recurring vs subscription confusion - paypal

I am developing an IPN application for a non-profit who wants to take monthly recurring pledges. The IPN variables manual has two separate entries: subscription & recurring and it appears recurring is what I need and so I would use the txn_type=recurring_payment.
The problem is that when I turn to the "HTML Variables for PayPal Payments Standard" manual, I can't find an appropriate _xclick value for recurring payments. Yes there is one for subscriptions but nothing for _xclick.
How then do I code for recurring payments in the HTML? Or is recurring payments not available to HTML Standard Payments?

While technically they are the same thing, PayPal Standard (ie. basic payment buttons) calls it "Subscriptions" where-as the APIs call it "Recurring Payments".
If you want to stick with Payments Standard you would just use the IPN Subscription variables in your IPN code logic. If you do switch to Express Checkout then that's when you would use the Recurring Payments IPN params.
I would recommend using Express Checkout w/ Recurring Payments if you can. This would require some more in depth coding. Assuming you're comfortable with PHP, this PHP PayPal SDK would make the Express Checkout and Recurring Payments API calls very quick and easy for you.

The recurring-payment feature you are referring to is an API based product. If you are using PayPal Payments Standard, the subscription variables are your only option.
You can use Recurring Payments with Express Checkout. Here is a link to the developer documentation:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/express-checkout/ht_ec-recurringPaymentProfile-curl-etc/

Related

Paypal: how to store credit card and take automatic payments

With paypal is possible to store the credit card of the customer (that has put during the registratin process) and take an automatic payment (so not initiated by the user himself)?
Which paypal payment solution should i use?
This is a very broad question, so I will give you a very broad answer. There are a number of different ways to do that depending on your goal.
The following APIs would give you what you're asking for in various ways.
Express Checkout / Payments Pro Recurring Payments
Express Checkout / Payments Pro Reference Transactions
Adaptive Payments, specifically Preapproval and Pay.

PayPal recurring payment method

Currently I am using Authorize.net CIM method in my project. Now I want to use paypal for same purpose. I mean it should support one time / recurring payment using payment profile. Which method should I use in paypal?
It should support in below countries...
Czech, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland
Romania, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey,UK
I'd recommend Express Checkout with Recurring Payments.

Recurring Payment IPN

Quick question about the notify_url HTML variable (from PayPal Payments Standard). I am specifying the URL as a variable that is sent to PayPal via a redirect URL for a recurring payment setup (all is working as expected when setting up the recurring payment).
But I am wondering, when PayPal goes to actually process a payment in the future (actual recurring payment), will it use the same URL for the IPN notification that was used during the recurring payment setup?
I have multiple IPN scripts, one for regular payments and one for recurring payments - I want to be sure that each future recurring payment uses a specific IPN script.
Cheers!
First, for the sake of terminology, if you're using HTML buttons then you're using Standard Subscriptions, not Recurring Payments. Technically, they're the same thing, but Recurring Payments is API based and IPN data is different for Standard Subscriptions vs. Recurring Payments. Just keep that in mind when searching for information about the two.
As for the IPN's, unfortunately, it will not continue to use that same URL. You'll need to make sure that IPN is configured in the PayPal account profile in order for future transactions related to the profile to trigger IPN's.
This goes for both Standard Subscriptions and Recurring Payments API transactions.

PayPal guest payments outside US

I need to process payments from customers who have credit cards, but not necessarily a PayPal account - and they need not be required to sign up for PayPal either. From what I have found in the docs so far, it seems I need so-called Adaptive Payments to do that. Does this work with the REST API and can I do this outside the US (I live in Austria)?
Both PayPal Payments Standard and PayPal Express Checkout support guest transactions; you really don't need Adaptive Payments for this.
I suggest you take a look at the Express Checkout documentation, including the Getting Started guide we have available.

Integrating paypal recurring

I am new to PayPal integrating and need to integrate PayPal recurring for subscriptions. I googled for that, but I am confused with below questions.
Which API should I use with PayPal recurring, WPS or Paypal express checkout? Which one will be good?
Is there any good example or help to integrate this?
Thanks a ton in advance.
Good overview of recurring payments: Handling recurring payments
I'm using the Lionite PHP Paypal class. It's not free, but even if you're not going to use it, read through that page because it contains some useful info that is omitted from the Paypal docs.
If I understand correctly, Express Checkout requires your customer to set up a Paypal account, so Website Payments Standard would be a better option.
Unfortunately the Paypal SDK only has code examples for direct payment. If you want to use Website Payments Pro with Direct Payment, be aware of PCI compliance (which can be expensive and time-consuming) and also be aware that services like BrainTree exist which have transparent redirect, thus helping you to avoid PCI compliance (I haven't used this service however).
Express checkout code example: https://github.com/hrendoh/PayPal-Recurring-Payment-example
Set up your sandbox account at http://developer.paypal.com
Update: IPN for recurring payments is a nightmare. Not only are the recurring payment IPN responses completely undocumented, but none of the support staff I talked to had a clue about them either (in some cases they gave me incorrect answers to questions). Here is a list that others have put together, but all of these resources are incomplete:
https://www.x.com/developers/community/blogs/ppmacole/recurring-payments-ipns?page=1
http://docs.ipn-easy.com/html/T_Rolosoft_IpnEasy_Net_PayPal_TxnType.htm
Unfortunately because of the limits placed on recurring payments with express checkout, direct payment was the only option for me. I strongly suggest that if you need to do direct payment with recurring payments that you find a different payment provider.