PayPal Donations For vBulletin 3.5.0

Sorry Guys...I have disappeared from vB coding completely for the time being...RL is paying me $35/hour to ignore it lol. Hope you understand why I haven't been around...

Paypal Donations For vBulletin 3.5
Version 2.02b

Hack Provided and coded by )O( Cloudrunner )O( of The Noble Pagan.
Release version: 2.02b
Release Date: 03 July 2005

Change Log

Paypal Donations 2.02

• Fixed Bug introduced with the installer for the tables from 2.01
• Added Who's Online Support Plugins For Donations Script

Paypal Donations 2.01

• Fixed a small bug in the display of the top / last donors on the donate page.

Paypal Donations 2.00

• Ported system over to vBulletin 3.50
• Added ability for the installer to install template edits automatically
• System installs plugins automatically
• Fixed some minor bugs that were present in 1.07 of the 3.0.7 vBulletin donations system.

Special Thanks

Special Thanks goes to the following people, without their support, this would never have happened:

dsboyce8624
guvner
SLeeeper
And all of the Alpha Testers that helped out with this Hack!

I couldn't have done it without you all, Thank you!

)O( Cloudrunner )O(

What Paypal Donations Is:

Paypal Donations is a complete system that controls donations and how they are received via backend interfacing between your vBulletin server and Paypal's payment gateway server. The beauty of this marriage of servers is quite simply automation of the donation process as well as security of the transactions for both you, the administrator, and your users. With the Paypal donations system installed on your forums, you will be able to bring in that much needed income to not only keep your forums alive, but also to help defer costs of doing so to the users of your site without having to bug everyone and beg for money.

This seamless integration of Paypal as your backend payment processor not only provides your user with a well known and safe payment processor, but you are saved the hassle of opening a merchant account with your banking institution as well as saves you time in the process as it takes only a few short minutes to sign up with Paypal if you are not already an account holder there.

System Requirements

OS: vBulletin 3.5 (if you are running this already, then your server has the required installation, GD libraries are required, as well as CURL capabilities for this system to work)

Things To Do Before Installation

Direct File Edits To vB Resident Files: 1 (needed to group templates in AdminCP)
File Uploads: 34 (Of which 18 will be deleted after installation, leaving a total of 16 Files on your server)
Direct Database Queries: None, the installer does these for you
Direct Plugin Installation: None, the installer does these for you
Direct Template Modification: None, the installer installs all new templates, and modifies the resident templates as needed

The uninstaller will remove all modifications (to include the templates) should you decide to remove the system from your server.

How To Install / Upgrade Paypal Donations

Installation and Upgrading are as easy as a human like me could make it. Simply upload all the files from the archive to your server keeping the folder hierarchy intact and then point your browser to the installation file. On most servers it will be one of the following:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/admincp/donations_install.php
• http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/admi...ns_install.php

Just follow the prompts from there folks, the installer does all the database, template, plugin, phrasing, and settings automatically for you!

If you ever decide to remove the system, just upload the install files and folder again and run the installer and choose uninstall. The uninstaller will remove any and all modifications that it did to your files, database, and templates automatically as well. Its as easy as you can get!

Time to install: less than five minutes depending on your upload speed.

Steps To Perform After Installation

1. You must make sure that you have either a Business or Premiere account with Paypal.
   1. If you do not, then you will need to upgrade your Paypal account to that level before this system will work.
2. You must have Paypal's IPN (Instant Payment Notification) turned on in your Paypal Profile.
   1. You do not need to have it pointing at any particular file for this system to work as the system will tell Paypal where to send the IPN to credit your users and notify you of the transaction.
3. You will need to run through the donations settings at the end of the installer and make sure that you have all the required information in there.
4. Please note that this system can be placed into test mode (default setting is ON when system is first installed).
   1. This setting tells the system whether to speak with the real Paypal Server for transactions or with Paypal's Sandbox (testing) server. If you wish to test the system before going live you will need to have access to Paypal's Sandbox server, you can sign up for access there at: http://developer.paypal.com.
5. You will need to input your Paypal Account Email into the settings
6. You will need to input the full URL to your donate.php file so that your users can make it back to your site after payment
7. You will need to input the full URL to your ppverify.php file so that Paypal can send your IPNs to you and your system can process the information and give your users credit for the donation

License

Originally Posted by Brandon J. Briggs aka. Cloudrunner

As the original author of the Paypal Hacks for vBulletin 3.0.x and 3.5.x I give full authorization to modify, recode, compile and/or reverse engineer the paypal donation hacks to any and all fully licensed members of vBulletin.org. I also give permission to fully distribute any derivative works that are created due to this authorization without need of providing credit or other means of recompense.

I am releasing this authorization in the hopes that someone will be able to carry on the work that was begun.

Final words

You will need to add a link somewhere in your navigation system for vBulletin pointing your users to the donations page (if you installed the vBadvanced Module then you have a link on the home page, but you might want to add one in the nav bar as well), as well as setting up your paypal account to give IPN responses to you, you can do this in your Paypal Profile under Instant Payment Notification.

To play in PayPal's Sandbox you will need to be registered with their developer network and setup a few sandbox accounts to play with the sandbox properly. I have throughly tested the sandbox functionality, and it is working until they decide to change coding standards again.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy this hack, Please feel free to send feedback to tnp@noblepagan.com !

Thank you!

)O( Cloudrunner )O(

P.s. Should you feel the need to donate to me in thanks, I will not stop you , in fact I will say thank you and that your support is greatly appreciated. If you do donate to me for this hack, I will give the recognition here as well as on The Noble Pagan. You can find my donations page here (also works as a demo site should you feel the need to check it out):

The Noble Pagan Donation Page

[Billspaintball]

Well I've finally got around to upgrading from 3.5.0 to 3.5.1
I reapplied this hack, tested and all is working as its ment to.

And yes, members are being added automaticly to the database when they donate, and leaving the amount blank lets donors enter their own amount without any issues.

Only change I had to make was to the case of the vB in the XML file, no changes to ppverify.php or anything else.

[Billspaintball]

Just wondering, are the people having problems running vbAdvanced as well or any other hacks?

Might be useful to post any changes from a stock vB 3.5.1 here so we can see if any pattern emerges.
PHP and MySQL version info may help well.

[divided_by_fear]

i think it has to do with not allowing them to see the site unless there a member cause mine dont show up i see paypal trying to goto ppverify but there getting the no permission error.... i also run vbadvanced

[Rukas]

What exactly are the problems? So it worked fine on 3.5.0 but is buggy on 3.5.1? If so Im glad I havent upgraded yet because the donations generate a lot of money for me. $400 in under 2 months. So I cant really afford to have it not working.

For the record, im running vBadvanced, vb 3.5.0 and it works fine.

http://www.streethop.com/forum/donate.php

[Billspaintball]

Originally Posted by divided_by_fear

i think it has to do with not allowing them to see the site unless there a member

I have only received donations from members so I dont know if there may be any problems with guests or not.

When I get home I will try to do a donate while not logged in and see what happens then.

[Jenta]

Originally Posted by iguanairs

Jenta,

If your ppverify file is working, why not share it here? You posted that you made a product out of this. Did that correct the ppverify information or does everything work except the ppverify? (When a member donates are they being added automatically or do you need to add them manually?)

The ppverify is where most people are having their problems. If yours is working 100%, could you share with the group instead of just telling us yours works. I am glad yours is working 100% as you state, but it is not doing any of us any justice knowing that when you aren't sharing HOW it is working. You had to have changed something in the ppverify file because the 3.5.1 upgrade is giving that file problems.

The first donation that came in did not register. All the subsequent ones have. I have made no modifications to the files. So the ppverfiy I am using is the same one you are using.

The only thing I did was make a product out of this. What this eliminates is vbulletin wiping out the settings when you upgrade. That's the only thing my changes fix. Nothing else is broken on mine.

[Diaego]

Have installed this module, and works great like the old ver...

However, does anyone know if a VBAdvanced "block"/module has been created for this? The old version had a block you could add to the front page of vbadvanced to show the donors for that month.

Would anyone be willing to create one?

I shouldn't think it would be too hard as the code must be similar to this page: http://www.eve-radio.com/forums/alldonors.php, just without the normal headers etc!!!

This vbadvanced intergration was included in the 3.0.7 version of the module @ https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=82978 - So just some kind of porting required! Anyone here have the skills!?

[DS MrSinister]

try this see if it works..

[divided_by_fear]

no i dont think its that i think its that that what ever paypal is using is tried to get on the page but they cant cause they cant view it unless they sign up... yeah i know it may sound stupid but if you notice all the people who dont seem to be having a problem none of the do you need to sign up to view there pages... mine does and a few others do too... cause i was watching the paypal bot basiclly geting hung up on the no permission page and didnt even try to send the info to ppverify.... i know it should be just going to that folder by way of the bot but thats my only guess...

[Diaego]

Originally Posted by DS MrSinister

try this see if it works..

Hey MrSinister

Thanks for giving this a go! Will benefit a lot of people I think!

I have just tried installing it, but at the top of the page, it seems to display the 'raw code'. E.G, this displays right at the top of my web-page when active:

a:3:{s:6:"module";s:384:"a:12:{s:5:"title";s:9:"Donations";s:10:"identifier";s:9:"Donations";s:8:"filename";s:10:"donate.php";s:7:"inctype";s:8:"php_file";s:6:"parent";s:0:"";s:12:"templatelist";s:72:"adv_portal_donate, adv_portal_donate_goals, adv_portal_donate_goals_user";s:7:"colspan";s:1:"0";s:8:"formcode";s:0:"";s:11:"cleanoutput";s:1:"0";s:7:"options";s:0:"";s:8:"useshell";s:1:"1";s:4:"link";s:0:"";}";s:9:"templates";s:3134:"a:3:{s:17:"adv_portal_donate";s:1280:" $donate_goals_bits Our Top $vboptions[donate_CMPS_users] Donors 
View All Donors 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$donate_goals_userbits  Our Last $vboptions[donate_CMPS_users] Donors 
View All Donors 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ";s:23:"adv_portal_donate_goals";s:1279:" $title 
 
$percentage% of goal has been donated 

We have collected a total of $???$goal_total_formatted 
in donations towards our goal of $???$amount_formatted. ";s:28:"adv_portal_donate_goals_user";s:448:" $donor_username $???$user_total ";}";s:4:"file";s:2658:"