Buy Now Button not returning to website page.

[kevin60]

Everything works except it won't return to my page on my website where the customer is to download their ebook.

when I enter the address in the paypal button form to create the button i am entering:   http://www.mywebsite.com/download

Here is the button code:

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="D42EN7WQN3GQJ">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

Thanks in advance.

[skier · Accepted solution]

You must first enable Auto Return in your Account Profile.

To set up Auto Return, you need to turn it on in your Account Profile and enter the return URL that will be used to redirect your buyers back to your site.

Log in to your Account
Select "Edit Profile"
Under "Selling Preferences"
Select "Website Payment Preferences"
Note first option - Select "On" - Auto Return for Website Payments
Enter the Return URL.
Click "Save."

If you want your individual item button code to use another URL, you can then override the URL in your Account Profile by including a URL in the item button code itself.

How Auto Return Works:
* If the buyer pays with a PayPal account, they are automatically taken back to the site.

* If the buyer pays with the Credit Card Option, they are taken to the receipt page where PayPal gives them the chance to print out a receipt. This is a legal requirement. After that, the buyer must click on the "Return to Merchant" link in order to return to the site.

Note, relying solely on this method is not secure.  After a successful transaction, the buyer is immediately sent back to a specific page where they could download the item however the URL can be shared with others.

Another method would be to use PayPal's IPN feature along with Auto Return. This method does require additional programming skills. After the payment is processed, PayPal posts the transaction details to your IPN script. At this point, you could have your IPN script either send out an email with the item as an attachment, or an email that has a link to a secure page where the item can be downloaded from.

Regards,

skier

[SteveWh]

Thank you for your clear and concise summary.

"however the URL can be shared with others"

Although that's true, the item itself after being downloaded (or obtained by any method) could also be shared with others, so having a publicly accessible Return URL isn't quite as bad as it sounds, in that it doesn't add a lot of risk that doesn't already exist. 

By watching your website logs for many unauthorized downloads, you can at least become aware if the URL has been published somewhere, and can change it, whereas if you use a more secure distribution method and people pirate the content by some other means, it's possible you'll never know.

[skier]

Yes, that's why you need a "secure" setup on your side.   That was assumed in the IPN recommendation.

Regards,

skier