Weird errors are back

But not like they were. I've tracked 3 of them so far this month. Two times they happened as a pair. Once it was just a single line. Here's the error:
[30-Jul-2017 12:28:49 America/Denver] PHP Warning: file_get_contents( www.mysite.com/lwa/webservice/xmlrpc/server.php?wstoken=-token redacted-): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! in /home/mysite/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomdle/helpers/content.php on line 101
[30-Jul-2017 12:28:49 America/Denver] PHP Warning: file_get_contents( www.mysite.com/lwa/webservice/xmlrpc/server.php?wstoken=-token redacted-): failed to open stream: Connection refused in /home/mysite/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomdle/helpers/content.php on line 101

Always, the error points to the same line in the call_method_fgc function.

That function looks like it would be used all the time, if I'm understanding its usage. We had a slow month in July to make the transition easier, and now we're ramping up for a VERY busy August. People are signing up for classes and signing in. The classroom seems fine. Again: no one has reported anything failing that I could trace back to this.

We do have one oddity. Sometimes when people buy the class on the Joomla side, it is like PayPal delays sending the acceptance. I just had a customer send me a receipt from the 29th, but the system didn't think she'd purchased the class at all. So that's almost 48 hours. I've had this happen before when I started registration for July. It seemed that a number of registrations just vanished, and then all at once, they showed up. I've had similar issues happen with selling documents through our document seller...no payments, then poof. Come to think of it, that system shows no orders in the last 48 hours as well. If you have any thoughts on that, I'd be grateful. In the past, they suddenly all appear about 2-3 days later and then it processes forward normally for a while. Just long enough for my inbox to fill with unhappy customers!!!

I *did* check the timestamp on the error and it did not patch the timestamp on the customer's receipt. Drat.

I know this server CAN handle the load. (Cloud server...very big. Very fast.) Students are loving it.

Do you have any thoughts for me? I've tried testing and creating the error, but there's nothing. Everything seems to work fine! I get lots of reports of issues from students (unrelated to Joomdle) so I feel comfortable they'd report any errors if they noticed them...

Hi Lisa.

I am not really sure about those errors, but I would not worry much, as they are only happening few times. It seems like those few times, Joomla cannot connect to Moodle....

What do you think might cause the two not to be able to connect? Something on the server? I'm just wondering if this is something the hosting company could track down for me.

I don't think you can track it easily, as it is a couple of errors between thousands of calls...
Hosting company cannot help. Only way would be to add some logging code to Joomdle to save all calls made with their parameters, then check this log when an error happens, to try to match it. This would add a lot of overhead to the calls, so I really don't think it is worth it.

Thanks. I'm in over my head right now with these. And I'm now dealing with about half of our IPN calls from PayPal just vanishing. THIS...the students are noticing. But there are WAY more of these than there are those weird errors, so I don't think they're related. PayPal says they sent the notices, but the system never got them.
Yuck.

Yes, Paypal IPN should not be related. If order is not confirmed in shop, IPN is not working correctly.
Joomdle only runs once order is confirmed in shop.

Right. So what would cause a previously working FINE PayPal / Joomdle situation to suddenly only work half of the time? I'm baffled... just asking in case you have any clues to offer. I know it isn't the plugin.
Wait - we opened up direct access to the Moodle site. Does Moodle paypal purchase use the same plugin as Joomdle paypal purchase in Joomla? We set up the enrollment method for paypal in Moodle, so I was thinking that whether they go through Moodle or Joomla they'd be using the same plugin. Am I correct in that? Because if not...that might be my 50%...???

> Wait - we opened up direct access to the Moodle site. Does Moodle paypal purchase use the same plugin as Joomdle paypal purchase in Joomla? We set up the enrollment method for paypal in Moodle, so I was thinking that whether they go through Moodle or Joomla they'd be using the same plugin

Sorry, I don't really understand you here.
Do you mean you are allowing users to buy courses directly in Moodle, using Paypal, instead of selling through the shop component?
If you are using a shop component in Joomla, you should not also sell directly in Moodle, as then you would have ordersin 2 different places, which is a pain.

That may be my clue, then.

Yes. It seemed to work, and the users were having a better experience in full-screen moodle.

That gives me something to test.

OH MY! I was just able to duplicate the problem...but it isn't as expected.

I registered as two different users through paypal into a test course.
When I registered via the Moodle page as user #1, I returned to an error screen saying to wait a moment for the payment to completely process. Over this was a popup with "servicenotavailable -- Web service is not available (it doesn't exist or might be disabled)" BUT -- THAT USER WAS REGISTERED. When I clicked through, I was in the class. (sidenote: this did not log the weird error in the error log, so that's not it...)

When I purchased through the Joomdle list as User #2, I initially was doing both tests together. The return from paypal screen took me to the screen where I pay for the course again. When I chose to just go to my courses, I was happily enrolled...but then I noticed that I was still logged in as user #1.

Both users showed registered in the class.

I logged in as admin, removed #2, and logged out of everything.

I then took #2 through the registration process again, going through the process in Joomdle. I returned again to the page asking me to pay. This time, User #2 was not enrolled.

Paypal reflected 3 charges. So all 3 times were successful via paypal.

But the JOOMDLE payment was the one that failed.

I messed it up somewhere in the move, I bet. There's probably a setting that I didn't get updated for the new server.

Does any of this trigger any ideas with you?

I feel like this is a clue. And I'm so excited because I want to solve this!