I’m looking at integrating paypal/IPN into a site. The documentation and sample scripts I’ve found are a mess. But I came across this framework: [url]http://www.geniegate.com/listings/dolphin/[/url] Has anybody used this before? Or know of a good one?
@tirnaJan 27.2011 — #I use Paypal IPN sample scripts in my online store application without any problems. Use the PayPal Sandbox environment for deleopment/debugging before going live with it.
@wsparrowauthorJan 27.2011 — #Well then maybe you can help me wrap my head around this. The IPN listener verifies the response from paypal, but from what I can tell, that response is either "validated" or "unvalidated". Well what if you have more than one purchase available? How do you determine WHAT has been purchased? In my case there will be multiple user levels (i.e. bronze, silver and gold memberships).
So if the IPN listener is only getting a yes or no from paypal, do I setup different listeners for different purchases?
@tirnaJan 27.2011 — #You can pass additional form data to Paypal like purchase level (bronze, gold etc etc) along with the contents of the shopping cart when the buyer is sent to the PayPal payment page. This information is sent to your ipn listener php script. If the transmission comes back as valid, then extract that additional data from the ipn data sent to your script and then do your back end processing accordingly.
@wsparrowauthorJan 27.2011 — #Okay, so if I understand correctly, additional form data that I include with the paypal button, will get passed to paypal and then back to my server. Correct?
Also, can I make these options available on the paypal page, or should I just use multiple paypal buttons on my page?
@tirnaJan 27.2011 — #Okay, so if I understand correctly, additional form data that I include with the paypal button, will get passed to paypal and then back to my server. Correct? [/quote]
Yes. In the docs they are referred to as pass through variables frommemory. They are npt used or stored by PayPal. It just passes them back to your ipn processing script so it can do your back end stuff.
Also, can I make these options available on the paypal page, or should I just use multiple paypal buttons on my page?[/quote]
Not sure. I use a customised cart whose contents are written to a html form along with any pass through variables. When the user clicks checkout, all the form data is sent to PayPal where the user makes their payment using a credit card or their paypal account. When the payment is complete, paypal sends an ipn to my listener script with all the form data. The ipn transmission is validated. If it comes back as validated from PP, my ipn script processes the form data to complete the purchase record in my database.