PayPal_RobG

Hi,   Yes, technically you can have a PayPal account with an email address under an expired domain name. However, any notifications sent to the account won't arrive and you won't be notified of important updates to your account.   You should be able to add a complete new email address on a new domain to your accout though. Simply navigate to 'Profile' > 'Add or remove e-mail' and add the new email address to your account and confirm it. ... View more

Hello BusinessWebs,   How are you currently generating your invoice payment links? Are these 'Buy now' buttons? 'Buy now' buttons support the 'invoice' parameter. If you were to add this on your site, buyers could enter their invoice number here and it would subsequently be passed on to us.   In addition, by using the 'invoice' parameter properly, you will also be able to download your history via the www.paypal.com website, and find the invoice numbers in there as well.   In order to add a text field for your buyers to enter an invoice number, simply add the following extra code to your existing 'Buy now' button: <label for="invoice">Invoice number: </label><input type="text" name="invoice" value="">   Note: This code should go between the <form> and </form> tags of your PayPal button. ... View more

Hi DaniShay,   Unfortunately 'shipping3-9' are not valid parameters; only 'shipping' and 'shipping2' exist at this time. 'shipping' is used to set the shipping cost for one item, and 'shipping2' can be used to adjust the shipping rate for any subsequent items in the cart.   If you're also thinking of calculating international shipping fees, in conjunction with the $7-$4-$1 shipping fees, then I'm afraid we don't really have an out-of-the-box solution for you. You would need to consider using an eCommerce package such as 'osCommerce', 'Zen Cart' or 'Magento', all of which are free and come with extensive support for variable (interational and national) shipping amounts.   Hope this helped. Please let me know if you have any questions. ... View more

Hi JZarr,   Yes; existing recurring payments for which you've specified the NOTIFYURL when the recurring payment was initially created, will continue to use the old URL. In order to use the new URL, you would need to cancel the existing recurring payment(s) and re-create them.   Alternatively, if the old URL sits on a domain which still exists and which is still under your control, you could do something as follows (my example is for PHP as that's what I'm familiar with, but any language could do this);   Create a file in the exact same location, with the exact same filename as your old IPN script Paste the following code and replace where indicated   <?php   // Force a successfull HTTP response to be returned to PayPal header ( "HTTP/1.1 200 OK" ); // Check if we've received POST data if(!empty($_POST)) { // Open a connection to www.yourdomain.tld on port 80 $fp = fsockopen("www.yourdomain.tld", 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);   // If your site use SSL, uncomment the line above and use this instead // $fp = fsockopen("ssl://www.yourdomain.tld", 443, $errno, $errstr, 30); if (!$fp) { // Return an error if you're unable to set up a connection echo "$errstr ($errno)<br />\n"; } else { // Build the HTTP data // Replace "youroldIPNscript.php" by the filename of your old IPN script // For example, if your IPN script is available on www.yourdomain.tld/checkout/paypal/ipn.php // Then you the line below would read "POST /checkout/paypal/ipn.php $out = "POST /youroldIPNscript.php HTTP/1.0\r\n"; // Replace by your (old) domain name again $out .= "Host: www.yourdomain.tld\r\n"; $out .= 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n'; $out .= 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data) . '\r\n\r\n'; $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n"; // Send the HTTP data fwrite($fp, $out); while (!feof($fp)) { echo fgets($fp, 128); } // Close the connection fclose($fp); } } ?>   What this script does, is that it 'forwards' all incoming POST data arriving on your old IPN script URL automatically to your new IPN script URL. That way, your new IPN script will always receive the IPN data, even if it was sent to the old URL. I agree it's a bit of a workaroud, but at least you'll be able to receive your IPN data again.   Hope this was useful. Unfortunately I don't have an example in any other languages, but if you are (or have) a developer, they should be able to create a similar file for you fairly quickly.   -Rob ... View more

Hi sgrayban,   The issue you're replying to has been resolved since ~ mid May to the best of my knowledge. Can you let me know what the exact issue you're seeing? You're saying IPN fails completely; have you verified that your IPN script is working?   Alternatively, can you share your checkout URL with me so I can run a couple of tests against it?   ... View more

Hi cveile,   We don't add any data to a posted 'notify_url'. Are you 100% certain that you're posting it correctly? Would you happen to have a link to your form so I can take a look? ... View more

Hi!   Double-check guest checkout is enabled on your account. You can find this in 'Profile' > 'My selling tools' > 'Payment preferences' > Update. Additionally, you'll need to include the following extra parameter in your SetExpressCheckout API call: "SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole".   If this didn't resolve it, feel free to open a ticket at the address in my signature. ... View more

Hi all,   Any issues with CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile in Sandbox or the Live environment should have been resolved since yesterday.   Please let us know if you continue to have issues with either Sandbox or Live by logging a ticket at https://www.paypal.com/mts/ Where possible, please include the full API request (minus credit card details) and the API response. ... View more

Hi tmblweed,   As per my answer in custom amount on buy now button, there are two options:   1. Use the BMUpdateButton API to update the button. Since this is secured via your API credentials, you can use this API to update this data for hosted buttons.   2. Don't use a hosted button Simply create a new button, and untick 'Host button with PayPal' in Step 2 of the button creation tool. This will then let you pass in any amount via the 'amount' parameter.   As #2 is not an option for you, you would need to use our BMUpdateButton to update the amount for the specific hosted button. Note that this requires moderate development skills. If you are unable to do this yourself, you may find 3rd-party developers certified on PayPal API's in our Certified Developer Directory. There is also a PayPal developers group on oDesk.com with 3rd-party developers who may assist you in this.   To use PayPal's Button Manager API's, you would: Tick the 'Host button with PayPal' option in the button generator, and use PayPal's BMUpdateButton API to dynamically alter the amount of the button. An example request for BMUpdateButton would look as follows: USER=Your API username PWD=Your API password SIGNATURE=Your API signature METHOD=BMUpdateButton VERSION=82.0 HOSTEDUBTTONID=The value of <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value=""> BUTTONTYPE=The type of button. E.g. BUYNOW BUTTONCODE=The type of code you want to get back. E.g. HOSTED L_BUTTONVAR0=amount=The new amount with a period as separator L_BUTTONVAR1=item_name=Optional: a new item name if you wish Optionally, you can also create a new button through BMCreateButton if you so wish.  You can use both the BMCreateButton and BMUpdateButton API's to both create and update your buttons with PayPal. You could also use the BMCreateButton API to create a new button, or use the BMButtonSearch API to search through a list of all your stored hosted buttons (to find the hosted_button_id of your button automatically, for example).   For a full list of applicable API calls and more information on the various Button Manager API's, please see the Button Manager API Overview. The API documentation for the various API calls may be found at the following links: BMCreateButton BMUpdateButton BMGetButtonDetails BMButtonSearch   You can also log a ticket with PayPal Merchant Technical Services at https://www.paypal.com/mts/ in case of any questions. ... View more

Hi,   I can assure you this is not an arbitrary limit; though it's not exactly my area of expertise. As indicated in my earlier reply, WHMCS can override the value for this callback each time it initiates a transaction.   By 'callback', are you referring to the URL buyers are returned to and a parameter is appended to this URL, or are you referring to PayPal Instant Payment Notification (IPN)?   There, realistically, is no need to add the email address of each store unless WHMCS does a validation in the IPN callback which checks the recipient (the PayPal account email address) against the recipient it ought to be (the value for 'business' you entered in the WHMCS setup). But again, these values can be the same for each store.   In short, I would suggest setting the 'business' of the 8th WHMCS installation to your primary PayPal email address, and simply testing the checkout. This should work. ... View more

Hi madsere,   I've heard of WHMCS yes, although I can't recall exactly how they've integrated PayPal Website Payments Standard. Technically, all important values can be overridden by WHMCS to allow for the same checkout experience on each individual WHMCS instance.   - You can override the return URL to which buyers are returned by sending a custom 'return' HTML parameter - You can override the cancel URL to which buyers are returned when cancelling a transaction by sending a custom 'cancel_return' HTML parameter - You can override the URL on which IPN notifications are received by sending a custom 'notify_url' parameter   However, it would be up to WHMCS to send this information. If it doesn't currently send it, and it relies on this data to be present in the PayPal Profile, you would run into issues as you add more websites.   Feel free to let me know what the exact problem is you're having right now, and I'll see if there's a possible workaround available for you. ... View more

Hi madsere,   Could you expand on your last sentence perhaps? I assumed you wanted to add multiple email address for administrative purposes. How does the technical part of the checkout figure into this for you?   I may be able to advise a different manner of integrating PayPal, which would work around the limitation you're seeing now. ... View more

Hi Patriciann,   Our Profile pages have been updated slightly since they created those instructions. You can find this setting in Profile > My selling tools > PayPal button encoding > More Options. From there on, the instructions remain the same.   Hope this clears it up. Let me know if you have any additional questions. ... View more

Hi bigbstanley,   Since your shopping cart / manager handles the shipping fees, this would need to include support for international shipping. Unfortunately this can't be resolved on the PayPal end, because whatever you set up in PayPal is overwritten by the values your shopping cart sends us. I would suggest contacting the vendor of your software, and seeing if they can possibel build in support for this.   I hope this clears it up. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. ... View more

Hi azebot,   Correct, you can't pass in an amount via the 'amount' HTML parameter on-the-fly if your button is hosted with PayPal, since that would defeat the purpose of a hosted button.   There are two options: 1. Use the BMUpdateButton API to update the button. Since this is secured via your API credentials, you can use this API to update this data for hosted buttons.   2. Don't use a hosted button Simply create a new button, and untick 'Host button with PayPal' in Step 2 of the button creation tool. This will then let you pass in any amount via the 'amount' parameter. ... View more

Hi,   Just to let you know, but you're currently not using the 'secure merchant ID' as indicated by the value of 'business' in the <form>.  You can simply replace the value of this field with the secure merchant ID as found on the PayPal Profile of the PayPal account.   The button works for me as well, and appears to be technically correct. ... View more

Hi jampearl,   If your website already generates a (generic) 'Buy now' button, some logic would need to modified to ensure it generates a button which links to PayPal. Whether or not this is possible with the plugin you're using is something you'd need to find out first. Or alternatively, if you some coding experience, you may be able to modify the plugin's core files to do this directly.   Yes, it's perfectly fine to use the link you included above.   If you're going to start modifying the button, you may want to take a look at PayPal HTML Variables. This page includes are required and optional HTML variables you would need to use in case you want to submit a <form> (a transaction request) to PayPal.   For example, you can modify the existing button to create the following form: <form method="POST" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="xx.xx"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxxxxxx"> <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Buy now"> </form>   This is the most basic example of a PayPal button.   1.  <form method="POST" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr"> This indicates we're going to POST this form data to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr -- this is the URL on which we want to receive all data.   2.  <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="xx.xx"> The value of this field indicates the amount you wish to charge   3.  <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxxxxxx"> The value of this field indicates the recipient of the funds. Typically you would enter your PayPal account email address or secure merchant ID in here.   4.  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Buy now"> This will display a standard button with 'Buy now' written on it   5. </form> This closes the form. ... View more

Hi Greg,   The problem is that your site is starting a new <select> for each option. All <option> values should be contained within a single <select>. E.g. as follows:   <select name="item_name"> <option value="Sketch: Empire State Building">Sketch: Empire State Building </option> <option value="Sketch: Tower Bridge, London">Sketch: Tower Bridge, London </option> <option value="Sketch: Lonon Phone Box">Sketch: Lonon Phone Box </option> <option value="Black &amp; White: Empire State Building">Black &amp; White: Empire State Building </option> <option value="Black &amp; White: Brooklyn Bridge">Black &amp; White: Brooklyn Bridge </option> <option value="Moscow Sunset">Moscow Sunset </option> <option value="New York Sunset">New York Sunset </option> <option value="Grand Central Terminal">Grand Central Terminal </option> <option value="Brooklyn Bridge at Night">Brooklyn Bridge at Night </option> <option value="Statue of Liberty Sketch">Statue of Liberty Sketch </option> </select> ... View more

Hi madsere,   This is not my area of expertise (I deal with the technical side of integrating PayPal), but as far as I know it's perfectly fine -- recommended, even -- to have multiple PayPal accounts, if the businesses are significantly different from eachother (e.g. different business categories). I'll ask one of my colleagues if they can confirm this for you. ... View more

Hi,   The address for sandbox is simply https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr Note: You must create test account(s) for the Sandbox via https://developer.paypal.com/ before you can log in here. Sandbox does not allow you to log in with your Live PayPal account.  ... View more

Hi,   Amount You can use Misty's trick if you want to let buyers enter an amount on the PayPal website. If you want to let your buyers change the amount while on your website, you will need to untick 'Host button with PayPal' in Step 2 of the button creation tool and add some additional HTML parameters to your PayPal button.   If you've created a button with a set price and you've unticked 'Host button with PayPal', simply find: <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="xx.xx"> (where xx.xx is the amount you entered).   Simply change this to: <input type="text" name="amount" value="">   Or add a label to add a descriptive text label to the field: <label for="amount">Amount:</label><input type="text" name="amount" id="amount" value="">   Quantity You don't need to change anything in the setup of the PayPal button in the button creation tool, but you do need to add some additional HTML. There are multiple ways to allow a buyer to choose a quantity; I'll give two examples here for the most common use cases: a dropdown list (select) and a text input field.   To allow a buyer to change the quantity with a dropdown box, simply add the following to your existing PayPal button, between the <form> and </form> tags: <select name="quantity"> <option value="1">1</option> <option value="2">2</option> <option value="3">3</option> <option value="4">4</option> <option value="5">5</option> </select>   Or, again, add a descriptive text label with <label>: <label for="quantity">Quantity:</label> <select name="quantity" id="quantity"> <option value="1">1</option> <option value="2">2</option> <option value="3">3</option> <option value="4">4</option> <option value="5">5</option> </select>   To use a text input field, simply add: <input type="text' name="quantity" value="">   Or with a label: <label for="quantity">Quantity:</label> <input type="text' name="quantity" value="" id="quantity">   Hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. ... View more

Hi,   Is it perhaps a subscription button you're using? Only registered buyers can sign up for subscriptions by default, unless you sign up for Enhanced Recurring Payments (Enhanced Recurring Payments also gives you access to additional button types, such as Auto Billing and Installment Plans,) ... View more

Hello,   Yes, you indeed need to have a confirmed email address before this option becomes available. ... View more

Hello Andrea,   No problem at all.   Unfortunately ( for me ) it is not clear. I mean: the main question of this topic was: "Does Payment Data Transfer with Auto Return require SSL? I'm having a problem and wonder if that is the reason?". In your "Order Management Integration Guide", under the "Differences between Payment Data Transfer (PDT) and Instant Payment Notification (IPN)" section, I read: "Because credit card and bank information is not transmitted in Instant Payment Notification (IPN), PayPal does not require Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt IPN transmissions." In human language, this sentence would mean: for PDT transactions, PayPal requires SSL; for IPN transactions, do not. No, no such requirement is implied in this sentence. PDT and IPN operate differently, and as such there is no need for such a requirement with PDT. With IPN, we send information from the PayPal server(s) to your IPN script. The information flows from PayPal => to your script. When you want to validate the IPN data, you return it to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-validate With PDT, you request the information from us; that is, from paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-synch. You must  connect to us via SSL on https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-synch   In the real world, I am tryng to use both the raw socket Perl function and the Wget Linux function to manage a connection to your server from my server where SSL is not supported. The results, in Sandbox environment, are: 1) If I call your https server for PDT, I do not receive anything ( no errors, no headers, nothing ); 2) if I call your https server for IPN, I receive all data. And this seems to be consistent with sentences I quoted before. After your last message, I tried to call your server for PDT, adding the query string to URL: webscr?cmd=_notify-synch, but the result seems to be always the same: nothing returned.  When you say "where SSL is not supported", you are likely referring to the fact that SSL is not supported for your own domain on this server. It would be very unlikely if you're unable to create outgoing SSL-connections on port 443 (which is what you're doing when you're connecting to https://www.paypal.com/, either via a script or via a browser).   When you write: "The rule of thumb is: If you're connecting to PayPal, use SSL" I suppose that PayPal requires SSL for PDT transactions. And this is my final question: may I send the cmd, at and tx string to your server without any SSL compliance? I suppose I can not.   The original question referred to whether the value of the "return" parameter must be SSL-secured or not. That's not the case, as <input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.yourdomain.com/return.html"> will work just as well as <input type="hidden" name="return" value="https://www.yourdomain.com/return.html"> To answer your question: no, you must use SSL to connect to PayPal to retrieve PDT details.   I hope this clears it up. Otherwise, please feel free to create a ticket for your individual issue with PDT by navigating to https://www.paypal.com/mts/ ... View more

Glad it helped!     Regards, Robert ... View more

Hi Andrea,   https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-synch already indicates (with the HTTPS) it uses SSL. You shouldn't use http://www.paypal.com (non-SSL).   This is different from the actual return URL you are using. That is, the URL within your website that the buyer is buying returned to. This can be both SSL-secured and non-SSL secured.   There is no specific documentation for this per sé. Some of it is mentioned in the Order Management Integration Guide, but there is no specific guide which mentions all requirements for each specific URL.   The rule of thumb is: If you're connecting to PayPal, use SSL. If PayPal is returning a buyer to your website within the browser, SSL is not required on your website.   I hope this clears it up. ... View more

Hi Ladilola,   Which internet browser are you using? Could you possibly try a different one to rule out any potential issues there? (E.g. try Chrome if you're using Firefox now). ... View more

Hi dragonart,   I'm not sure I understand it exactly, but wouldn't it be good practice to empty the cart if they complete a transaction (and thus pay for an order) within osCommerce? Or am I missing something? ... View more

Hello kfischer,   This would happen if the 'value' for all options are the same. Please ensure each options is unique within the button. ... View more