attach website username to paypal IPN product_id - php

i have IPN data sending back the correct info, i have the product id and i also have a text box for user's to write in their in-game-name in on my website.
im stuggling to attach the username input with the IPN product_id. what i want it to do is when the user clicks the paypal button, it process's the transaction and if approved the username entered from the website and product_id get placed into a array or something that i can later put into my database
im quite new to php and html please bare with me

When you create a PayPal transaction, pass a variable named custom with the values you want to store as part of the transaction.
For old-style HTML integrations that use no API or JS, this is documented here: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/Appx-websitestandard-htmlvariables/#payment-transaction-variables
IPN is very old and clunky. Crrent PayPal integrations don't use IPN at all, but rather two routes on your server that call the PayPal API -- one for 'Create Order' and one for 'Capture Order', documented here: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/business/checkout/server-side-api-calls/#server-side-api-calls
When you do that capture call you get an immediate response of success/failure and can update your database/system accordingly. Thus there is no need to wait around for PayPal to send you an IPN notification.
Those two routes on your server should return JSON data (and only JSON data) when called. The approval flow to pair with them is https://developer.paypal.com/demo/checkout/#/pattern/server
You can add POST data values to your fetch request.

Related

GetTransactionDetails without transaction id

I have website where I use PayPal NVP sandbox. Sometimes after successful payment of user, PayPal get back to my return URL very slow. Unless PayPal returns to my website with details I am unable to check whether user has completed the order (For all attempt website adds order id to the database) or not and that destroys website's work principle.
What I need is that I want to retrieve the data of transaction without transaction id if possible. Maybe with custom field or something else. If I would be able to check the transaction details without transaction id , then I would be able to handle the requests by user accordingly. Or if there is a way to get a transaction id somehow with the help of another variable that also fine as I will make checking after finding out the transaction id.
Current PayPal Checkout integrations give an immediate response of success/failure. There is no need for any redirect away from your site, and there is no need to wait for asynchronous IPN or webhook messages. Don't use such things.
Follow the PayPal Checkout integration guide and make 2 routes on your server, one for 'Create Order' and one for 'Capture Order' (see the optional step 5 in 'Add and modify the code'; you can use the Checkout-PHP-SDK). Both of these routes on your server should return/output only JSON data (no HTML or text). Inside the 2nd route, when the capture API is successful you should store its resulting payment details in your database (particularly purchase_units[0].payments.captures[0].id, which is the PayPal transaction ID) and perform any necessary business logic (such as sending confirmation emails or reserving product) immediately before forwarding your return JSON to the frontend caller.
Pair those 2 routes with the frontend approval flow: https://developer.paypal.com/demo/checkout/#/pattern/server

Paypal IPN and PHP: handle the order before and after Paypal operations

I have already done a small e-commerce with Paypal and it works, but I feel like it is done wrongly.
Because the page that handles the IPN response from Paypal can't read $_SESSION variables, before the user submits the form and is redirected to Paypal, I get all the cart items and store them in a table in the database and also I register a new order with the user information but with the status 0 ( not completed ).
Then, after the user pays and I get the IPN response, I check if the status is completed, check if the amount paid is correct, currency and the usual checks to make sure the payment is successful.
The problem with this approach is that if the user once redirected to Paypal, decide to leave/close the browser/Paypal tab, I will have a failed order registered in the database and I can't delete it but manually.
How can I handle this kind of situation, and is it correct to register the order/cart before the user pays ?
Thank you and sorry for the long post.
If you want to check if the transaction occurs rely on the IPN messages. Depending on which api you are using you have several way to customize the IPN message with useful information for you, ie:
using paypal custom field
define dynamically the IPN url with extra parameter ie www.yoursite.com/ipn?myvar=myval
That way you can have a hook between the payment and the actual user in your application.
Obiusly the php session attributes of the user is not available when the http post comes from paypal.

Capturing custom PayPal data using PHP

I have a custom store where I'm selling a single product (as a gift), I need to be able to store the recipients address (different from paypal users), a message for the gift and the name they want their gift to be from (if any).
I'd really like to capture the data on this page:
http://sendvalentinesflowers.co.uk/responsive-buy-rose.html
It appears that the standard buttons don't allow this much data to be passed/stored along side a transaction. I'm just wondering how this HAS to be done with IPN? I'm looking for the simplest way to do it.
I would save all of the information in your local database as "pending" prior to sending the user over to PayPal for payment. You can include the invoice parameter in your PayPal code and set the value to the record ID of your local record.
This invoice value will be returned in IPN so you can pull the data back out and process it as necessary, and also update the existing record's payment status according to the current IPN.

PayPal IPN Account Tracking, How is it accomplished?

I'm trying to write an IPN that, upon successful transaction, modifies a database entry (like as to increment a currency (like Envato does for their prepaid deposits)).
I've looked over the IPN variables a few times and I can't figure out how to track a user transaction, except for the payer's email (but this relies on the fact that the registered account's email is the same as the payer email (which is not always true).
I'd like to track it using an account ID, but while the IPN will reply with a custom variable, I can't transmit a dynamic variable (using the Buy Now button) for it to send back (like an account ID).
My question is, how can I send a dynamic variable with these buttons or track it an already established way?
You can transmit custom data via Paypal. Look at the custom variable.
So the scenario is this:
user logs in;
in the page which is before payment page, you either have hidden input having custom field set to user id or form it dynamically with Javascript;
custom field is not even shown to the payer when he/she confirms the payment;
when transaction happens, custom field is stored (so you can always look it up in Paypal website);
IPN notification sends you the custom field value (amongst other ones) which you can use for identifying the user.
I have got similar scenario working on a production system.

Flow for: fill form, make paypal payment, create account

I've implemented a paypal transaction before but this one has a twist that I'm not quite sure what's the best way to handle it.
The basic idea is I want to create an account for the user when he provides some details and makes a payment via PayPal. Until BOTH the user details are filled out correctly AND the payment is made correctly, I shouldn't create an account for the user.
The setup I've done before was simply a paypal button that the user clicks, makes a payment, and gets forwarded back to just a generic page "your order will be processed and shipped" so there was no pre-order form involved.
This one is different though because
before PayPal, I need to collect initial user data
after PayPal, I need to create the new user account and use in it the user data collected from the pre-paypal form
I'm sure there's a logical way to implement this, but I'm not quite sure what's the flow I should follow to do it.
I use the Zend framework by the way, which shouldn't matter but just in case Zend has an easier way to help me with what I'm trying to do.
I do the following (though I do this in ASP.NET):
User fills out form
Info is saved in Order table in db with a unique invoice number
Invoice number is passed to PayPal, along with the IPN Notify URL, when you do the redirect
User is sent to Paypal to pay and then comes back to a generic Success page
Behind the scenes, Paypal makes a call to the IPN Notify url once processing is complete. This page receives your invoice number which PP returns with its call, and then does the account creation processing for that order after retrieving the details from the db. [This is a page with no UI, since only PP is hitting it.]
An email is sent from that process which notifies the customer that their account has been created and gives them the details.
This is a simplified version of the process, but hits the highlights. You can check out PayPal's page about IPN, and do a search on google for IPN integration with PHP.

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