Help with the Paypal Merchant Gift Certificates Guide

[webmachinedude]

On page 13 the guide reads:

"If you have little or no experience with advanced HTML coding, PayPal recommends that you
encrypt your HTML code. On the Merchant Gift Certificates page, in the Button
encryption section, select the Yes radio button."

Where is the Merchant Gift Ceritificates page on the paypal site? I cannot find any reference to a "Button encryption section" on the page where one creates gift certificates.

[skier]

Login to your PayPal Account.

Select "Profile"

Under "Financial Information"

Select "Gifts and Discounts"

Under "Merchant Gift Certificates Options"

Select "Sell"

Next, select "Create Button Now"

By default, the button creator will generate "hosted" item button code for you.  The term "hosted" means that specific variables are stored on the PayPal Servers which in turn makes these variables tamper proof. Should you manually add or try to make changes to a "hosted" item button, the changes will be ignored or cause the code to fail.

Should you want "encrypted" code, in Step 2 of the button creation process, uncheck the option to store the code on the PayPal Servers.   After that, when you generate the code, it will be encrypted.

Regards,

skier

[cineng]

I too would like to add a gift certificate option to my website. But my website does not allow for HTML coding, it's flash based. Is there another way around this? Thanks! 

[cineng]

After speaking with Justin, in customer support. He emailed me the process which is listed below. I didn't realize that it could also generate a url in addition to HTML. I placed the url on my website and it works great. 

Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.
Click "Merchant Services" at the top of the page.
Click "Gift Certificate" below Create Buttons.
Click the "Customize appearance" link, and enter your information to customize the gift certificate button.
Click Step 2 and Step 3 for additional features.
Click "Create Button."
Select the "Email" link located just above where the code is located.
Click "Select Code" to select the button code.
Copy and paste the hyperlink as needed into your own web page code. 

[webmachinedude]

Most helpful, thank you. I had a look around your site, very good of you to provide such a great resource. Here's what I'm looking to do: create a paypal gift certificate whereby the customer can enter their desired amount, or if that's not possible, choose from a predefined list of amounts (specific amounts defined by me, not generated by paypal). Does not seem like a tall order ... but kinda hard to figure out.

[skier]

See these examples.

Regards,

skier

[webmachinedude]

You are the man! This is great stuff. Many thanks and may you enjoy warm quilts and deep powder!