POST params not sent when redirected

[AntoineVerger]

Hi all,

I´m running into an issue that I detected today. I have the following paypal button config :

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" id="paypalFormId">
         <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
        <input type="hidden" name="business" value="mybusinessID">
        <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="DE">
        <input type="hidden" name="button_subtype" value="services">
       <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1">
       <input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="2">
       <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Studiotest Tageskarte">
       <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="1.00">
       <input type="hidden" name="custom" value="somecustom infos needed in the redirection">
       <input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2">
       <input type="hidden" name="return" value="myreturnUrl">
      <input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="myCancelUrl">
      <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="EUR">
      <input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="myIPNUrl">
      <input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF:btn_buynowCC_LG.gif:NonHosted">
       <div class="row">
                <button type="submit" class="btn btn-submit-next pull-right">Bestellung abschließen</button>
        </div>
</form>

I didn´t change anything that could impact this code in the last days, nevertheless, redirection POST parameters are missing and redirection is a GET now and not a POST method anymore, even with the rm=2 !

Any idea, what´s going on ?

Best regards,

Antoine 

[MTS_Andre]

Hey Antoine, to get the parameters in the redirection URL make sure that a valid returnURL is passed, like in your example, and that the business email variable is an account that has PDT enabled. You can check here about PDT: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/products/payment-data-transfer/

[AntoineVerger]

Hi Andre,

thanks a lot for your feedback !
PDT was never enabled but IPN was so far and the problem just appeared last week without any change in our checkout implementation. Any change on Paypal side ? I understand that PDT is the way to go in our case but it represents some efforts on our side to do the switch.
Regards,

Antoine

[ThisIsMe2000]

I also have this issue - I don't use PDT - I use IPN.  My html form worked great until recently.  So what has changed?

Issue description

Using IPN to validate and in my form I have:

<input type="hidden" name="cmd"  value="_xclick"/>	
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="<?php echo $paypalbizemailaddress;?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="<?php echo $product ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> 
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="<?php echo $price;?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="custom" value="<?php echo $custom_data ;?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="<?php echo $itemId;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="first_name" value="<?php echo $fname;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="last_name" value="<?php echo $lname;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="city" value="<?php echo $city;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="country" value="US"> 
<input type="hidden" name="night_phone_a" value="<?php echo $ctycode;?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="night_phone_b" value="<?php echo $phone;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="email" value="<?php echo $email;?>">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1"> 
<input type="hidden" name="return"  value="success.php" />
<input  type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="ipn.php" />
<input  type="hidden"  name="cancel_return"  value="cancel.php" />
 <input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2">

I have IPN turned on in sandbox profile and pointing to my notify_url (ipn.php).
I have Auto Return turned On and pointing to my return url (success.php).
All my URLs are HTTPS

This works fine (both in sandbox and live) and I receive the IPN data back to my ipn.php as POST variables and I can do required DB processing with it. However, recently the POST variables have stopped coming through to my return (success.php) URL. When I can't get the POST variables at my return URL (success.php), it's harder to present a "Thank you for the order - your order is complete" message.

So, I have tried with PDT and it now correctly returns the GET vars to success.php without issue, however I prefer to work with POST and I don't like the ugly GET querystring in the URL which can also be manipulated by user.  It looks like this:
success.php?amt=300.00&cc=USD&cm=2-%7C-4&item_name=productabc&item_number=102323732&st=Completed&tx=3PW6232xxxxxxx118529437

Why have POST vars stopped coming to my return URL? This form has been working without issue for 12 months, now it stops recently.

I thought that was the purpose of the rm value "2" is to receive POST vars back to return URL (as described here: in method three https://www.paypal-knowledge.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=FAQ1188

Is there an issue with PayPal or is this a result of some change I am not aware of?
Thanks

[sonjarusso]

I'm experiencing the same issue starting on 2017/09/11 No code changes, no advise and no more POSTed back variables after a PayPal transaction! Very disappointing... someone can shed a light on this issue???

The 'rm' variable now become useless! And i don't want to use PDT, i just want to get POST variables after a payment, it worked in this way since years

[ZoneF]

Any developments? I am going crazy with this. Was working for years and no documentation nothing about any changes.

[solace2000]

It would appear that PayPal using PDT does not send any POSTED variables and instead you must use GET to query the transaction parameters.

https://github.com/paypal/pdt-code-samples/blob/master/paypal_pdt.php

It would be nice if there was some official clarification around whether using "rm" = "2" is now useless or not.

In other words, send all variables by POST seems pointless if using PDT