Paypal form - How to save fields as variables? - php

Question

I have the following Paypal payment form:
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="******">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="******">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="25">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF">
<input id="afield" type="text" placeholder="Name"</input>
<input id="afield" type="text" placeholder="Email Address"</input>
<!-- Saved buttons display an appropriate button image. -->
<input type="image" name="submit"
src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif"
alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online">
<img alt="" width="1" height="1"
src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" >
My question is, how can I get the two inputs (id: afield) so that I can save them for when the user returns to my website after paying, I can use them. I am using PHP.
Thanks

Answer 1

Here is how I have dealt with this in the past.
First step is to fix the input field:
<input id="afield" type="text" placeholder="Name" name="afield">
I have corrected your HTML syntax and called the field afield
You then need to set another hidden field called notify_url - this is the URL that PayPal will POST the transaction details back to after a payment has been made.
e.g.
<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="https://www.yourdomain.com/paypal.php">
Inside paypal.php you can then access $_POST['afield']
In case it helps, here is the sort of thing you need inside paypal.php - this verifies that the transaction details POSTed back from PayPal are genuine and that the payment was successful:
$raw_post_data = file_get_contents('php://input');
$raw_post_array = explode('&', $raw_post_data);
$myPost = array();
foreach ($raw_post_array as $keyval) {
$keyval = explode ('=', $keyval);
if (count($keyval) == 2)
$myPost[$keyval[0]] = urldecode($keyval[1]);
}
// read the IPN message sent from PayPal and prepend 'cmd=_notify-validate'
$req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
if (function_exists('get_magic_quotes_gpc')) {
$get_magic_quotes_exists = true;
}
foreach ($myPost as $key => $value) {
if ($get_magic_quotes_exists == true && get_magic_quotes_gpc() == 1) {
$value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
} else {
$value = urlencode($value);
}
$req .= "&$key=$value";
}
// Step 2: POST IPN data back to PayPal to validate
$ch = curl_init('https://ipnpb.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $req);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Connection: Close'));
if ( !($res = curl_exec($ch)) ) {
curl_close($ch);
exit;
}
curl_close($ch);
if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0 and $_POST['payment_status'] == 'Completed') {
// payment has been verified
}

Answer 2

You can add a field with the name custom
The only issue is this field can't be returned by Paypal in the answer, even in the PDT
Only can see this field in the IPN text
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/ipn/integration-guide/IPNandPDTVariables/#transaction-and-notification-related-variables
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/ipn/integration-guide/IPNPDTAnAlternativetoIPN/