Unfortunately with PayPal's Website Payments Standard you cannot test a live site with a fake credit card number. To test a live site, you must do a real transaction. One method is to have a friend or relative make purchase. This way you will see how the entire process works from receiving the email notification to checking your PayPal Account. After you have seen the process, you can simply refund the purchase back. You will learn quite a bit using this method. Suggest testing with an item value between $5 and $10.
Another option for testing item button code is use PayPal's Sandbox. The Sandbox is a virtual world whereas everything takes place within this world. You can learn more about the Sandbox here. And should you decide to play in the Sandbox, here's some tips:
* Read the Sandbox Documentation first as you will spare yourself a bit of frustration.
Visit PayPal's Developer Central Website:
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/home_US
Select the "How To" Tab, then from the menu, select "Testing"
After that select the "Training Tab", scroll to the bottom of the Page and check out the last item titled "Getting Started with PayPal Sandbox".
And the Developer Forum has a Sandbox Section:
http://developer.paypal-portal.com/pdn/board?board.id=sandbox
Note the stickies posted at the top portion of the page. And don't forget about the the Forum "Search" function.
* The Sandbox is a virtual world, it's not associated with your live PayPal Account in any way.
* You are not required to have a live PayPal Account to test code in the Sandbox.
* You will need a valid email address to setup your Sandbox Developer Account, suggest using an email not associated with your live PayPal Account. Get a FREE email address, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.
* In order to minimize confusion logging into your different Sandbox Accounts, simply use the same "password" for all of your Sandbox Accounts. This will also save some time as you toggle between accounts.
* Use the "Create a preconfigured buyer and or seller account" option. It's just easier as both bank accounts and credit cards are setup automatically.
* The Sandbox will automatically create an email address for both your Sandbox Business or Seller Account and your Sandbox Personal or Buyer Account. The email address created will be a variation of the address used for your Developer Account.
* All Sandbox "Notification Emails" sent stay in the Sandbox.
* "Hosted" item button code created in the Sandbox will only work in the Sandbox.
* "Hosted" item button created with your live PayPal Account will only work with your live PayPal Account.
* You must first be logged into your Sandbox Developer Account and remain logged in to test your item button code.
* Ensure you are using the same web browser for logging into your Sandbox Developer Account and testing your item button code. For example, if you login to your Sandbox Developer Account using IE, then attempt to test your item button code using Firefox, you will get unexpected results.
Other Notes -
* Sandbox URL: "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr"
* Live Site URL "https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr"
* If you create non-hosted or non-encrypted item button code in the Sandbox, you can use the same code in your live site by changing the URL of the action line to point to the live PayPal site and the business variable value that's associated with your live PayPal Account.
Regards,
skier
