2

My Payflow Link integration has been giving some trouble recently. Whenever I attempt to start a transaction from my web shop, the following error occurs:

Some required information is missing or incorrect. Please correct the fields below and try again.

  • Error: Merchant Design Identification Error.

This happens immediately after being transfered to PayPal's hosted payment form. The account I am using is in test mode and the following values are posted to https://payflowlink.paypal.com/:

LOGIN=[login]
PARTNER=[partner]
SHOWCONFIRM=true
ECHODATA=true
TYPE=S
AMOUNT=99.99
INVOICE=123456
NAME=John Doe
ADDRESS=Main Street 123
CITY=Los Angeles
ZIP=1234
COUNTRY=US
PHONE=
NAMETOSHIP=John Doe
ADDRESSTOSHIP=Main Street 123
CITYTOSHIP=Los Angeles
ZIPTOSHIP=1234
COUNTRYTOSHIP=US
PHONETOSHIP=

The only result Google has to offer for this error message suggests that the PayPal credentials aren't valid. This doesn't seem to be the case though, because when I send wrong credentials, I get a different error message, not this one. Also, I can log into PayPal Manager using these credentials and it doesn't report a 'deactivated account' status anywhere.

Has anyone else encountered this error message? And, more importantly, how do I fix it?

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Niels van der Rest
  • 31,664
  • 16
  • 80
  • 86
  • 1
    Could someone care to explain *why* this isn't a real question? I don't see how it's ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical. Perhaps it's hard to answer because there's little information to be found about the problem, but **isn't that the reason why people ask questions** in the first place? Besides, now that the question is closed, someone else or I won't be able to add a better answer, when, for example, I get a response from PayPal support. – Niels van der Rest Aug 27 '11 at 10:22
  • 3
    I agree. This question came up high in Google results, and it was exactly the question I wanted an answer to. Why close it? If there was anything wrong with the question, couldn't some constructive feedback allowed the original poster to clarify? – Erik Hermansen Jan 16 '13 at 23:49

1 Answers1

4

Try to reset any template(s) you're using in the PayPal Manager. I'm guessing there's an issue with them.

I'd also recommend logging a ticket with PayPal MTS at https://www.paypal.com/mts/ -- this is not likely to be a code issue, or even something we can figure out on SO.

Robert
  • 19,326
  • 3
  • 58
  • 59
  • Thanks Robert, your guess about the templates was probably correct. I changed the template to one of the three possible layouts, clicked 'Save and Publish' and the problem seems solved. However, now one of the layouts has disappeared and I'm getting errors in PayPal Manager. I have contacted PayPal too, I'll just let it rest and see if it's any better next week :) – Niels van der Rest Aug 25 '11 at 18:47