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Maniphest T396101

Error "Fatal Exception of Type "Type Error" when attempting a donation via PayPal
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Description

There have been 3 donors who have encountered the error "Fatal Exception of Type "Type Error" when attempting a donation via PayPal:

  • ZD 1686496 - CID 54993824 - ZA - when clicking on PayPal to make donation - has previously donated via PayPal

[aEA6vS73Os1fFDqwG1d1NQAAAAc] 2025-06-04 12:23:25: Fatal exception of type "TypeError"

  • ZD 1679154 - CID 6831231 - MY - This donor has attempted his donation with different browsers - on his mobile phone (iPhone) and desktop - has previously donated via PayPal

image.png (544×1 px, 144 KB)

  • ZD 1652154 - CID 41421472 - MY - reported back in March, first report of this error but we thought it was a one-off at the time - when clicking on PayPal to make donation - able to donate with PayPal after reporting

image.png (208×1 px, 77 KB)

The error may possibly be related to T388698 as it is the same donor-facing error.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:
SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
Hotfix to stop donor facing exceptions due to 'amount=null' URL parammediawiki/extensions/DonationInterfacemaster+42 -1
Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Event Timeline

EBrill-WMF created this task.Jun 5 2025, 8:50 AM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJun 5 2025, 8:50 AM
EBrill-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 5 2025, 9:05 AM
EBrill-WMF added subscribers: SHust, KHancock99, AMJohnson and 2 others.Jun 5 2025, 9:11 AM
jgleeson subscribed.Jun 5 2025, 11:51 AM

@EBrill-WMF @krobinson, it appears that these errors are related to the URL the donor is using to access the donation page, which is malformed. Specifically, the amount parameter is set to the value of 'null', causing some internal currency conversion logic to fail. My suspicion is that these URLs have been incorrectly generated somewhere, possibly inside an email template or perhaps occurring as part of an invalid redirect from the donate wiki.

I can see lots of examples of this problem in the logs, so I'll dig a bit deeper to see if I can find the root cause and where they are coming from.

jgleeson added a project: Fundraising Tech - Chaos Crew.Jun 5 2025, 11:51 AM
krobinson added a comment.Jun 5 2025, 11:59 AM

Interesting.

They were all responding to a fundraising email when they alerted us - the first to enZAC2425_E1 ; the second to enMYC2425_E2 and the last to enMYC2425_E3 if that helps.

Could it be an email coding error?

jgleeson claimed this task.Jun 5 2025, 12:18 PM
jgleeson triaged this task as Unbreak Now! priority.
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Pcoombe. · View Herald TranscriptJun 5 2025, 12:18 PM
jgleeson moved this task from Backlog to In Progress on the Fundraising Tech - Chaos Crew board.Jun 5 2025, 12:18 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Jun 5 2025, 1:45 PM

Change #1154029 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jgleeson; author: Jgleeson):

[mediawiki/extensions/DonationInterface@master] Hotfix to stop donor facing exceptions due to 'amount=null' URL param

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1154029

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Jun 5 2025, 1:45 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Jun 5 2025, 2:21 PM

Change #1154029 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/DonationInterface@master] Hotfix to stop donor facing exceptions due to 'amount=null' URL param

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1154029

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Jun 5 2025, 2:30 PM
ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.5; 2025-06-10).Jun 5 2025, 3:00 PM
Pcoombe closed this task as Resolved.Jun 5 2025, 4:13 PM

So this was for countries where we offer Paypal, but in USD instead of the local currency e.g. South Africa http://donate.wikimedia.org/?uselang=en&country=ZA. If a local currency amount is selected on donatewiki, it is passed to payments where it is automatically converted to USD. Currently we simply skip any donatewiki validation if the user selects Paypal USD, so if a user doesn't select an amount, we pass amount=null.

Thanks to Jack's patch above that doesn't break things any more e.g. https://payments.wikimedia.org/index.php/Special:GatewayChooser?currency=ZAR&country=ZA&payment_method=paypal&uselang=en&amount=null

I made an Asana task to follow up on adding some validation for this case on donatewiki. Double checked banners and they do already have amount validation for Paypal USD

jgleeson reopened this task as Open.Jun 5 2025, 8:55 PM
jgleeson moved this task from In Progress to Done on the Fundraising Tech - Chaos Crew board.
AKanji-WMF moved this task from Triage to Chaos Crew Backlog on the Fundraising-Backlog board.Jun 5 2025, 8:57 PM
jgleeson mentioned this in T396542: Why are donors seeing this error?.Jun 11 2025, 6:56 PM
XenoRyet closed this task as Resolved.Jun 16 2025, 7:37 PM
XenoRyet set Final Story Points to 4.
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