Paypal no_note=0 no longer works

0
votes

I am a bit confused as I can't force PayPal to allow buyers to add a note in the shopping cart despite sending the no_note=0 command.

My script sends this code:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr/?a=1&item_name_1=blahblahblah&amount_1=2&item_name_2=Donation&amount_2=0&charset=UTF-8&no_note=0&currency_code=USD&lc=gb&cmd=_cart&upload=1&[email protected]&invoice=jxZsXWfzR&rm=2

But I can't get PayPal to allow the buyer to enter a note. I am sure it was working a few months ago. Has this feature been removed? Is there a workaround?

3
phppaypal
Due to the change over to the new portal (Hermes) there are lots of variables that are being changed and deprecated. The documentation hasn't been fully updated yet but I'm sure it will be soon. I'm having and issue where if I supply just the email address it does nothing, but if I supply the whole address it works but switches to the old portal. – Matt Cowley

3 Answers

1
votes

It appears no_note is completely deprecated: https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/classic/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/Appx_websitestandard_htmlvariables/#deprecated-variables

Still, it's confusing what's going to happen if this value is not present or 'ignored' as Paypal says. I started a support ticket and if I receive an answer I'll post it here.

UPDATE - received a reply from Paypal:

"Note feature is no longer available at our end. You are not required to send any parameter to PayPal to hide note field during checkout."

So it appears that now the note will not show up at all by default (which also suggests that it's impossible to show this note to buyers any more).

0
votes

In the paypal developer page they still state:

no_note     Required    Do not prompt buyers to include a note with their payments.
                        Allowable values for Subscribe buttons:

                        1 — hide the text box and the prompt

                        For Subscribe buttons, always set no_note to 1.

and

no_note     Optional    Do not prompt buyers to include a note with their payments.
                        Allowable values are:

                        0 — provide a text box and prompt for the note
                        1 — hide the text box and the prompt

                        The default is 0. To add a text label for the text box, such as,
                        Enter any special instructions:, use the cn variable.

But the following was deprecated:

cn          Optional    Related to the no_note variable. When no_note is 0, a text box is
                        displayed at checkout for buyers who would like to include any
                        special instructions. Use the cn field to enter a custom note or
                        label for this text box, such as, Enter any special instructions:

Hope that helps

0
votes

I've encountered this issue before and as per updates from their technical support, the new layout (which they named it Hermes) is not supporting the no_note anymore. In the meantime, they are on the way updating the documentation.