Integrating paypal with sql database

[demarcopbl]

have been searching around for an answer to this, but I havent come across anything that answers my question. I have a MySQL database that contains data for various items and a function that triggers the results via an option form. Id like to pull pricing in using the same method, and pass the options associated with the selected ID's to a checkout.

My question is, how much of this can / will the PayPal button do, and what configuration (within my PayPal account / their apps) do I need to be looking at to have it achieve this? In other words, my process needs to be something like >

user selects option > relevant pricing is displayed > field data associated with that ID is stored before the user hits submit > user hits submit / buy now / paypal button > information is passed to the paypal checkout.

How much of this is already done in some shape or form via the PayPal options, and how much am I going to have to code? It seems like options are configured on the page in the demo implementations, then it just passes the data into the cart.

Any ideas? thanks all.

[snowshoe]

You may want to check thru and/or ask in the Developer's Forum as this forum is geared for less technical topics.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/paypal

What you have in mind is similar to how some 3rd party shopping carts work.   They use backend databases to manage their data and then use the "upload" method to pass the end results to the PayPal Checkout Screens. 

[demarcopbl]

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@snowshoe wrote:

You may want to check thru and/or ask in the Developer's Forum as this forum is geared for less technical topics.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/paypal

What you have in mind is similar to how some 3rd party shopping carts work.   They use backend databases to manage their data and then use the "upload" method to pass the end results to the PayPal Checkout Screens. 

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@snowshoe - thanks for taking the time to respond. You are absolutely right, I came to the same conclusion.

For anyone looking to do this in the future, hopefully this will save you some time - PayPal can generate an API key that allows you to pass items through to their checkout. You need a cart / somewhere to store the database result / selections before passing it along and cannot do it through their configurable buttons (as far as I could work out). You either need a third party cart to act as a gateway, or write some type of cart that can store your variables.

[snowshoe]