Returning to checkout page after unsuccessful payment

I have a payment module which if the payment is successful redirects to the usual 'success' page which works as expected.

If the payment fails for any reason it sets the error message in $this->session->data['error'] and then redirects to the checkout/checkout page which shows this error in Step 6

The problem is when it redirects back to the checkout page, it starts at Step 2 and requires the user to continue through all the other stages (BIlling, Delivery, Payment etc) before they see the error message.

Is it just me or would it be much more intuitive if, when it redirected, it returned to Step 6 and skipped the intermediate ones ? Anyone know how this could be achieved (to be honest I'm beginning to think i preferred the v4 checkout for simplicity)

This seems like a must have for several payment methods.
Variables could be passed back to checkout/checkout by POST or GET variables, as in
mysite.com/index.php?route=checkout/checkout&gotostep=6

Have you (or anyone) had this working?

The checkout system doesn't support direct targeting yet but yes it needs it. No other solution at this time.

It's good to know it's on your radar for the future, in the meantime my workaround is this (maybe it helps others with what's possible for now):
- external payment system is sending the reply through POST/GET to a file I specified to them
- in that file I check for the answer from the external payment system
- depending on the reply (Payment ok, Payment rejected, Invalid request, etc) I update the status of the order in the oc_order table to the corresponding status
- again depending on the reply i set a meta http-redirect with delay 0 and redirect to either checkout/checkout (defaults to step 2) or checkout/success

No other solution at this time.

I know this is an old thread, but the problem still existed...

I ran into the same issue, and made an extension for this: "Checkout Return Step"
It checks for &step=x in the url (where x is the step number)
Then it "clicks" through the steps, until the wanted step is reached.

You can get it here: (Free)
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... n_id=13280

Enjoy!