What is the difference between PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTATE and SHIPTOSTATE?
I can't find from Paypal documentation any information about difference between them.
SHIPTOSTATE (as well as all the other parameters like that) are the old parameters that were used in Express Checkout before PayPal added the ability to do parallel payments in Express Checkout.
As such, SHIPTOSTATE is now deprecated (and listed as such in the PayPal documentation.)
All of the fields that were setup that way got moved into PAYMENTREQUEST_n_PARAMNAME when they added parallel payments, so now you can have multiple payment requests in a single checkout, and each would have their own set of params.
So at this point, even if you're only setting up a single payment, you want to go with PAYMENTREQUEST_0_PARAMNAME.
Related
We all know documentations can be poorly writting sometimes, but Paypal's documentation really is on another level. I've been trying to wrap my head around the Express Checkout server side rest API, to no avail.
A couple of questions:
Is it even possible to use Express Checkout for recurring payments?
If yes, where do I get the paymentID for the agreement.
If I use the rest API with Express Checkout, do I have to be PCI pci compliant?
Yes, of course it's possible. PayPal's documentation is great, but it's just a matter of knowing exactly what you need. They have so many products and options for integrating their services that it can be a bit overwhelming.
Here is a quick reference for all the REST APIs. For recurring payments you'll want to study the Billing Agreements and Billing Plans sections.
Another option which would make things very quick and easy is to take a look at our PayPal PHP class library. It has functional samples and empty templates for all the Express Checkout calls.
This is my first time using the PayPal API so go easy on me.
The case I am trying to handle is as follows:
My customers can purchase software licenses that can either be one time payments, or yearly payments.
They can multiple products to the cart, and each product can have either one of the pricing plans mentioned above.
If I understand correctly, "payments" in the API handle one time transactions, and "billing plans" are used for recurring payments.
Is it possible to processes both in one call to the API? If not, is there a different way to achieve this?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
Not one API call, but you can do it in one checkout flow with multiple API calls.
For PayPal wallet payments (logging in to PayPal and paying) I would recommend using Express Checkout w/ Recurring Payments.
With that you would be using SetExpressCheckout, GetExpressCheckoutDetails, and then either DoExpressCheckoutPayment, CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile, or a combination of both of those depending on the products in the card and whether they need one-time payment or recurring.
The CRPP call will allow you to setup a recurring profile and include an "initial payment" which would be charged when the profile is created. This could be used as the one time payment if you want, and then you wouldn't need the DECP call.
Alternatively, you could use DECP to process the one time payment and then follow that up with CRPP to create the profile. There are advantages and disadvantages to the different methods depending on your business needs.
For setting up profiles with direct credit cards you'll need PayPal Payments Pro. In this case you would either use the same CRPP call mentioned above, but it would be used by itself and include the credit card details. Or, depending on the version of Pro they put you on, which depends on the version of PayPal account you have, you might end up using PayFlow instead.
If you're working with PHP this PayPal PHP SDK will make all of those API calls very quick and easy for you.
I know that's a pretty broad answer, but that's because it's a pretty broad question. :)
I'm in the process of developing a feature to accept payments in my website, and I already did it using a paypal button and IPN (a PHP listener to process data to a DB once the payment is completed, this one actually https://github.com/paypal/ipn-code-samples/blob/master/paypal_ipn.php, properly customized).
I never touched PayPal API and I wonder if I am missing something... I'm kind of new to this kind of development and I want to be sure I'm doing it right and not missing any obvious thing which might compromise the security of the payment or whatever... I already tested things in Sandbox and everything works as expected, but I am concerned about the API and I see many people using it...
So, am I missing anything?
Thanks!
What you've done is accurate and will work just fine so long as it's suiting your needs.
One potential security risk would be if you are not using a hosted button. Did you choose to "Save this button at PayPal" when you created the button? If so, you should see a hosted_button_id included in the HTML for the button. In this case it's protected.
If the button code includes individual parameters for things like item_name, amount, etc. then that code could be adjusted by people in their browser and then the button could be submitted with different pricing, for example.
You could check for this sort of thing in your IPN script and setup an automatic refund if the price doesn't match your database, but I generally try to avoid that sort of thing.
I prefer using the Express Checkout API instead. If you were comfortable getting IPN working with PHP then you should be plenty comfortable using this PayPal PHP SDK to integrate Express Checkout.
The three calls you'll need to work with are SetExpressCheckout, GetExpressCheckoutDetails, and DoExpressCheckoutPayment.
This documentation will cover the general steps and where those calls come into play, and that library will make each of those calls very simple for you.
Express Checkout will eliminate any potential adjustments users could make to code (because they won't be able get to the code at all unlike HTML) and it also has more advanced features and options that PayPal Standard does not have. Most importantly, the ability to force the "guest checkout" experience so that non-PayPal account holders can easily checkout using a credit card without any confusion.
They can do it with PayPal Standard, too, but depending on cookies set in their browser it may make the guest checkout option tough to find. Express Checkout makes it very prominent at all times, and generally results in increased checkout conversion rates.
I just noticed that paypal now has a number of solutions to accept payment, and per this own page, it doesn't really compare their difference in a nice way:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/accept-payments/
Does anyone happen to know (I am using C#/.net, but JS is also OK), if I want to have a customized checkout, in which I can customize the look and feel, and allow customers to enter/select shipping address (which is saved in the site's own database), which paypal method I should use?
Thanks! (also if any document that explain better the differences of the above different ways of accept payment, it would be great!)
If you want to completely customize everything then the PayPal Payments Pro Payflow Edition is a viable solution.
Here is the link to Sample Code C# is one of the programming languages offered in the Sample Payflow Code.
You will need to build your form/shopping cart and then the Sample Code can be used to make the payment request to process the payments. The Entire Transaction will take place place on your website from start to finish.
If you want PayPal to handle the payment portion with a customer leaving your site to use PayPal as the Payment method and then returning to your site to complete the payment, Express Checkout is the other option that will work.
You can make an API call to PayPal to get the Shipping information from PayPal and then store the shipping info in your own database.
Here is the Express Checkout Sample Code
I'm new to PayPal and overwhelmed by all the possible approaches for integrating with PayPal.
As a start I want to implement one single subscription with monthly recurring payment. When the user returns to the site after fulfilling the payment, he/she will instantly be upgraded to "premium" member (digital product only - no shipping involved).
The first alternative I've looked into is the Express Checkout API, which looks ok, but is there any simpler way to do it?
Can I for example create a standard button (JS button or the form based), but still be able to verify the payment details when the user returns, using either the REST API, IPN or something else?
Any hints on best practices are appreciated.
Yes, there are entirely too many ways to solve this problem by now.
You can probably satisfy your requirements via buttons (aka Standard), Express Checkout (aka Pro) style APIs, or RESTful APIs, but there are a few gotchas to know:
First, PayPal has several products to do recurring payments; these products have functional differences and are tied to different integration styles. So (for example) PayPal's product called "subscriptions" (tied to Website Standard aka buttons) has different (and generally less flexible) capabilities than "recurring payments" (tied to Express Checkout) which in turn differs from "billing agreements" (tied to REST APIs, although the term "billing agreements" is also used in the express checkout recurring payments product). Oh, and there's another similar product tied to the Adaptive Payments suite of APIs.
Confused yet? Sorry. But it is important to determine whether the specific product you want to use will satisfy your requirements first before you do any integration, or you might end up redoing that integration work later (and potentially have to migrate customers, if you have already opened your business) in order to get access to specific features of another product later on. E.g., the subscriptions product has very limited ability for sellers to modify the subscriptions after they are set up. If that is OK, then great, use it -- it's simple to integrate. If I can oversimplify a bit: the Standard subscriptions product is the oldest and most limited; the Pro recurring payments is more flexible and mature; the REST billing agreement product is the newest, very flexible, but not yet as widely used; it may lack a feature you need today, but is the most likely to be continually improved going forward. I would not personally recommend the Adaptive product, although it also has its benefits.
Now, to your integration question: fortunately all these PayPal products can use IPNs. Unfortunately, IPNs are not instant. They generally arrive quickly (1-2 seconds) but delays can happen and it is quite awkward to be unable to process the customer. I would use IPNs only when shipping physical goods, not for immediate access to digital goods or in other cases where customers are waiting for a page from you. Fortunately, each of the other methods has a way to instantly determine the success of a PayPal action without waiting for an IPN:
Website Standard Payments will include GET or POST variables when it posts the user back to your site that will tell you about the outcome. If you use the Payment Data Transfer feature, these variables will include signature information so that you can post them back to PayPal & PayPal will verify their validity (so that a would-be thief could not fool you by engineering a post that looks like a PayPal success redirect).
The two API-based methods are even easier: the APIs themselves return all the information you need in the API response. So wherever in your code you make the call to create the subscription/agreement, if you get back a success then do your work to make your user premium.
There is the odd case of a user successfully paying and then getting "lost", as it were, e.g. the redirect failing/browser closing before they return to your site, or your site choking while trying to turn on the user. For this reason many people advise using IPNs, which PayPal will attempt to redeliver until you verify them back to PayPal. Not a bad idea, depending.
And of course you can call search & get details type APIs to get information about your transactions & agreements at PayPal -- although again, you will need to integrate with the right API that matches the product you are integrated with (e.g. Standard-based subscriptions won't show up if you ask the REST interface for billing agreements).
Hope this helps.