How do I get the sandbox environment in Paypal? - paypal

Question

I am building a simple paypal app, using a BuyNow button by inserting a code snippet in my website, I already registered my app in the paypal development site, as well as the test users, buyer and seller.
But my problem is when I submit my button, I am taken to paypal real payment view, and when I try to loggin with my virtual buyer credentials (user/passw) I receive a loggin fail, and when I try to use the credit card data of that virtual user, I dont have a cvv code, because it is not specified in the data provided by paypal in the sandbox account section.
I have read the whole paypal documentation several times, and most of topics in this forum, but I still have some doubts:
1- Which url to use to get the "sandbox payment view".
2- If such "sandbox payment view" doesn't exist and I just need to get the real payment view, why is the reason I can't login with the credentials paypal provided to my virtual buyer user?
3- If such "sandbox payment view" doesn't exist and I just need to get the real payment view, why Paypal doesn't provide me the cvv in the credit card data of my virtual user?
this is the code snippet I am using:
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="ASSIGNED VALUE HERE">
<input type="image" src="someImage.gif" border="0" name="submit">
<img alt="" border="0" src="otherImage.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>
I think this is a basic doubt, and any help could be useful to others paypal beginners like me. Thanks in advanced.

Answer 1

You're using a hosted button here, so it won't be quite as simple as updating the URL to use the sandbox.
First, you need to make sure you've logged in to your PayPal developer account. There, if you haven't already, create at least 1 "seller" account and 1 "buyer" account.
Once you have accounts created in the sandbox you can then use those accounts to sign in at http://sandbox.paypal.com.
What you'll need to do is login to the sandbox using your seller account, and then go through the same process of creating that hosted button just like you did on the live account. That will give you back a snippet for a hosted button from that sandbox account, and then to test it you'll be able to login using your buyer account.
Once you have everything working the way you want and you're ready to go live just replace the entire snippet with your live version.
It's a little bit a pain working with hosted buttons because if you end up making adjustments to the settings on the button while playing with it in the sandbox you'll need to make those same adjustments with your button on the other side.
If you ever decide to start working with the web service API's instead of standard payments buttons working in the sandbox can be a lot more seamless.