Product variations - info is being cut short

[babybunches]

The shopping cart I have setup is using textarea boxes for the custom information.



The E-junkie system is cutting the words off that are entered during a transaction - and limiting it to 16 and a bit words - which means the seller is not getting all of the information in longer messages.



This is what E-junkie gives us (on the cart overlay and also in the email return):



Baby Details: One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen s



Delivery Details: One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen s



What I actually entered in the the boxes was:

In Baby Details:

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twentyone twentytwo twentythree twentyfour twentyfive twentysix twentyseven twentyeight twentynine thirty thirtyone thirtytwo thirtythree thirtyfour thirtyfive thirtysix thirtyseven thirtyeight thirtynine forty fortyone fortytwo fortythree fortyfour fortyfive fortysix fortyseven fortyeight fortynine fifty



In Delivery Details:

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twentyone twentytwo twentythree twentyfour twentyfive twentysix twentyseven twentyeight twentynine thirty thirtyone thirtytwo thirtythree thirtyfour thirtyfive thirtysix thirtyseven thirtyeight thirtynine forty fortyone fortytwo fortythree fortyfour fortyfive fortysix fortyseven fortyeight fortynine fifty



I think 50 words per textarea box is reasonable.



I tried adding maxlength="2000" as per the E-junkie input code but that does not work.



What little trick have you got to enable a reasonable length of input?



Please advise as this is also a critical issue for us - otherwise we're missing important information from the customer.



Thanks again and all the best.

[E-junkie_Chef]

This is not possible to achieve as PayPal has limitation on the text size that we can send them in the option variables.



If you want buyer to enter an address for each item, a better bet will be to generate a form on E-junkie thank you page or use your own thank you page to collect that info from buyer after the order.

[babybunches]

I can't believe that - what a limitation.



It would be fantastic if you communicated that somewhere on your site to save time wasting. I would have saved about a week.



Can't e-junkie just send the full info to the seller and PayPal takes what they want?



Surely you don't need to communicate the same info to the buyer that Paypal does!

[babybunches]

Doesn’t exactly make for a seamless cart installation with an extra form on the thank you page - and people that close the transaction at PayPal instead of following the redirect back to our thank you page are going to miss out on the customization options all together - and then the seller will have to chase the buyer etc etc.



Not so easy or user friendly

[babybunches]

When you think about it, who cares what PayPal does with the custom info - its what the E-junkie Cart does with it that matters. That's the important thing here. That's why we setup custom variants and custom emails - so we can communicate the information we want to the buyer.



And E-junkie should communicate all of the information in the custom variants if the choice is made to customize the buyer's email. Otherwise you're saying E-junkie can do something when in actual fact it falls short of the mark.



Its such a great cart and this seems like such an obvious shortcoming that I kind of can't believe it.

[E-junkie_Guru]

PayPal's limitations and what PayPal does with the info matters to our cart, because we have to pass all the cart data to them in order for them to process the checkout payment, then afterwards they have to pass all that info back to us to confirm to our system that payment was good and completed successfully. If they can only handle 100 characters of text input per field and throw away any excess, then they will only have those 100 characters to pass back to us when they confirm the order. It would be impractical and hideously expensive for us (and thus also for you, as your subscription fees cover our costs) to store all pre-truncated cart data on our system and then re-add any missing data to the payment notifications we get from the processor.



To consider the whole process in real-world metaphors (bearing mind it doesn't literally work like this, but you may find it easier to understand this way):



* It's as if we hand out order-forms (cart instances) by the thousands every day;



* Only some of those forms come back to us filled out and ready to pay (going to Checkout);



* We copy the data from our order-form (cart) to another format that the buyer's chosen payment processor (e.g. PayPal) requires for checkout (every one of them is different), so we can send the order details off to them for payment;



* Some of their checkout forms only have so much room to write anything for certain lines of info, so we copy whatever we can fit in there and leave out the rest (which they'd ignore anyway);



* Then we send the completed checkout form off to the processor, who arranges for payment with the buyer independently of us;



* Every day, all day long, we get bunches of those order-checkout forms back from the various processors we handle, with a big, red rubber stamp on them that says PAID (they don't return any of the ones that were declined or abandoned by the buyer during checkout at all).



* We copy all the order data from those PAID checkout forms into a ledger (your E-junkie transaction log) and an invoice (sale notification email) that we mail to the seller, and we send the buyer a letter (thank-you email) to confirm their purchase and include any data products they purchased (codes or download links) that we can enclose in that letter.



* If we kept a copy of every order form (cart) we hand out, or even every order form (cart) that gets turned in (goes to checkout), we'd need a virtual warehouse full of filing cabinets and a huge clerical staff to match up original order forms with PAID checkout forms coming in -- and you would need to pay for all of that with inflated subscription fees -- instead of the simple clerical office and select clerks (e-junkie staff and software) that meets our (and your) needs currently.



As reasonably accurate as that description above may be for how things operate currently, we are working on a way to retain a copy of the complete product data from our cart temporarily for a brief period during checkout, so we can match up cart orders sent to checkout with any checkout payment confirmations coming back in. As usual, formal announcement of any new features or enhancements going live would be posted to our Service Status and Updates forum category here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/forum/6

[E-junkie_Chef]

babybunchesIt would be fantastic if you communicated that somewhere on your site to save time wasting. I would have saved about a week.

We DO add the limitation in the code itself. And if you remove the limitation manually and then enter more text than allowed, it does not work.

[babybunches]

Thanks for your responses - your service is great - and thanks for clarifying the process Tyson.



Tyson, I'm not expecting E-junkie will keep a copy of every order form - just requesting all pertinent information to be sent through to the seller (including all info entered in the custom form variants)

Tyson_Nwe are working on a way to retain a copy of the complete product data from our cart temporarily for a brief period during checkout, so we can match up cart orders sent to checkout with any checkout payment confirmations coming back in.

Now you're talking. That will be awesome!!!!!



Thanks again guys