Help setting up PayPal API for split payments in Community Tickets

[Andrea Olson]

Hi! I’ve read the KB on setting up Community Tickets and it left me hanging with an image of a blank set of the below input fields (I need walked through what to input where!). I am new to APIs and honestly don’t want to learn them *other than* setting up my Community Tickets to do split payments. I have set everything up except for the below fields (some of them) – particularly where do I get a PayPal API signature? Please read on to see what I’m having trouble with….

What exactly from the PayPal Developer platform do I put for these fields? The field names do not match up between the Community Tickets/Events Calendar Pro plugin settings on my site and the PayPal Developer site’s info.

On Community Tickets setup in WordPress:
PayPal API username (is this the paypal username I logged into PayPal Dev with?)
PayPal API password (is this the paypal password I logged into PayPal Dev with? Also why is it not hidden?)
PayPal API signature (what is this?)
PayPal client ID (I do see this…long letters and numbers)
Receiver email (I assume this is me, the site admin, my paypal address for the ticket fee to go to?)

On PayPal Developer, I see this:
My Apps//I created a “REST API app” – is this correct?
Then I get the following fields:
Live:
PayPal address: ____
Client ID: ____
Secret: ____
Webhooks, etc.

I do not see a signature in paypal! I do not know if I am putting in the correct username/pwd!

Sandbox:
Sandbox account: (this is one email I think it generated for me – I don’t even know how I’d fetch these emails if it’s used???)
Client ID: ____
Secret: ____
Webhooks, etc.

Also, I am assuming because my paypal stuff wasn’t set up right (the signature anyway) that this is why my tickets aren’t showing up in test events?

Please talk to me like I’m a kindergartner and help me set this up. 🙂

Thanks!
Andrea

[Cliff]

Hi kindergartener Andrea. 😉

Thanks for your question.

The Community Tickets New User Primer is a helpful guide.

For PayPal-specific settings like where to get your API keys or other details, please contact PayPal support. This may be helpful: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/api/apiCredentials/

Sorry we can’t do all your setup for you. It can be a bit more complicated than our other plugins’ settings because it enables complex functionality.

If after speaking with PayPal you still need assistance with Community Tickets, please provide screenshots of whatever you have from our plugin and from PayPal. Make sure those replies are set to Private.

I hope this info helps you get going with it! 🙂

[Andrea Olson]

Hey Cliff – I did go through almost an hour on their support side. ALL I am asking for is a translation – very simply, which of your field titles matches which of theirs? I think this is something that should be clearly documented in your how-to’s. I just paid $250 for these plugins and I would kindly like a direct reply (and not be re-directed to PayPal, as they won’t know what your plugin field titles mean either).

Which of the fields I am to fill in on the plugin corresponds with which of the fields I’ve listed that they made available to me?

Thanks in advance,
Andrea

[Cliff]

Hi Andrea. I know it can be frustrating dealing with integrations between two vendors. Thanks for your patience and sticking it out!

Here’s the step-by-step answer for you:

Note: PayPal’s Developer documentation for API Credentials may be helpful but shouldn’t be necessary to review prior to reading the information below…

How to obtain Sandbox credentials (for testing/fake money)

Example of wp-admin PayPal Split Payments settings for Sandbox mode

1. Login to https://developer.paypal.com/
2. Click to Dashboard
3. Under “REST API apps”, click “Create App” and give it a descriptive name (e.g. Example.com Community Tickets app)
4. Refresh your Dashboard until your newly-created REST API app appears (may take a few minutes)
5. Click Sandbox > Accounts. Click on your “[email protected]” email address. Click the “Profile” link that appears under it to display your “Account Details” pop-up.
6. Click the “API Credentials” tab to obtain the information you should enter in wp-admin for these settings:
   1. PayPal API username
   2. PayPal API password
   3. PayPal API signature
7. Still in the “Account Details” pop-up window, click your REST Apps app name
   1. Look in the upper-right corner for the “Sandbox” / “Live” toggle, and make sure you’re in Sandbox mode
   2. Enter this Client ID in the wp-admin settings: PayPal client ID
   3. Enter this Sandbox account email address in the wp-admin settings: Receiver email (note the “-facilitator” email address)

Now that wp-admin settings are setup correctly, you should test that Community Tickets is working as desired, including how PayPal is handling the fake money.

How to obtain Live credentials (for real money)

Example of wp-admin PayPal Split Payments settings for Live mode

Once you’ve tested in Sandbox mode and you’re ready to start handling real money:

1. Clear out all the Sandbox credentials and save the fields as empty/blank. This helps make sure you don’t make errors mixing Sandbox credentials with Live credentials.
2. Visit the PayPal API Signature page
3. Click “Show” to reveal the information to be entered into wp-admin:
   1. PayPal API username
   2. PayPal API password
   3. PayPal API signature
4. Visit your PayPal Developer Dashboard
5. Click to your REST API app
6. 1. Look in the upper-right corner for the “Sandbox” / “Live” toggle, and make sure you’re in Live mode
   2. Enter this Client ID in the wp-admin settings: PayPal client ID
   3. Enter this Live account email address in the wp-admin settings: Receiver email (note “-facilitator” is NOT in the email address)

===

I hope this helps get you over the finish line for setting up Community Tickets.

Please let me know.

[Andrea Olson]

Cliff – thank you! This is exactly what I was needing.

So I’m having a problem while testing with sandbox. When it comes to paying, I see pay by credit card (Stripe is integrated with WooCommerce and absolutely can not be turned off), pay by PayPal with cc images next to it, and then a new PayPal image that you can select to checkout. All with radio buttons. (I run WooCommerce for selling books on my website, and digital products.)

I remember reading that Community Tickets runs by PayPal only so that is *probably* why the 3rd payment option shows up. It is obviously redundant and I wonder if there is a way to fix this? My customers might get confused about the difference between both PayPal options.

Furthermore, when I click on the second, new, paypal option’s radio button and select the Proceed to PayPal button (essentially, the pay now button), it gives the following error on the top of the checkout page:

“An error has occurred while processing your payment, please try again. Or contact us for assistance.”

I’ve tried other email addresses for the customer’s payment address to be sure I am not sending payment from the same PayPal account to itself. Other than that, I’m not sure what I could be doing wrong. Please let me know!

(Good news is that I am able to make tickets and create RSVPs!)

Thanks,
Andrea

[Cliff]

Glad to hear things are moving forward for you.

When doing a sandbox purchase, checkout via PayPal with the “[email protected]” credentials (see Step 5 of Sandbox Mode)

For the Stripe / WooCommerce / checkout issues, please do a video screencast (e.g. with Jing or CloudApp) of what you’re seeing at each step.

You may choose to set your reply to “Private” if you don’t want the links to be as publicly-accessible.

[Andrea Olson]

This reply is private.

[Cliff]

To set the password for the -facilitator or -buyer email address, go to https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts/, click on the applicable email address, click “profile”, and click “Change password”.

Regarding your checkout video with checking out via PayPal, if you’re having issues, please make sure all other plugins are deactivated and you’re using a default WordPress theme (e.g. Twenty Fifteen).

Please let me know how it goes.

[Andrea Olson]

Hey Cliff,

I’ve tried everything. Spent hours troubleshooting with my husband who owns a WordPress Development company. Nothing works. FYI, in the Settings section of WooCommerce, under Checkout, all of the different payment options are listed (I have Stripe and PayPal selected), and there is a new one since I installed your tickets, etc, plugins, called ” Tribe PayPal Adaptive Payments ” – when I click on that there is nothing in the tab, just a save button.

Could it be that there is an error in one of your plugins that does not allow for customization or selection of this payment method (the one that tickets requires – paypal – and which allows for split payments)?

Thanks for any additional help. I have over 100 coaches waiting for this functionality and it just is not working, no matter what I do,
Andrea

[Andrea Olson]

I also deselected PayPal as an option for my WooCommerce checkout settings, and it now gives me only one PayPal option at checkout, however, when I click it it gives the same error as before, preventing me from checking out via the PayPal associated with split payments.

[Cliff]

Good news and bad news:

• Good: we have been able to replicate the problem.
• Bad: it isn’t a super-simple fix.

Multiple developers spent time diagnosing this and decided it’s going to take us a bit of time to release a fix.

We will put out a maintenance release for Community Tickets.

Note: there is a maintenance release coming out tomorrow that won’t include this.

Sorry I can’t guarantee release times, but we have marked it as high priority.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

[Andrea Olson]

Cliff I really appreciate you and your developers creating a fix for this!! I will eagerly await the news that it has been accomplished. Thank you for this…and let me know if you guys need me to test anything as you all work out the solution.
Andrea

[Cliff]

Thanks so much for your kind response!

[Support Droid]

This topic has not been active for quite some time and will now be closed.

If you still need assistance please simply open a new topic (linking to this one if necessary)
and one of the team will be only too happy to help.

[Author]

Posts