paypalpayflowlink

Merchant Design Identification Error in PayPal Payflow Link


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?


Solution

  • 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.