Paypal Sandbox IPN error

Question

After paypal updated their interface (sandbox.paypal.com for example is not working, now you have to go to developer.paypal.com) many of the things are not working: 2 of them are particularly frustrating and I was hoping someone here knew how to get around them:

1. Am I the only one whose sandbox customer test accounts are not able to make purchases? The transaction page says they are not available.

2. IPN validation is not letting me send a https request. When I do it says there is something wrong with the server name. Yesterday however before the update I could get verified status. If I dont put https, now my handler gives me an invalid responde status, code: 400. What does it mean?

Answer 1

Alright, seems to be fixed!

If you are having trouble logging in, like suggested above, clear cache and cookies and try again.

Regarding the error 400, seems to have been solved by paypal!

Answer 2

To fix the HTTP 400 error, follow the instructions in https://www.x.com/content/bulletin-ipn-and-pdt-scripts-and-http-1-1 and update your code to pass "Host" information. Ideally, things should work with just the recommended changes from the above link. Apparently, thats not the case. Here is a fix from one of the PayPal MTS person - PalPAL sandbox IPN processor rejecting all messages?

Remove the "cmd=notify-validate" option from the validation URL. I tried this and it worked. Though it doesn't return the right string, atleast it doesnt break with the 400 error.

While we wait for a fix from Paypal, I wonder how a company like PayPal can cause such a huge blunder and not post anything on their status page - https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/site-status/pp-cri. It just makes you think that even smaller companies can do a better job than companies like PayPal.

Answer 3

For the code:400 issue, you have to update the post to version 1.1. That information is located here.

https://www.x.com/content/bulletin-ipn-and-pdt-scripts-and-http-1-1 in this bulletin.

However, as I posted before the asp.net example uses a call, that does not exist, so I was only able to get mine partly working. After fixing this, the servers appear to be rejecting calls to https, or the cert they have installed is invalid.

Action Required before February 1, 2013 Merchants need to update their IPN and/or PDT scripts to use HTTP 1.1, and include the “Host” header in the IPN postback script. In addition to this bulletin, these merchants will be notified via a direct email.