Problems with captcha & PayPal

Resolved l9fum
(@l9fum)

2 months ago

I was about ready to promote the adult & youth art show entry forms for our website for public viewing & use, but when I checked the forms again again, there are 2 problems. First, the captcha is not working. I have tried all 3 of the reCaptcha types, and none of them works right, if at all. When I entered my credentials for the v2 checkbox option in the Forminator Global Settings, I got the following error message (within the form to enter credentials) in the graphic that represents what the captcha box looks like: “ERROR for site owner: Invalid key type.” When I entered the same credentials for the v2 Invisible & v3 reCaptcha, there is no error message in the Global Settings credentials entry form. I basically gave up with the checkbox option at that point.

If I set the captcha field in the Adult Art Show Entry Form to v2 Invisible, the form & PayPal buttons work when I preview the form in the Edit Form view. But when I publish those changes & open the actual page the form is on, the PayPal buttons are ghosted. I tried duplicating the form just now, removing the PayPal module from the duplicated form, & putting that duplicated/altered form on a new page: https://hendersoncountyart.org/artShow/copy-of-adult-art-show-entry-form/ When I open that page, a submit button appears (as it should if there is no PayPal module), & if I fill out the form & click the submit button, it submits the data I entered just fine. But when I added the PayPal module to the duplicated form & published that change, the buttons show up ghosted on the site page, just like in the original page/form. (I removed the PayPal field again for the duplicated page.) If I just preview the original Adult Art Show Entry form in the Forminator edit function, though, the PayPal module buttons show up fine & open a payment window when I click on them. So there is kind of a disconnect between the preview form view & the published form.

On the Youth Art Show Entry form, which has been giving me (& your support team members who have been helping me) no end of various troubles over the past week or 2, the problem is now the same with the ghosted PayPal buttons. (This is the link to that form’s page: https://hendersoncountyart.org/artShow/youth-art-show-entry-form/) I have that form set up so if there is only 1 artwork (which has no entry fee), the PayPal buttons don’t show up at all. Then the form works fine—I click the submit button & it submits the entered form data. But if I add more than 1 artwork in total, which creates an entry fee & so triggers the PayPal buttons to show, the buttons are ghosted & therefore don’t work. But again, as with the Adult entry form, if I just preview the form in the Forminator edit function, then everything works fine. I don’t know if it matters, but I have the captcha field set to v2 Invisible for that form, just as with the Adult Art Show Entry form.

I even tried deleting the captcha field entirely in the Youth entry form, to see if the PayPal module would then work, but that didn’t help at all, so I put the captcha field back in the form.

I exported both forms so you can take a look if you need to. The address for the Youth form export is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-Nj8jw9z2NmV4lvh_G0L3R5YXcBy57I/view?usp=sharing The address for the Adult form export is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rm5iWXVVnq7EV1fsvW6z-57nyK4MpdNS/view?usp=sharing

I worked on most of this in Firefox, but also tried opening the page with the Youth art show entry form in Vivaldi, which is a Chrome-based browser, with the same results. My WordPress version is the most up-to-date, and all my plugins & themes are updated. I don’t know if this might be a captcha problem or a PayPal module problem. I was hoping to get everything set up by tomorrow, but I can tell that’s unlikely now. I hope you can come up with an easy fix. If you need to see the original support thread about the Youth form issues, that is here: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/paypal-button-works-in-1-form-not-another/ In a follow-up email I received from Nebu John, he said to open a new support ticket if I needed more help, so here we are. I hope I have provided enough information for you to work on this & hopefully tell me how to fix the problem. If you need anything more, please let me know. Thank you for your time so far, & have a good day.

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

Plugin Support Amin – WPMU DEV Support
(@wpmudev-support2)

2 months ago

Hello @l9fum

Hope you are doing well today.

It seems your recaptcha keys are having issues, please keep that in mind; each version needs a different set of API and secret key, since invisible more is working fine, the other version keys might be invalid, please double check them and make sure you have created proper keys for each version in your Google account and added them to your Forminator settings.

https://wpmudev.com/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/forminator/#recaptcha-settings

Also from your description, I think some of your optimization plugins are conflicting with Forminator, have you tried temporarily disabling them to see if the issue is still happening?

I suggest running a full conflict test after making sure the reCAPTCHA is valid.
https://wpmudev.com/docs/getting-started/getting-support/#conflict-test

Best Regards
Amin
Thread Starter l9fum
(@l9fum)

2 months ago
I fixed the reCAPTCHA keys for all three captcha options & set both the Youth Art Show Entry Form & the Adult Art Show Entry Form to reCAPTCHA V3 type. I tested the copy of the Adult form that doesn’t have the PayPal module included on it by opening the published page, & on that one everything works fine & the data submits when I click the submit button after filling out the form. So I assume the reCAPTCHA function is no longer a problem.

I am still having the same issue with the PayPal module buttons being ghosted on the actual site page, however. I double-checked the Client ID & Secret Key for both Sandbox & Live modes, & they are correct based on my PayPal account settings. I deactivated all plugins except Forminator and switched my theme to the 2025 theme. The PayPal module on the form on both Adult & Youth published pages itself still is ghosted & therefore does not work. I tried just previewing both the Adult & Youth forms from within the Forminator form editing function, & the PayPal module works fine in both of them there. The buttons on the preview panel are not ghosted & if I click on them there, the appropriate window/box opens to continue with payment. It is only in the published site pages that the PayPal module doesn’t work. I tried in both Sandbox & Live mode, with the exact same result in both. As I said in my initial post here, it seems to have some sort of disconnect between the form in the Preview panel & the form on the published page.

I am again at a total loss. I’ll leave the non-Forminator plugins (except for the WordFence security plugin) deactivated for now & the theme set to the 2025 theme. Hopefully that will help you figure out the problem & how to fix it. Please let me know if you need anything else from me. Thank you for your time & help so far, & I hope you have a good day.
- This reply was modified 2 months ago by l9fum. Reason: updating & clarifying problem
- This reply was modified 2 months ago by l9fum.
Plugin Support Dmytro – WPMU DEV Support
(@wpmudevsupport16)

2 months ago
Hello @l9fum,

Thank you, we have forwarded all the details to the developers, in order for them to thoroughly investigate the issue, and fix it in future plugin versions. We currently don’t have a particular ETA, though, I’m afraid.

In the meantime you can use the following PHP snippet (must use plugin) as a workaround:
```
<?php

function wpmudev_trigger_calculation_change() {
	global $post;
	if ( is_a( $post, 'WP_Post' ) && ! has_shortcode( $post->post_content, 'forminator_form' ) ) {
		return;
	}
	?>
	<script type="text/javascript">
	jQuery( document ).ready( function($){
		setTimeout(function() {
			$('.forminator-custom-form').trigger('after.load.forminator');
		}, 500);
		$(document).on('after.load.forminator', function(e, form_id) {
			if ( 'forminator-module-111' === e.target.id ) { // Please change 111 to the Adult Art Show Entry Form's ID.
				$(document).on( 'forminator-clone-group', function() {
					setTimeout(function(){
						$('#calculation-2 input').change();
					},4000);
				});
			}
			if ( 'forminator-module-222' === e.target.id ) { // Please change 222 to the Youth Art Show Entry Form's ID.
				$(document).on( 'forminator-clone-group', function() {
					setTimeout(function(){
						$('#calculation-5 input').change();
					},4000);
				});
			}
		});
	});
	</script>
	<?php
}
add_action( 'wp_footer', 'wpmudev_trigger_calculation_change', 9999 );
```
– save it in a text editor as a PHP file, and change numbers 111 and 222 to the correct ones from the shortcodes of the corresponding forms in the following parts of the code:
```
if ( 'forminator-module-111' === e.target.id )
...
if ( 'forminator-module-222' === e.target.id )
```
Then save it as a PHP file, for example “forminator-paypal-button-fix.php“, and upload the saved file to /wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory on the server.

If there’s no “mu-plugins” directory inside /wp-content/, you’ll need to create it. Here’s more info on adding snippets as must use plugins: https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/plugins/mu-plugins/

I hope this helps. Please let us know if there’s still any issue after adding the above snippet.

Best Regards,
Dmytro
Thread Starter l9fum
(@l9fum)

2 months ago

I just added the snippet in the mu-plugins directory. So far at least, it seems to work! I’m taking this as a win that hopefully holds. Fingers crossed I don’t have to bother you again with this. 🙂 Thank you & your team SO much for your hard work! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Thread Starter l9fum
(@l9fum)

1 month, 1 week ago

A few weeks ago, this issue with the reCaptcha & PayPal not working together was resolved after I had added the plugin snippet you provided. (That file is named artShowEntryFormsPayPalModuleFixed.php, located in the wp-content/mu-plugins directory, in case you need to know.) I don’t know if the Forminator plugin was updated since then and that plugin snippet code is interfering, but the functionality is broken for me now on the Youth Art Show Entry Form on my site. (The Adult Art Show Entry Form, on the same site, works just fine now.) On the Youth form, if I have the reCAPTCHA feature active (only V2 Invisible & V3), nothing happens when the user clicks one of the PayPal buttons. If I use the V2 Checkbox reCAPTCHA, no captcha checkbox appears. The PayPal buttons are clickable in that instance, but clicking one of them returns an error of invalid reCAPTCHA. I assume this is because the reCAPTCHA checkbox doesn’t appear & so the user can’t click it. I tried deleting the plugin snippet I had previously uploaded, with no apparent difference in the results. I also tried deactivating all plugins except Forminator, but that made no difference, either, so I reactivated them. As I said, everything works fine on the Adult Art Show Entry Form.

Currently, on the Youth Art Show Entry Form, I have no reCAPTCHA field at all. I duplicated the Youth Art Show Entry Form (named Copy of Youth Art Show Entry Form) & added the reCAPTCHA, just to have a test page that casual site visitors won’t likely see, as I haven’t linked to it from any pages or menu items on the site. It gives me the results I detailed above.

I did try modifying the plugin snippet code you provided previously to work with the duplicated Youth Art Show Entry Form by changing the form ID number from the original Youth form ID to that of the duplicated form, but that didn’t help make the duplicated form work.

The URL for the duplicated Youth entry form page (with the reCaptcha) is https://hendersoncountyart.org/artShow/copy-of-youth-art-show-entry-form/ (Note: to activate the PayPal module on that particular form, you have to enter data for at least 2 artworks, as the entry “fee” for anyone entering only 1 artwork is $0.) Could the way the fee has to be calculated have something to do with the reCAPTCHA and/or PayPal module not working properly on the Youth form?

I exported the duplicated Youth entry form, which you can find here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15esOHD2MHMUJyH66tfTPuFqzEQCv7lPO/view?usp=sharing

I would appreciate any advice you can offer. The (original) Youth form does work without the reCAPTCHA functionality, but I would much prefer to have the extra security against spam entries that the captcha provides. Especially since if an entrant enters only 1 artwork, they don’t have to go through PayPal & can conceivably just keep submitting spam entries to their heart’s content. Please let me know if you need anything more from me, or come up with a solution. Thank you for your time again, & I hope you have a wonderful day!

Plugin Support Amin – WPMU DEV Support
(@wpmudev-support2)

1 month, 1 week ago

Hello @l9fum

Can you please confirm this form has issues? I ran some tests on my end but PayPal pop-up opened without any errors in my end.

View post on imgur.com

Have you tried testing it using a different browser or in an incognito tab maybe its cache issue? Please also make sure all required fields are filled out correctly.

Best Regards
Amin

Thread Starter l9fum
(@l9fum)

1 month, 1 week ago

I double-checked the Copy of Youth Art Show Entry form, & am still having issues. I tried it in both Firefox & Vivaldi (a Chrome-based browser), with the same result in each. I tried clearing cookies & cache, with no apparent change in the form’s behavior. I also tried it in a private window in Firefox, with the same result. If I enter data for only one artwork, the PayPal module doesn’t appear, which is what I want. When I click the Submit button in that instance, it submits the data just fine & displays the confirmation message you showed in the screenshot you took.

I did see the form submission you did earlier, but it was only for one artwork. The problem I’m having doesn’t occur until I click the “Add another artwork” button & enter data for a second artwork. That activates the PayPal module, but clicking on any of the payment buttons does nothing if I have a reCAPTCHA field of any sort. They do get a bit “shaded” when I hover over them, like I am triggering an onhover command, but actually clicking does nothing. I can’t even figure out how you got the PayPal to pop up, since you only entered data for 1 entry, which shouldn’t trigger the PayPal module at all.

The best result I’ve gotten so far on the Copy of Youth Art Show Entry form was an “invalid CAPTCHA” error message when I tried to submit the form with 2 entries, though I can’t seem to recreate that behavior now for some reason. I did get a screenshot of that when it happened earlier today, though, which you can see here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o-i3TNHwPl8XImYnYg_0mNIdaq9-5UxO/view?usp=sharing

I did add a reCAPTCHA V3 field to the Adult Art Show Entry form on my site, & that form works just fine. The only thing different with the Youth form is the way the fee is calculated. On the Adult form, there is always an entry fee, even if there is only 1 artwork. For the Youth, however, the first entry piece is free, so the entry fee starts out at $0 & the PayPal only appears if there are 2 or more entries, which triggers an entry fee of $2 or more. I don’t know if that calculation system messes with the PayPal module somehow or what. As I said previously, everything worked a few weeks ago, so I don’t know what might have gone wrong.

I hope you are able to recreate whatever the problem is, because I don’t know right now what else to tell you. Thank you for your time & efforts so far, & I hope you have a great day!

Plugin Support Amin – WPMU DEV Support
(@wpmudev-support2)

1 month, 1 week ago

Hello @l9fum

I have reviewed your site again and was able to replicate the issue now.
The PayPal pop-up automatically closed however it seems there is an issue with code snippet we shared.

When you create a new form its ID changes; you need to update the form ID in the code snippet to make it work for the new form.

Can you please make sure the ID is updated and test it again? If you still have issues, please let us know so investigate further.

Best Regards
Amin

Thread Starter l9fum
(@l9fum)

1 month, 1 week ago

I updated the form ID for the Youth form in the code snippet & re-uploaded that file to the mu-plugins sub-folder on the server. It took a bit of finagling with the page & form on the site itself, but it finally seems to be working OK again. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t decide to malfunction yet again! Thank you once more so much for your time & assistance. I’m marking this issue as resolved, & hopefully won’t have to reopen it again. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Plugin Support Williams – WPMU DEV Support
(@wpmudevsupport3)

1 month, 1 week ago

Hi @l9fum ,

I hope you’re doing well.

I’m glad that this issue is resolved. If you have a moment, I would very much appreciate it if you could quickly rate our plugin. This will help us keep the plugin available for free.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/forminator/reviews/#new-post

Best Regards,
Williams Valerio

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