title: PayPal not returning any variables after successful transaction process
body: <p>I am trying to retrieve values on the return page after a successful transaction from paypal.
  I have already enabled Autoreturn and specified the url for it.
  My codes were working previously, it showed all the values, but it suddenly stopped working and just returns a blank now.
  Please do keep in mind that I am rather new to php.</p>
  
  <p>Here are my codes:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;form action='https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr' method='post' &gt;
  
                      &lt;!-- Identify your business so that you can collect the payments.  --&gt; 
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='business' value='business3@eparking.com'&gt;
  
                      &lt;!-- Specify a Buy Now button.  --&gt; 
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='cmd' value='_xclick'&gt;
  
                      &lt;!-- Specify details about the item that buyers will purchase.  --&gt; 
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='". $offenceid ."'&gt;
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='". $offencetype ."'&gt;
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='amount' value='". $charge ."'&gt;
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='SGD'&gt;
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='rm' value='2'&gt;
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='return_url' value='http://mp25.bit-mp.biz/paymentReturn.php'&gt;
  
  
                      &lt;!-- Specify the Pages for Successful payment &amp; failed Payment--&gt;
  
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='return' value='http://mp25.bit-mp.biz/paymentReturn.php'/&gt;
  
                      &lt;input type='hidden' name='cancel_return' value='http://mp25.bit-mp.biz/userFines.php'/&gt;
  
                      &lt;!--  Display the payment button.  --&gt;
                      &lt;input type='image' name='submit' src='images/paynow.png' alt='PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online'&gt;
  
                      &lt;/form&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>paymentReturn.php</p>
  
  <pre><code>// STEP 1: Read POST data
  
  // reading posted data from directly from $_POST causes serialization 
  // issues with array data in POST
  // reading raw POST data from input stream instead. 
  $raw_post_data = file_get_contents('php://input');
  $raw_post_array = explode('&amp;', $raw_post_data);
  $myPost = array();
  foreach ($raw_post_array as $keyval) {
    $keyval = explode ('=', $keyval);
    if (count($keyval) == 2)
       $myPost[$keyval[0]] = urldecode($keyval[1]);
  }
  // read the post from PayPal system and add 'cmd'
  $req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
  if(function_exists('get_magic_quotes_gpc')) {
     $get_magic_quotes_exists = true;
  } 
  foreach ($myPost as $key =&gt; $value) {        
     if($get_magic_quotes_exists == true &amp;&amp; get_magic_quotes_gpc() == 1) { 
          $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value)); 
     } else {
          $value = urlencode($value);
     }
     $req .= "&amp;$key=$value";
  }
  
  
  // STEP 2: Post IPN data back to paypal to validate
  
  $ch = curl_init('https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr');
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $req);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Connection: Close'));
  
  // In wamp like environments that do not come bundled with root authority certificates,
  // please download 'cacert.pem' from "http://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html" and set the directory path 
  // of the certificate as shown below.
  // curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAINFO, dirname(__FILE__) . '/cacert.pem');
  if( !($res = curl_exec($ch)) ) {
      // error_log("Got " . curl_error($ch) . " when processing IPN data");
      curl_close($ch);
      exit;
  }
  curl_close($ch);
  
  
  // STEP 3: Inspect IPN validation result and act accordingly
  
  if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {
      // check whether the payment_status is Completed
      // check that txn_id has not been previously processed
      // check that receiver_email is your Primary PayPal email
      // check that payment_amount/payment_currency are correct
      // process payment
  
      // assign posted variables to local variables
      $item_name = $_POST['item_name'];
      $item_number = $_POST['item_number'];
      $payment_status = $_POST['payment_status'];
      $payment_amount = $_POST['mc_gross'];
      $payment_currency = $_POST['mc_currency'];
      $txn_id = $_POST['txn_id'];
      $receiver_email = $_POST['receiver_email'];
      $payer_email = $_POST['payer_email'];
  
  } 
  else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
      // log for manual investigation
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thank you.</p>