Mobile P2P Charity App using Paypal - how to handle security - iphone

Merry Christmas, in the spirit of the season I had an idea of a peer to peer charity app for mobile platforms, where essentially you can go to find individual people who are in need of money and make a donation via Paypal to them.
It sounds pretty simple, but what I am concerned about is how to handle the Paypal side for the best security. I already know Paypal provides an approved SDK for use in mobile apps.
So how should I approach it? Should I have users create an account through the site, and provide their paypal email address in the account information (hidden from plain view) then when the other user wants to give to them, it would open the Paypal interface with that email address? Somehow that seems insecure.
What do you guys think?

I can't speak for the android platform, but for the iPhone you're actually not allowed to process donations through the app. You must forward them completely out of the app to the paypal website. You can't even slide up a UIWebView in your app.

Related

App Store and external links

I am a bit confused about this. I am using Appmobi to develop a photo app. The customer uploads some photos from his device and order several copies (it's for a small local photo store)
Well, I see that if I want to pay the order inside the app, Apple gets the 30% of it (this store gains around 15%), so this model is not possible. I found that I can launch an external link from the app (in Appmobi framework via AppMobi.device.launchExternal or AppMobi.device.showRemoteSite) I can place the order on a server and launch an external link with the info to Paypal, but... Does anyone know if this break the Apple TOS? The store sells a physical object (photos), so I think this is permitted.
Thanks in advance
You'd have a hard time getting something like that approved. Apple is very reluctant to approve any links to Paypal or other external payment providers, even for small businesses providing local goods. What you could do instead, is have the customer pay for the photos in the store, or increase the price to account for Apple's 30% cut. I don't have experience selling local goods like that, but I am fairly positive Apple won't allow that. You can always try, though!
From what I understand
If a service can be consumed by your phone (Digital/Virtual goods etc) there're restrictions on how you can pay. (Apple will almost always require you to pay using IAP or not provide a system for payments at all (i.e. users will top-up on a website, but the app can't have a link pointing users to it. Checkout Kindle, Skydrive etc.)
If a service can't be consumed on the phone itself (physical items like printed photos) then you can't use IAP for payments and must you external payment providers such as Paypal et al.
There're examples on this similar post If I use the PayPal gateway in my iPhone app, will Apple approve it?

iPhone application user registration and billing via apple ID account

We are building an iPhone application for our project and I'm concerned that the only way for user to:
register an account;
buy extra content
Is via the user's Apple ID account. This is bad for us because:
We don't get user details data
30% of sum goes to Apple
But as my colleagues say it's the only proper way to handle this - otherwise application can be banned from appstore. So could I have a registration/payment on website somehow be implemented inside the iPhone app? And in what way can this be done?
Take a look at how Evernote implement their service. You can subscribe to the Premium service from within the app via In-App Purchases, you could also do the same from their website, using credit cards or any other forms of online payment.
The key here is the user's email address. When the user signs up, they provide the service with their email address which is basically tied to as a username. I'm pretty sure you know what you can do next using the email address. Good luck!

How to accept Paypal donations on iPhone iOS?

I am developing an application where a user needs to donate money using his Paypal account for charity cause.
I have gone through the Paypal website, but I haven't found any specific API to implement it on an iPhone.
I have explored a lot, but I was not able to find any satisfactory answer.
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/library_documentation
then scroll down to PayPal Mobile (about 2/3's of the way down)
https://cms.paypal.com/cms_content/US/en_US/files/developer/PP_MPL_Developer_Guide_and_Reference_iPhone.pdf
This manual is 58 pages long and has tons of great details.
If it's too technical you might need to outsource it, i.e. pay.
You might want to check and see whether Apple is accepting or rejecting iOS apps that claim to accept PayPal donations for charity.
You might want to check out this comparisons for API.
https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/products/mobile-overview
MPL is the easiest to integrate but will require a paypal account from the user. MECL is a bit tricky but shouldn't be that far off. Plus it gives the user the option to use credit cards.
https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/products/mobile-express-checkout-library
https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/products/mobile-payment-libraries
Both APIs will require you to submit to paypal first for review in order to get an API key for the app.
Apple will likely reject apps with a donate button taking you to PayPal.
You could implement in-app purchase to remove ads or something. That takes you to Apple's App store, which Apple does allow Or put a donate button on your web site, not on the app.

How to Transfer Money Between iTunes Accounts within iPhone app?

Is there any way to transfer money in between iTune Accounts within my application, actually I want to develop such app that is capable to do so,
so can anyone help me, or guide with with some proper references?
iTunes is a black hole, it will only take your money, not give it away. Transfering anything through black hole is little bit risky.
If you want to transfer money between two different users (and using app)
Register users to your service
Create a mobile site where the payment page is and open this page from within the app - Apple will probably ban your application otherwise as it is really jealous about any non-iTunes payment
Allow user to choose who will receive the money (friends list?)
Transfer money using PayPal. For PayPal money receivements, having an email address is enough.
Also check Apple Terms of Service for apps - they probably have some kind of clauses which would limit this type of applications.
If you want to get the Money out of Itunes,
i believe you could use this trick (hypotetic):
You create a fictive In-App purchasement via the Itunes-API for e.g 5€,
I-Tunes will take e.g 1€ and you as the developer will get 4€ transfered to e.g to your PayPal Account minus eg 0,50€ Paypal-Dues.
So now You as the developer will have 3,50 € at your Paypal.
Now you can Transfer this to the Appuser and he will get eg 3,00 € because of the Paypal-Dues.

Is it possible to publish application in AppStore which will accept credit card payments?

My company provides eCommerce solution for our customers. We host their web site where their customers buy some stuff. Our eCommerce solution takes their credit card information and processes it via payment gateway.
Now we want to create iPhone app for our customers somewhat duplicating functionality of their web sites. Similar to what Amazon.com app does. Provide native interface to browse items and then have ability to purchase them (again, I think Amazon.com application does that).
But I was reading stories how Apple usually rejects such applications if product if not going via in-App purchases. Or is it only for digital stuff?
Any thoughts on how likely such app will be rejected or approved?
Many apps have been approved and many apps have been rejected. I don't believe it is limited to just digital stuff.
I believe its just depends who reviews your application. It doesn't seem like there is an official rule about it. I think if there is a good reason for credit cards instead of an in-app purchase then your more likely to pass apple's approval process.
But your guaranteed way of getting it approved is to make everything an in-app purchase, so if you can use in-app purchase then do it.
"AT&T myWireless" app does exactly what you want.
Besides there are a lot of Credit Card Processing apps in the AppStore.
So in case your app is not approved you can always point out AT&T's app
and say "Hey, why can they do that and I don't??"
and they can always reply... or not actually
If the mobile solution is generic for so many mobile platforms like J2ME, Android, iPhone etc, then it does not make sense to change the payment mechanism for one platform alone. So InApp purchase may not be an option for most of the cases. I believe Apple understands it and approves the apps accordingly.