Notification of connection issues needed

[jessepearson]

Customer in 3235467-zen states:

It was giving me the same “Error determining the connection status” message so I had reconnected JetPack... WooCommerce Payments extension is occasionally giving me this error and it’s preventing my customers from placing an order many times until I find out about it. Please advise.

Since WC Pay depends on the Jetpack connection in order to take payments, would it be possible to have a feature in it to send an email to a list of email addresses to let them know if the connection has failed? This would let store admins know they need to fix the connection issue so their income is not affected.

It looks like the message they are referring to is only displayed on the page if you go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments > WooCommerce Payments: https://github.com/Automattic/woocommerce-payments/blob/1.3.0/includes/class-wc-payment-gateway-wcpay.php#L723-L756

[thenbrent]

Good idea @jessepearson.

We could also use an Inbox notification (or both that and an email).

Email is better given how critical this is, because the Inbox requires the merchant to login to the WP dashboard and check it. One gotcha with sending the email - it would need to come from the WordPress install, not WordPress.com (given we don't know if the site can connect to it anymore) and that means its deliverability / likelihood of being spammed is variable.

[vbelolapotkov]

@thenbrent I've checked the code and how we use JP connection and it looks this feature makes more sense in Jetpack Connection Manager. There are two points on that topic in my mind:

1. Other connection based extensions would leverage on such an email. Having a single email with a list of all extensions makes more sense in case of disconnect.
2. Jetpack already tracks which extensions rely on connection manager.

@sergeymitr what do you think?

[sergeymitr]

@vbelolapotkov that sounds like a good idea. If we implement the feature in Jetpack, users with no Jetpack installed will not have that functionality. Since Connection Manager will be a separate package with its own UI separate from Jetpack, so that seems to be a good place for that feature.

I'll bring it up on the team meeting today, and will let you know where we stand in regards of implementing Connection Manager.

[vbelolapotkov]

Since Connection Manager will be a separate package with its own UI separate from Jetpack, so that seems to be a good place for that feature.

Sure, fair point!

I'll bring it up on the team meeting today, and will let you know where we stand in regards of implementing Connection Manager.

That would be great! Thank you!

[sergeymitr]

@vbelolapotkov We've discussed the Connection Manager with the team, everybody seems to like the email notification idea. We'll be scoping the project in the next few days, and hopefully come up with a concrete plan soon.

[sergeymitr]

@vbelolapotkov Unfortunately we have to postpone starting work on the Connection Manager. We're still working on solving the connection issues in general, and have some plans to make it even more stable. So I believe WCPay customers will still benefit from it.

If you decide to implement the notification feature right in the WCPay plugin, I'd be happy to help.

[vbelolapotkov]

Thanks for the update and offered support @sergeymitr ! We'll definitely reach you if decide implementing it in WCPay.

[thenbrent]

Noting a merchant reached out about issues caused by this. Discussed in Slack here: in p1604002313095400-slack-CGGCLBN58.

[jesscga]

Ticket related to comment above: 3449141-zen

[dechov]

Can this be solved on the server by removing authentication from customer-triggered endpoints (the POST /intentions endpoint in particular)? As in, is there risk involved in just accepting a blog ID or stripe account ID and allowing any payments to be posted to it, even if the secure connection between merchant site and WPCOM is flaking out?

[allendav]

Assigning my best guess at size. Feel free to counter with a different size.

[thenbrent]

Noting that the new Overview component would also be a good place to notify of connection issues (perhaps in addition to inbox / email notifications). paJDYF-15w-p2

[thenbrent]

Noting another report of this error causing issues: p1619623611131500-slack-CB37YNEH1

Ideally, any notification implemented for this Issue should also provide a button to refresh or otherwise attempt to reestablish the connected. Right now, it appears WC Pay requires the Jetpack plugin to be installed in order to do that.

[jessy-p]

This issue impacts Onboarding, Account management, General purpose communications and communication tools, so assigning to Moltres (based on team responsibilities Pc2DNy-3z-p2) @daquinons. Assigning as part of Gamma Triage process PcreKM-yM-p2.

Tagging as part of re-evaluating older issues in the backlog, please have a look and close if no longer relevant

[anu-rock]

This is an old issue. I wonder if things have changed significantly to close this issue. Eg. the Jetpack connection is stable enough. Also, I am a bit unclear about whether this improvement belongs in WooPayments or Jetpack.

cc @vladolaru @vbelolapotkov @marcinbot

[vladolaru]

@anu-rock We are not currently notifying the Jetpack connection owner (WPCOM user account) about a connection issue. This is still a valid issue.