Is it possible to tell PayPal through the NVP to not send a response to the IPN handler? For instance I use the IPN for payments I receive through a store I have running FoxyCart. However the store Im setting up now doesnt use a 3rd party cart, Im just using the API response to handle handle everything. Because of this I dont want PayPal to send a response to the IPN.
Ive scoped out the notify_url param, but that appears to only change where the IPN response is sent to.
I would prefer for this store that no IPN response gets sent at all, while allowing the other store to continue using the IPN it has always been.
Thanks in advance.
It depends on your account settings.
There are two types of IPN's, one is set at account level, and it's triggered whenever money comes into your account, regardless of the source. If you disable this, you will not get ny IPN's from either store.
The other type of IPN, is based on the API call being made.
You need to check your magento payment module config to see if it's generating the second type, and disable it there. If it's already disabled, it means that you are only getting the first type of IPN. If this is the case, you would actually need to modify your OTHER shopping cart.
(A simpler option might be to open a child paypal account, rather than mess with all the carts)
Related
I'm currently trying to implement a mechanism whereby i can return a customer to a success page containing an activated PIN allowing access to a piece of software. The process is a straight forward PIN purchase without any kind of user accounts or login system involved.
I have the payment buttons and IPN script in place and working fine, but this only allows me to email the PIN after a successful payment via the IPN script, since of course the two sessions are completely separate to maintain security.
My problem with this is that i can't be sure the customer has access to the same email they used to pay with via Paypal. I had the idea of asking the user to enter which email they would like the PIN sent to prior to the Paypal redirection and then sending it as a custom value.. but then came visions of a mammoth backlog of support emails where users have entered the wrong email. I would really like to be able to redirect to a success page containing the PIN.
Thanks in advance.
I would recommend using the Express Checkout API. The payer experience is very similar to standard payment buttons, however, the user is always guaranteed to return back to your site, so you can display whatever you want on your final page.
That documentation can be a little scary, but it's really just a matter of utilizing 3 API calls.
SetExpressCheckout - This is used to setup a new transaction and will return a token that you'll append to the end of a redirect URL to PayPal. The user is sent to PayPal, they login and agree to pay, and are then sent back the ReturnURL that you specify in this request.
GetExpressCheckoutDetails - Now back on your site/application, you use this API to obtain information about the buyer like their shipping address, address status, payer status, payer ID, etc. You will need the Payer ID for the final API call.
DoExpressCheckoutPayment - This is very similar to the SetExpressCheckout request, but no transaction is completed until this call is completed. Only then does the money move.
Again, those final calls are done on your site so you can use the API response data to update your database and display details on the final page however you want to.
Keep in mind that payments could still be pending for one reason or another, so you'll want to check the status (returned in the DECP response) and display appropriate information on the final page.
IPN's will still be triggered with Express Checkout so you can adjust the IPN script to handle pending payments or anything else you may want to automate outside the checkout flow.
If you happen to be working with PHP my class library for PayPal will make these calls very quick and easy for you.
I have finished designing a program, and am ready to create a commerce system. Ideally, I would like to use Paypal to handle all the transactions for me, how ever I want this to be done on my own website, and have the information securely sent over to Paypal. I understand how to do this entire process, how ever I do not understand where I would add code to have my server generate a serial code and store it alongside customer information in a database.
The Paypal API isn't very helpful, so I am wondering if there is a variable passed back to the merchant website by PayPal, via a POST or similar, that can be checked to verify that a payment was accepted, and then react depending upon that status.
I understand that I can have it send the user back to the merchant website, but I would like it to generate a page along the lines of...
Thank you for your purchase (NAME)! A copy of your serial for (LICENSE_COUNT) licenses has been sent to your e-mail at (EMAIL).
And then have a script run to automatically generate the serial, send it to the user, and save it in a database.
Any language is acceptable.
Are you working with Payments Standard or Express Checkout?
If you're using Payments Standard you would need to use PDT + Auto-Return to get data back to your page for display. That said, I wouldn't rely on it to deliver the necessary details to your user because they're not always guaranteed to make it back there even with Auto-Return enabled.
Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is recommend for this sort of thing. It will POST transaction data to a listener script you have on your server. This happens separate from the checkout system itself. You can automate tasks like updating your database, hitting 3rd party web services, sending email notifications, etc. from within this script. It also allows you to handle e-checks correctly (only delivery the e-goods when the payment clears.)
If you're using Express Checkout you can handle this within the checkout flow rather than using IPN if you want to because the user is always guaranteed to make it back to your site. That said, if you're accepting e-checks you'd still want to use IPN instead. If you've disabled e-checks then this would work just fine.
I'm setting up a payment engine for a custom framework using PayPal Express Checkout. One of the business requirements is adding support for recurring payments. I've found documentation on how to implement this at https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_api_ECRecurringPayments
The thing I don't quite understand is how to retrieve the value of BillingType from the API after I've set it via SetExpressCheckout to "RecurringPayments". It doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the response data I get back from neither GetExpressCheckoutDetails nor DoExpressCheckoutPayment. I need this to know whether I need to create a recurring payments profile or not. So as far as I can tell my only option is to store the value of BillingType in my database and query it again after DoExpressCheckoutPayment. This works for me but I find it odd that this data would not be returned at all by the API. Am I missing something? Or is there another way of correctly implementing recurring payments?
Not all data you send in a request is returned in a response. You already have what you're passing to them...there's really no need for them to pass it back.
You could use session variables to save the data instead of the database, or you could log all of your API requests and refer to those logs when you need to see what you sent, but again, your application is what's telling PayPal whether or not the payment should include billing agreement information...not the other way around.
I'm implementing a simple Buy Now button and I'm using IPN (not PDT) to verify the transaction.
A thing that bugs me is that I don't understand how come only after I set the notify_url field to the button I also get the transaction variables to the success URL, as GET params. It would seem normal to be the other way around.
Since the user could or could not choose to "return to the merchant's website" there's not way I should rely on that data. It does however seem to be identical to the one sent to the notify URL.
Some clarification would help. Thanks!
I know what you mean, after the user has finished paying and chooses to return to the sellers website (button in paypal page) they are redirected to your thankyou page.
I don't think it used to do this back in 2009 but now paypal will issue the redirect with all sorts of parameters in the url query string.
I'm just ignoring this information and relying on the backend IPN post which is verifiable by paypal
In my previous experience with IPN, I defined the location of the notify URL in the control panel. Once the payment is processed, PayPal sends a POST notification to this URL independent of any user behavior.
In any case, even if you define the notify_url parameter in the button, I believe PayPal will still send the payment notification seperate from the user behavior - they spawn a new process to send the data. As to why they are using a GET rather than a POST, that is odd behavior. However, in your IPN script you should still have logic that verifies the call with PayPal before you continue processing.
PayPal states:
Note: If you have turned on Auto
Return and have chosen to turn on
PayPal Account Optional for new users,
a new user will not be automatically
directed back to your website, but
will be given the option to return.
But if some of the customers don't get "Auto Returned", how do I handle them programmatically?
Paypal does not guarantee autoreturn especially when Paypal Account - optional setting is on.
The right way to handle the integration is with Instant Payment Notification (IPN) option. Using IPN Paypal will make POSTS to your page notifying you of payment events. The following link explains the IPN process pretty well.
To summarize, you will write code that will trap posts from Paypal and then make sure to update your billing data accordingly.
Also, IPN messages might be slightly delayed.
Create a script (cron or what) that does check for such payments at paypal perodically (e.g. every hour).
Is this what you mean?
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/mer/express_return_summary-outside
If not, you may need to be a little more specific with your question. Like - are you using paypal pro? How are your customers checking out? etc. And now that I read the answer below mine, I wonder if you are even talking about the payment process and not something else.