New PayPal Module

[SimpleSonic]

How will the new PayPal module replace the existing PayPal modules in 8.9 for those upgrading from earlier versions of WHMCS?

Will it be automatically done during the upgrade or is this something that will need to be manually done?

 

[Evolve Web Hosting]

It would be nice to know @SimpleSonic - great question

[arthur34]

Hello,

Here is their answer: 

Thank you for your follow-up question.

From checking with my resources, there is currently no feature to migrate from the older Paypal modules. With that said, from my understanding, this may be something that will be implemented in the future should the older PayPal payment gateways be removed.

In order to obtain further clarity, I have opened an internal inquiry with the development team. When I have a response I will be sure to update you further.

In the meantime, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Kind regards,

[WHMCS John]

Hi all,

The PayPal Basic and PayPal Checkout modules will remain in v8.9. We expect these new modules to be popular, so intend to make it easy to switch with minimal  interruption to your recurring payments.

Further details about this recommended migration path and technical details of how it has been designed will be provided later as we near the General Availability release.

For more information on the new PayPal modules, please see our latest blog post: https://blog.whmcs.com/133744/introducing-the-new-paypal-payments-with-vault-technology

[slim]

I just removed the old module, switching everyone over to the new one. (I wasn't using recurring Paypal, so I assume it will be fairly seamless?)

[WHMCS John]

Hi @slim,

For one time payments only, yes I that that's likely all that's necessary.

In terms of migration we're working on the presumption that an install will have some PayPal Subscriptions in place through the PayPal Basic or PayPal Checkout modules, and admins will want those to continue being recorded by WHMCS as those come through. Those admins will need to keep the previous module active, but hidden from the order form, to facilitate that.

We don't foresee mass-cancel existing PayPal Subscriptions as a viable idea, because that might increase involuntary churn if clients don't login to the client area and connect their PayPal account via the new module. So we're thinking some kind of migration as PayPal subscriptions naturally expire over time.

[slim]

I can say it was a success (switching everyone over to the new PayPal Module) - as I didn't have any customers with recurring, it was seamless. No complaints, and plenty of payments.

[WHMCS John]

That's great to hear, thanks for sharing that feedback @slim.

Are you also using the PayPal Card Payments module?

[slim]

8 hours ago, WHMCS John said:

That's great to hear, thanks for sharing that feedback @slim.

Are you also using the PayPal Card Payments module?

No - I use eway for card payments.

[Juan GG Host]

On 16/01/2024 at 8:03 PM, WHMCS John said:

Hi @slim,

For one time payments only, yes I that that's likely all that's necessary.

In terms of migration we're working on the presumption that an install will have some PayPal Subscriptions in place through the PayPal Basic or PayPal Checkout modules, and admins will want those to continue being recorded by WHMCS as those come through. Those admins will need to keep the previous module active, but hidden from the order form, to facilitate that.

We don't foresee mass-cancel existing PayPal Subscriptions as a viable idea, because that might increase involuntary churn if clients don't login to the client area and connect their PayPal account via the new module. So we're thinking some kind of migration as PayPal subscriptions naturally expire over time.

I just updated to the 8.9 General Release. 

I'm not sure if I misunderstood the release notes. My understanding is that only the Vaulting part of the new PayPal modules are restricted to certain countries, but not the payment modules themselves. 

However, after activating the new modules and trying to link them, the PayPal sign-in page only allows the selection of the restricted list of countries. 

This is concerning, especially with the talk above about the future removal of the legacy PayPal modules.

[WHMCS John]

Hi all,

We have prepared a guide for migrating from PayPal Basic or PayPal Checkout modules to the new PayPal Payments module: https://help.whmcs.com/m/troubleshooting/l/1782851-migrating-to-paypal-payments

Any future decision to remove these previous modules will take into account the availability of the service on PayPal's end. This is now PayPal's recommended integration method, so I expect they'll be expanding availability. If you have any concerns about availability please speak to your PayPal Account Manager.

[websavers]

Hey @WHMCS John

Just updated, so far quite seamless this time around. Looking forward to the new PayPal subscriptions being easier to maintain.

I fully understand the technical reasons for not being able to migrate existing subscriptions using PayPal Checkout to PayPal Payments. But perhaps there could be a clear way for us to facilitate clients doing this manually.

If we were to deactivate PayPal Checkout, it's understandable that all existing subscriptions would fail to process, but we don't know exactly what that looks like.

Do clients get a warning about their subscription not processing payment, or is it just invoice overdue emails?
Do their subscriptions totally fail to process or do they actually process, in that the company receives the funds, but it's not applied to the client's invoice or account?

Is there a way to ask clients to login to their account to set up a new PayPal subscription (and cancel their existing one) that works clearly without too much confusion for end users?

Thank you!

[WHMCS John]

Hi @websavers,

We recommend following the steps in the PayPal Payments migration guide to ensure that subscription payments established via the now-deprecated PayPal modules continue to be processed: https://help.whmcs.com/m/troubleshooting/l/1782851-migrating-to-paypal-payments

If one did not follow those steps and instead deactivated the PayPal/PayPal Basic module, I've addressed your questions in-line:

 

Quote

Do clients get a warning about their subscription not processing payment, or is it just invoice overdue emails?

Clients do not get a warning about this.

 

Quote

Do their subscriptions totally fail to process or do they actually process, in that the company receives the funds, but it's not applied to the client's invoice or account?

The company will receive the funds from PayPal, but it will not be recorded by WHMCS. A "Module Not Active" type error will be logged to the WHMCS System Log.

 

Quote

Is there a way to ask clients to login to their account to set up a new PayPal subscription (and cancel their existing one) that works clearly without too much confusion for end users?

One could potentially add some instructions to this effect in the Invoice Created and/or Invoice Overdue Notice email templates.

It could also be conditional on there being a subscription ID present on the service record:
 

{if $invoice_subscription_id}
Follow these steps to migrate to the awesome new PayPal Payments gateway.
{/if}

 

[websavers]

Thanks @WHMCS John!

This all makes sense; just wanted to know for certain that this is how it would work.

1 hour ago, WHMCS John said:

The company will receive the funds from PayPal, but it will not be recorded by WHMCS. A "Module Not Active" type error will be logged to the WHMCS System Log.

Because of this, no matter what, definitely best to leave the old module active then, as you and the docs have indicated. (Assuming there are recurring subscriptions still).

That means if we *really* wanted to force all subscriptions to the new PayPal gateway module, there's really only one good option: Manually cancel all existing subscriptions in PayPal and notify all customers using PayPal that they must login and create a new subscription manually on next renewal. (Plus prob also add it to the invoice template in the manner you suggested).

If there's a programmatic way to cancel the subscriptions from WHMCS, that might be handy. Do you think if we disabled or removed the PayPal app that WHMCS created for the prior PayPal module, that would prevent subscription payments from processing? Or is that a question for PayPal and not you guys?

I realize the plan to cancel all subscriptions doesn't obviously align with the goal to prevent customer churn and frustration, however we've had some cases where the old module resulted in significant overpayments on client accounts. This was partly due to user error, but also partly because the module and/or PayPal's part of it didn't do much to help prevent duplicate subscriptions and payments. Because of that a forced clean-slate might still be better than the possibility of that kind of issue continuing/recurring. Hence why I'm looking for an option that blocks all prior subscriptions from renewing, but makes it clear that customers will need to manually create a new subscription.

Thanks again for your answers and clarifications.

 

[WHMCS John]

2 hours ago, websavers said:

If there's a programmatic way to cancel the subscriptions from WHMCS, that might be handy. Do you think if we disabled or removed the PayPal app that WHMCS created for the prior PayPal module, that would prevent subscription payments from processing? Or is that a question for PayPal and not you guys?

WHMCS doesn't currently provide a way to mass-cancel PayPal Subscriptions.

Deleting/deactivating the app in the PayPal Developer site would probably stop the webhook notifications being sent by PayPal at-all. I don't think it would cancel the Subscriptions. That is something PayPal Technical Support are better placed to confirm for you.

[websavers]

Thanks again @WHMCS John