I need to make a modification to our custom cart. Basically as it currently stands when we get a payment we use IPN to post back to our site and display the details of the purchase, we then get an email from PayPal with all the details in.
I have an excel spreadsheet that then accesses Outlook and prints an Invoice based on this email and adjusts the stock database etc, at this point the order is given an Invoice number.
However, I want to make it that the invoice number is given at the checkout stage, now I know you can set the 'invoice' variable as a pass thru variable, however, what I am unable to determine from the online literature is whether or not this 'invoice' value is returned in the the PayPal instant Payment Notification email, so my excel spreadsheet can use it?
If the invoice number is not sent in the email, is there any field you know of that is?
All the best and thank you in advance.
First, it sounds like you're confusing IPN and PDT. They're very similar, but if the data is getting sent to your return URL then that would be PDT. IPN gets POSTed to a separate script outside of your checkout altogether.
IPN is the recommended method of updating things and sending out emails, etc. because even with Auto-Return enabled there is no guarantee your buyers will make it back to your return URL (when using Payments Standard.) IPN will always be triggered regardless.
So, back to your question, yes, the invoice number will be sent with IPN notifications if you pass it to PayPal with the payment request. The parameter is called "invoice". You can see all the available parameters that IPN works with in the PayPal documentation.
Related
Payal say that IPN can take a while for orders to be relayed. I am wondering if there is a way with the other Paypal APIs to instantly fetch information about an order, the moment the user is redirected to the success URL of my site.
The problem is that only two variables seem to be relayed in the querystring to my success page: token and PayerID.
The reason I want to do this is I want to allow users to complete the checkout process without logging into my site, but then once the order is complete and they're sent to my success page, I want my site to be able to link them to their previous orders as well as this one, which would be extracted from my database.
Can this be done using token and/or PayerID? If so, how? (I'm using the PHP scripts that the Express checkout wizard provides)
IPN is generally pretty much real-time. There are times when it gets a little lagged and can be kind of slow, but it doesn't seem to happen all that much.
That said, the API calls along within your checkout will indeed return lots of good info in the actual response. Your URL only has the parameters you mentioned (token and Payer ID), however, the GetExpressCheckoutDetails response would have all the buyer info you need, and DoExpressCheckoutPayment will return the transaction ID, payment status, payer status, etc. So the DECP probably has the majority of what you're after.
You can use session variables to save GECD response data and DECP response data accordingly and then update your database, send out email notifications, etc. after calling DECP.
The thing is, the payment could end up being "pending" for various reasons. As such, IPN would still be the best way to handle this sort of thing so that you can update your DB and send out one notification for the pending payment being received, and then another update/email once that payment actually clears.
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.
My sent data to paypal is
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr/cmd=_cart&upload=1&business=seller.email#something.com¤cy_code=USD&bn=BusinessName&return=http://www.sellersite.com&item_number_1=55&item_name_1=battery&amount_1=55&quantity_1=2&item_number_2=52&item_name_2=bat&amount_2=5&quantity_2=3"
And I want to show those sent data(item number, item name,amount,quantity) and the paypal transaction id to the buyer on "http://www.sellersite.com" after successful payment. (Suppose, the seller has the merchant account with paypal and he would enter that paypal id into database from admin section of the website. So,I would not think about his paypal account settings, my job is just to create the environment for paypal payment for the seller.)
If I write a script like
$T_ID=$_REQUEST['tx']; // or $T_ID=$_GET['tx']; **ref(tx):- "https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_html_paymentdatatransfer"
$item=$_REQUEST['item_number_1']; // or $item=$_GET['item_number_1'];
Then would I get those data from paypal ?
Please tell me.
-Thanks.
It's not going to be quite that simple. You'll need to setup Payment Data Transfer (PDT) in order to get details sent back to your return URL after the buyer completes the payment.
This is useful if you're simply going to display details back to the user, but it's not recommended for updating your own database, sending out email notifications, etc. because there is no guarantee this page will ever be reached so the code won't always run.
For that sort of thing you'll want to use Instant Payment Notification (IPN). This works very similar to PDT except that it will always POST data to your IPN listener on your server regardless of whether or not the user makes it back to your return URL, and it happens outside of your checkout system all together.
Am trying to create a way to setup the following:
User sends donation to paypal with info from donation site (name, email)
Paypal receives the donation and using the 2 variables it received (name, email) it sends them back to the donation site
Donation site receives variables and donation amount and changes some variables in the website to show that the user has donated some amount.
The site shows a list of users that have donated and how much they have donated which shows as points. How can I do this with paypal and php and mysql.
I'd suggest looking into using PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN).
PayPal IPN allows you to (asynchronously) process order information while not having to depend on the buyer to return to your website to complete the order (which would be the case with PDT).
You can use IPN by setting up a script which receives this (POST) data from PayPal. In addition, you must include the following code in your button and/or API call(s):
For Website Payments Standard (where "xxxxxxxx" is the full URL to your IPN script):
<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="xxxxxxxx">
For Express Checkout:
Include NOTIFYURL=xxxxxxxx in your SetExpressCheckout and DoExpressCheckoutPayment API call
For Website Payments Pro
Include NOTIFYURL=xxxxxxxx in your DoDirectPayment API call
Once set up, you will receive POST data from PayPal with every transaction.
Take this data, and send it back to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-validate (Live) or https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-validate (Sandbox) to validate the data. If PayPal responds with VERIFIED (in the body of the page), you're sure the data is genuine IPN data coming from PayPal.
You can find sample code, documentation and further information on PayPal IPN at https://www.paypal.com/ipn
See also some IPN security best practices at https://www.x.com/developers/community/blogs/ppmtsrobertg/securing-your-instant-payment-notification-ipn-script
I found this tutorial, looks like what you're after.
http://tutorialzine.com/2010/05/donation-center-php-mysql-paypal-api/
Your first step is to use a paypal payments pro account. If memory serves correctly, you can only callback on pro accounts. Otherwise your paypal donation is pretty much a one way trip.
Please understand your question is very involved and is not likely going to result in a full blown example.
The best suggestion I can give is to read up on the paypal API documentation and see if the PHP API fits your needs...
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_api_overview
The PHP / MySQL end of things is on you at this point. You must store user information that you would use to send and validate the successful transactions based on the paypal API results.
While this answer may not serve your situation exactly, it is at least a small point in the right direction. I would suggest taking care to consider refunds and cancelled payments. If there is anything at all to gain by accumulating these "points" you mention then you need to cover security well. Otherwise you will be gamed and could stand to lose something if this is not done correctly.
If you have anything specific to add to this question to narrow down the possible answers, let me know and I will try to update this answer with a better, more specific response.
Set up Payment Data Transfer with PayPal,
PayPal PDT How To
Then on the page that receives the payment details from PayPal, calculate the number of points the person gets based off of how much money they donated (using whatever multiplier or point scheme you decide on), then log the data in a points field in the user's row of your user table in mysql.
I need to create dynamic 'Pay Now' buttons on my site, and PayPal says the way to do this is via an HTML FORM with preset variables for the price, currency, and item of the purchase. I use PayPal IPN to notify me when a payment has complete.
However, what's to stop someone from modifying the query parameters of the Pay Now button to change the price? Some people have told me to redirect the button through a PHP file that sends you to a PayPal payment page with the parameters in place, but the price could just as easily be manipulated in the Web browser's address bar. My question is, how can I deny a payment if the information I receive from PayPal's IPN service is invalid (if the price doesn't match our records)?
I'm quite confused and couldn't find any documentation on what I'm looking for. Hopefully, you guys can help.
Thanks!
In your IPN listner, check all your variables you sent to paypal. In paypal response, all the variables which are related to the transaction will be sent back to you (i.e., the amount, receivers email, payment status, etc.).
So, what you can do is check all the values of those variables with expected values and do the appropriate task.
See this for more details .
I think you want to enable Encrypted Website Payments. I haven't done this before, but you can read more here: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_html_encryptedwebpayments