The Sandbox has gone thru some major changes, not really sure if the new changes make it any easier than it was before.
In a nutshell, if you already have Business Account, then you can go to the Developer's Site and login using your Business Account email address and password.
https://developer.paypal.com/
Once you login, click on the Applications tab or link.
On the Applications page, click on the Sandbox Accounts
What you need to do is create two fictitious accounts, a Personal (buyer) and a Business (seller). The system will assign email addresses to each account, you supply the password. You can then use these accounts for testing your code.
For example, lets say you have a basic Buy Now item button, just plain text, not hosted or encrypted. Something like this:
<!-- Start of Buy Now Form -->
<form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="your email address">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Widget">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="W-1001">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="5.00">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="lc" value="US">
<input type="hidden" name="button_subtype" value="products">
<input type="hidden" name="cn" value="Add special instructions to the seller:">
<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF:btn_buynow_LG.gif:NonHosted">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>
<!-- End of Buy Now Form -->
In order to test this example in the Sandbox, you have to change the first line of code so the URL points to the Sandbox, it would look like this:
<form target="paypal" action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
Next, change the business variable "value" to that of the Sandbox Business account email address.
Now your code is ready to test. After you click on the Buy Now button, you will be redirected to the Sandbox Check Out Screen. Once on the Sandbox Checkout Screen, you can complete the checkout process using the Sandbox Personal Account.
To check the results of the transaction, you would login to your Sandbox Business Account.
Here's a video that will provide some tips, note, it's based on how the Sandbox was before the new changes but, there's still some good tips to help you out.
*** (Post Edited by Moderator)
Bottom line, learning the Sandbox is like on the job training ... learn as you go.
