Help Regarding IPN for PaymentPlan Buttons

[Earnesto]

I decided to do some tests like this:

I added a Button with three plan:

-          Pay in full

-          3 cuts

-          4 cuts

The 2nd and 3rd are somehow predictable. Even if the parameters are not really documented they work somehow like Subscriptions.

Paying in full is not OK. A single IPN arrives with the state directly set to Expired, with the first and single payment amount inside its body but WITH NOT TXNID.

If I do a refund I get a parent_TXNID that does not relate to the payment.

So a refund on an installment can’t be tracked by using TXNIDs as it should.

See below: (single installment payment and no TXNID for Refund tracking)

                <txn_type>recurring_payment_profile_created</txn_type>

                <last_name>User</last_name>

                <next_payment_date>N/A</next_payment_date>

                <residence_country>US</residence_country>

                <initial_payment_amount>0.00</initial_payment_amount>

                <currency_code>USD</currency_code>

                <time_created>13:18:09 May 21, 2011 PDT</time_created>

                <sub_type>Full Payment Plan</sub_type>

                <verify_sign>AJLusnRhHXyQ7YucX85GJ7MVEWDYA.zwNO3WsYcZ-g4a5STH94OTjPgV</verify_sign>

                <period_type> Regular</period_type>

                <payer_status>verified</payer_status>

                <test_ipn>1</test_ipn>

                <tax>0.00</tax>

                <payer_email></payer_email>

                <first_name>Test</first_name>

                <receiver_email></receiver_email>

                <payer_id>QSZQRPLFS2VJJ</payer_id>

                <product_type>1</product_type>

                <shipping>0.00</shipping>

                <amount_per_cycle>300.00</amount_per_cycle>

                <profile_status>Expired</profile_status>

                <charset>windows-1252</charset>

                <notify_version>3.1</notify_version>

                <amount>300.00</amount>

                <outstanding_balance>0.00</outstanding_balance>

                <recurring_payment_id>I-SK0BRXWYMB1C</recurring_payment_id>

                <product_name>USD Donation</product_name>

                <form_charset>UTF-8</form_charset>

A total peculiarity is instead of sending profile_created, payment (with a TXNID so I can track further evolution) and profile_expired… I get them awkwardly bundled in one profile_created  IPN.

What I would really appreciate to receive from you would be:

1. some explanations for recurring payment variables
2. The recurring_* txn_type-s succession in different scenarios (pay in full, equal or variable payments)
3. The datatypes for the main variables passed in IPNs (recurrings especially)
4. How do I pass item_number or any kind of SKU and CUSTOM to recurring (Payment Plans) (except item_name)

Thanks.

[Misty11]

Hello Earnesto, 

Welcome to the Forums. 

You have some really good questions, to get a better answer to your questions you can hop on over to the PayPal Developer Forum or click here for more information about IPN. I hope this helps. 

Misty 

[Earnesto]

I'm never glad my questions are good. Politicians say that when they beat around the bush 🙂 But I shouldn't even be asking such questions as the documentation should cover them.

Anyways, considering the total lack of details regarding my questions in the IPN manual which I've gone over numerous times I think I'll try my chance in the other Forum. I'll improve my exposition and I will repost this question there.

Thank you.