your cart is empty -- add from quick cart

I have a quick cart in the sidebar of a page that has products of a particular type shown. If you click the add to cart button it adds it to the quick cart. If you click view cart it says the cart is empty, if you go back and add it again it only shows 1 item in the cart but the view cart then registers it. I'm sure its a session variable problem but can't figure out where to solve it. URL: http://preferred-cell-systems.com/shop.php?Product_Name=CAMEO-4

I am also having problems getting the checkout to work with the PP sandbox. I used the response bindings tutorial to figure it out but everything totally got screwed up. It threw out a boat load of "invalid index" on every field.

Please let me know what you need to help me debug this problem and I'll get you the information

The add to cart and quick cart are working for me using that link. Is it possible you are going from the www. version to the version without or vice versa? That would cause the cart to clear. I usually suggest using the .htaccess file to force users to use one or the other.

I don't suggest using the sandbox. You need to use a sandbox user and sandbox credentials and it can get confusing. Just use a live account and refund the transaction. Paypal will refund all fees and you can do as many refunds as you want.

I scrapped using the sandbox and went to live credentials but the transaction still fails. I turned on error reporting but no errors show. Can you help me debug this? Also I would like to add filling in the ship info if the user is logged in but haven't been successful in doing this.
http://preferred-cell-systems.com

One issue you have is you can access your site from both:
http://preferred-cell-systems.com

and
http://www.preferred-cell-systems.com

That can cause your session to be lost when you switch from one to the other. You can use .htaccess to force one or the other to correct this problem.

I'd need FTP access to fully debug. You could add this to the failure page:

<?php

@session_start();

var_dump($_SESSION);

?>

That would at least show me the error from paypal and might help me give you more information on what might need to be updated.

I updated the htaccess file to always use non www address.
I added the session dump code and here is the result:

array(12) { ["WAENCRYPTEDRETURNUSED"]=> bool(false) ["WAENCRYPTEDRETURNSUCCESS"]=> bool(false) ["PCScart_Items"]=> string(259) "1654|WAECART|Cell Culture Plates|WAECART|4-well, 35mm Petri Dishes|WAECART||WAECART|0|WAECART|1|WAECART|30|WAECART|Application: CAMEO-4|WAECART|KC-P4-10|WAECART|Not applicable|WAECART|1522952095654560|WAECART|0|WAECART|30|WAECART|1 Cell Culture Plates (1654)" ["WAEC_ContinueRedirect"]=> string(46) "/shop.php?Product_Name=Cell%20Culture%20Plates" ["WASF_CheckoutWizard_NewFromBlank_Default"]=> array(16) { ["Company_Name"]=> string(3) "CDA" ["First_Name"]=> string(6) "George" ["Last_Name"]=> string(6) "Zirfas" ["Email_Address"]=> string(15) "gzirfas@mac.com" ["Phone_Number"]=> string(14) "(719) 447-9752" ["Address_1"]=> string(22) "1206 E. LaSalle Street" ["Address_2"]=> string(0) "" ["Country"]=> string(2) "US" ["State"]=> string(2) "CO" ["City"]=> string(16) "Colorado Springs" ["Postal_Code"]=> string(5) "80907" ["CheckoutWizard_submit"]=> string(17) "Continue Checkout" ["_gat"]=> string(1) "1" ["PHPSESSID"]=> string(32) "88cc97ae428a3bb7078eff1774296da0" ["_ga"]=> string(27) "GA1.2.1336435059.1522952079" ["_gid"]=> string(27) "GA1.2.1892576524.1522952079" } ["WAVT_confirmcart_Errors"]=> string(0) "" ["WASF_WA_Payments"]=> array(16) { ["Company_Name"]=> string(3) "CDA" ["First_Name"]=> string(6) "George" ["Last_Name"]=> string(6) "Zirfas" ["Email_Address"]=> string(15) "gzirfas@mac.com" ["Phone_Number"]=> string(14) "(719) 447-9752" ["Address_1"]=> string(22) "1206 E. LaSalle Street" ["Address_2"]=> string(0) "" ["Country"]=> string(2) "US" ["State"]=> string(2) "CO" ["City"]=> string(16) "Colorado Springs" ["Postal_Code"]=> string(5) "80907" ["CheckoutWizard_submit"]=> string(17) "Continue Checkout" ["_gat"]=> string(1) "1" ["PHPSESSID"]=> string(32) "88cc97ae428a3bb7078eff1774296da0" ["_ga"]=> string(27) "GA1.2.1336435059.1522952079" ["_gid"]=> string(27) "GA1.2.1892576524.1522952079" } ["eCart_PPECO_System"]=> string(2) "US" ["WA_BillingAgreements"]=> array(0) { } ["PayPal_ECO_Token"]=> string(0) "" ["ECO_Auth_Request"]=> string(1588) "BLANKED+FOR+SECURITYhttp://preferred-cell-systems.com/pp_confirm.phphttp://preferred-cell-systems.com/cart.php?ppcancel=1SoleBillingSale160.0030.0090.00Cell Culture Plates4-well, 35mm Petri Dishes30.001165440.00Sale" ["ECO_Auth_Result"]=> string(2061) "2018-04-05T18:15:35ZFailurebaeef1a12a5d2Security errorSecurity header is not valid10002Error63.045452353" }

Let me know what road to head down to reach success!!!
Thanks, for all you do.

The error:
Security header is not valid

Means that the username, password, or security key are invalid.

It appears there may be a bug associated with having dollar signs in the security key. I downloaded the webassist/ecart/checkout/credentials/gateways.php file and encoded the dollar signs on line 13. Let me know if that fixes the issue. If not, verify lines 11-13 of that file have the correct credentials.

No joy. The transaction still fails. see pm about credentials

That is the braintree token. That is different. You will need to get the credentials directly from the paypal web site. We don't have a braintree integration into eCart yet.

I'm not exactly sure then where to get the credentials that are required. Can you direct me?

Log in to your PayPal Business account.
Click the My Account tab.
Click the Profile tab. ...
Click Request API credentials under Account information.
Click Set up PayPal API credentials and permissions under Option 1.
Click Request API Credentials.
Click Request API signature.
Click Agree and Submit.