telophase | (no subject)

DAMN but I want to punch the designers of the PayPal interface in the face. I'm trying to get in and set up a shopping cart with them - and I know it's possible because I GOT HALFWAY THROUGH IT YESTERDAY - but there is NO intuitive link to click to set one up. Everything I click either ends up as a set of pages designed to demo the merchant tools to me, or to a page that logs me out and asks me to set up a Paypal account, which I ALREADY HAVE.

GAH. I mean, I GOT TO IT YESTERDAY although I have NO IDEA how. PAYPAL! I WANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY! WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT HARD FOR ME TO GIVE YOU MONEY?

(Once I have time, I'm going to set up ZenCart, which will allow me to offer Google merchant services as well as Paypal, but for now Paypal is it.)

ETA: OK, I *think* I ahve it figured out now. You have to go to the Merchant Services tab, and the go down to the ad that wants to describe the benefits of selling through PayPal to you, and then click on the teeeeny little "Shopping Cart" link under "Features".

God only knows why they can't put those links oh, say, NOT IN AN AD, but there you have it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Paypal" and "intuitive interface" should never be used in a sentence unless the words "does not have an" come between them.

> Offers virtual chocolate, and maybe a nice cold virtual beer, in lieu of actually being able to do something useful ... <

:-(

What I'd really like right now is to figure out how to generate a certificate through OpenSSL, plus the knowledge of if it's even feasible to use one on my hosting setup. :P Ah well, I suppose I can just offer unencrypted buttons and give people the option to email me with what they want and have me invoice them through PaypaL...

And I think I'm answering my own question: I can, but only if I buy a unique IP for $3.95/month. Well, I'm not transmitting credit-card numbers from the Paypal buttons, just the fact that someone is buying a comic from us, so I don't think anything serious would happen.

are you using the paypal shopping cart or one you are hosting on your site? The paypal shopping cart already has security/ssl thingy.
friday = brainded

No, it's to encrypt the buttons themselves, so that Nefarious People can't fuxx0r it up and do Nefarious Things as the information is being sent across the intarwebs. But I think the slight possibility that it'll happen is not worth the $3.95 a month that it would cost me.

Prob'ly not worth it, but keep the notion of random bored haxx0r types in the back of your mind ... chances are you'll notice the fallout if anything like that starts happening.

(I mean, I saw someone had mucked about with Wikipedia's main Fruits Basket page the other day ... there are some seriously bored people out there ... .)

Yeah, I'll have to keep an eye on it. Which will be made easier by the fact that I can disable the page once both print runs sell out, and re-enable it when they're in, so I don't have to watch it all the time.