer version (automatically generated by the coupon code) is used (‘L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0’ => ‘Now: $12.75 / monthly ) ~ ORIGINALLY:$15.00 USD/Monthly Recurring Payments’) it throws up the 11581 error.

I hope this helps to work this out.

Ahh, one last thought.. is this relevant?

Maybe it is, but I don’t really know. I’ll wait for Jason’s thoughts on this.

Hey guys,

First, thank you guys for developing this great software and making it available so reasonably. Thank you also for your initial support and being patient and helpful.

However, I am losing faith. I have potentially lost hundreds of dollars so far and more every day. This problem is making me look incompetent to my customers and making them lose confidence. I have to answer emails every day telling customers that “we are working on it” and “we will let you know when this is dealt with”. What do I do? Are you guys going to help me with this? I honestly don’t know whether I have a right to help with this from you guys or not.

If I need to hire someone to deal with this can you guys recommend someone? Or, failing that, can you tell me what skills I should look for? PHP, PayPal, WordPress, S2member or all of the above?

Please understand that I am not complaining I just need to get progress.

Thanks.

Thanks for the follow-ups, and for your patience.

We’re preparing the maintenance release now, and I’m taking another look at this issue. I’ll update with further details as they become available.

Thank you for your reply! I am really hoping we can get it fixed.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can do.

I am not very conversant with these things but my suspicion is that it is something to do with coupon codes.

Ok, it seems I was wrong about it having something to do with the coupon code. I just tested it again without a coupon code and it still came up with the error described above.

So, now I am not sure.

One other thought. It doesn’t seem like this is a mainstream problem as your support forums are not full of people talking about it (as I presume they would be if they were all in this situation). It must be something specific to my circumstances.

Is there a safe way of saving all the user data and deleting S2member entirely and reinstalling it and reimporting the user data? Could I do this without disrupting payments? If this is possible could someone walk me through it? And finally is there any way that this could solve my problem?

I am getting more desperate every time I get yet another email from people asking “Do you have a timeframe when this might be fixed”.

I had someone email today saying something like “thank you for replying to my queries re the PayPal problems but I have other things to do and cannot keep messing with this”.

I’m not sure that removing s2Member and reinstalling it would fix the problem…

What I’d try, instead, is creating a separate WordPress installation for testing, adding s2Member, configuring the PayPal integration with it, and running a live 1 cent transaction trying to reproduce the error you get in your live site. This article may help: Knowledge Base » Common Troubleshooting Tips

I’ll wait for Jason’s comments on what he found looking into the error you’re getting.

Thanks for the follow-ups here.

Thanks for your patience. Our investigation has come to an end on this report. Unfortunately we’ve been unable to reproduce this issue in our lab after the patch we posted previously was applied. However, we did find another issue reported in a separate thread related to PayPal Express Checkout under the Payflow API, which has been fixed in the development copy, and will be included as part of the next maintenance release.

Related thread where patch was posted:
http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/paypal-error-36-transaction-failed/page/2/#post-31490

Suggestions…

You can try applying the patch that we posted here:
http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/paypal-error-36-transaction-failed/page/2/#post-31505

Or you can wait for the next maintenance release (coming in the next day or two). If the problem continues after the next maintenance release, please update this thread and we will re-open this investigation for you at that time. Also, please report back about what Cristian mentioned. Have you been able to reproduce this issue on a clean installation of WordPress running only the default theme and no other plugins in a test environment?

Hi @jason and @cristian,

I have done as Cristián suggested and started from scratch and started with a brand new install of WordPress. Here is what I did:

•Installed WordPress on a different domain through Bluehost with SimpleScripts.

•I deleted the preinstalled plugins

•Downloaded the latest s2member and s2member pro files from this site.

•I installed s2member from within WordPress. I then uploaded s2member pro through Bluehost’s built in file uploader and extracted it.

•I then filled in the details for PayPal and PayPal Payflow

•I created a new page called ‘Test Page’

•I created a coupon code giving 15% off

•I generated a shortcode for PayPal pro forms for $15.00USD and pasted it into the ‘Test Page’ I edited the shortcode to accept coupons by changing the 0 to a 1

•I opened an incognito page in Chrome so that I was no longer logged in and went to the ‘Test Page’

•I entered my details and selected to pay with PayPal

•I entered my username and password in PayPal and it redirected me back to my site and gave me the exact same error message

•I then uploaded the patch given here http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/paypal-error-36-transaction-failed/page/2/#post-31490 and tried again with the same result

All that to show that I am putting the effort into this fix but with no change in result.

I have asked PayPal for help and this was their reply:

Hello Paul,

My apologies for our delay in answering your query.
With regards to the API error code you’re seeing: this is being returned due to non-ASCII data being present in the ‘DESC’ (description) you’re sending us in the API call.

To resolve this, please remove this data from the API call.
I checked a couple attempts, and this is the data we’re receiving from you:

“COUPON 15% OFF. ( NOW: $12.75 / MONTHLY ) ~ ORIGINALLY: $15.00”

Sincerely
Robert

Merchant Technical Services
PayPal, an eBay company.

I am not sure what that even means. What do I do now? Please help.

Thank you very much for doing the test and for getting more data from PayPal. I’m forwarding it to Jason now.

Thank you VERY much for the follow-ups here.

@ Joseph Sellers

Interesting response from PayPal. All of the characters in that snippet are in ASCII. What character encoding have you configured for your WordPress installation? UTF-8 (the default)? Or something else?

See also: http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/ascii.html

Please send me a Dashboard login to this test installation so we can run diagnostics for you.
Please use: s2Member® » Private Contact Form

This sounds to me like a character encoding issue, but let me have a look at your installation to be sure please.

Hi Jason,

Thank you for the reply.

I have not changed the the encoding but I just checked and it is set to UTF-8.

This is all vey confusing to me because I have, as shown above, tried this with a ‘clean’ install and had the same problem with coupon codes.

I have sent you login details via private contact.

Let me know if you need me to do anything.

Joseph, would you happen to have another web hosting account that you could test this in? I wonder if the server has anything to do with the encoding problem you’re having…

Hi,

That certainly sounds plausible. I host with Bluehost…surely someone would have reported it before.

I am game for testing it. I do not have any other hosting accounts (I have three with Bluehost). Where would you suggest testing this?

Thanks.

Well, you could try with HostGator, I know many site owners using s2Member host with them.

I don’t have a hosting account there to facilitate your test, or I’d be happy to set you up so you don’t need to sign up with them to just test this.

Or maybe you have a friend with a hosting account somewhere that isn’t with BlueHost, that would let you do your tests there?

This investigation is ongoing.

@ Joseph Sellers

The test site you mentioned in this post:
http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/error-generic-processor-error-11581/#post-32249

It doesn’t seem to match up with the site you sent us access to privately? The site that I just reviewed privately was running a custom theme, 24 active plugins, and it does not have the Payflow patch installed? Just checking to see if we missed something from you?

Please submit a Dashboard/FTP login for the test install you setup.
See: s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Hi Jason,

My apologies. I think there was a misunderstanding. I sent the login details for my live site.

I just now sent login credentials to my test site (still on Bluehost). This site only has one plugin (S2member) and the Twenty Eleven theme. I just updated it to the latest version (S2member and Pro that is).

Please feel free to experiment with this site (the woodschools.org one) as it is a test site and has nothing valuable or sensitive on it.

@ Cristián I will look into how I can test with a different host (probably Hostgator) . Thanks!