paypal api | Tips and Tricks WP eCommerce

Enabling PayPal Smart Button Checkout – Setup and Configuration

The PayPal Smart Checkout is an option you can enable in your WP Simple Cart Plugin. The Smart Checkout Button provides your customers with an alternative checkout method. The PayPal Smart Button Checkout contains a number of buttons that allow your customers to checkout using their PayPal Account, their credit card (Visa, Mastercard etc.) or PayPal credit.

The checkout form is displayed to the customer in a popup window.

Checkout Demo Video

The following video shows how a checkout works with PayPal smart button (from a customers point of view):

Configuring PayPal Smart Checkout Button

Step 1) Ensure you have the latest version of the WP Simple PayPal Shopping Cart Plugin installed and activated on your WordPress site.

Step 2) Click on the Settings menu under Simple Cart.

Step 3) Choose the Advanced Settings tab.

Step 4) You will now see a section titled PayPal Smart Checkout Settings.

Step 5) Mark the checkbox next to Enable PayPal Smart Checkout.

Step 6) To set up this feature you will now need to Log in to your PayPal Developer Account to locate your API details. You will need a PayPal Business Account.

Step 7) Click on the My Apps & Credentials menu within your PayPal Developer Account.

Step 8) Scroll down to the Rest API Apps section.

Step 9) Click the Create App button.

Step 10) Give your app a name that relates to it’s intended use.

Step 11) Click the Create App button.

Step 12) You will now see your Sandbox Client ID and your Sandbox Secret Key (once you click the ‘show’ button).

Step 13) Click the Live button in the left hand corner to show your Live API Keys.

Step 14) Copy and paste both your Live and Test Client ID’s and your Live and Test Secret Keys from your PayPal account into the settings menu of your WP PayPal Shopping Cart. Ensure you paste them in the correct fields.

Step 15) If you would only like to offer Smart PayPal Checkout, mark the checkbox next to Disable Standard PayPal Checkout. Alternatively, you can choose to offer both at once by leaving this box unmarked.

Step 15) Click the Update Options button. You have now completed the setting configuration for PayPal Smart Checkout.

Step 16) Your Simple PayPal Shopping Cart Products will now be able to be purchased through this PayPal checkout method.

Purchasing a Product via PayPal Smart Checkout

A customer can add an item to your Simple PayPal Shopping Cart. Once the item appears in the cart, the customer can go ahead and checkout using PayPal Smart Checkout. They can click the button that applies to them.

For example, in the following example, the customer clicks the PayPal button because they wish to pay directly from their PayPal account.

Once a customer clicks on one of the PayPal Smart Checkout buttons, a popup appears where they can complete the checkout process by entering in the appropriate details.

Customizing the Smart Checkout Buttons

Read our documentation on smart checkout buttons customization.

Simple Shopping Cart – Adding Extra PayPal Input Fields

The simple shopping cart plugin has a filter that you can use to add extra input fields that will get sent to PayPal as part of the checkout.

Code Example

The following code example shows how you can append extra fields to the checkout form (add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin).

It will add the language code field to force a specific language on the PayPal checkout page.

add_filter('wspsc_cart_extra_paypal_fields', 'append_extra_fields');
function append_extra_fields($output)
{
    //Add the PayPal language code field
    $output = '<input name="lc" type="hidden" value="US" />';
    return $output;
}

Simple Shopping Cart – Adding Values to PayPal Custom Field

The simple shopping cart plugin has a filter that you can use to add extra data to the PayPal custom field.

Note: The plugin already uses the PayPal custom field to pass some parameters to PayPal. So you should append your data to this custom field (to make sure you don’t erase the custom data added by this plugin)

Code Example

The following code example shows how you can append data to the custom field (add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin).

add_filter('wpspc_cart_custom_field_value', 'append_my_custom_data');
function append_my_custom_data($custom_value)
{
    //Append my data using query parameter
    $custom_value = $custom_value . '&my_data=XYZ';
    return $custom_value;
}

This will pass your data along with the cart’s custom data to the PayPal’s custom field.

Make Credit Card the Default Checkout Option for PayPal Standard

When your customers checkout using the standard PayPal checkout option in eStore, PayPal figures out (using a cookie) if the user has PayPal account or not. Then it presents the checkout option (Paypal account or Credit card) accordingly. The customers can always switch between the checkout options from this page and make the payment.

If you want to force the credit card checkout option to be the default option, then use this addon plugin on your site. When the customers land on the PayPal checkout page, the credit card payment option will be open by default.

Note: You need to have a PayPal business or premiere account to accept credit card from your customers.

credit-card-default-paypal-checkout-option

Installing the Addon

You can install this addon the same way you install any WordPress plugin:

Go to the “Add New” plugins screen in your WordPress admin area
Click the “upload” tab
Browse for the addon file (estore-card-default-paypal-checkout-option.zip)
Click “Install Now” and then activate the plugin

Using the Addon

You just have to keep this addon active.

Download the Addon

You can download this addon from the addon download area of our customer only support forum.

How to Receive Buyer’s Phone Number from PayPal

To receive contact phone number of buyers, you will need to enable an option in your PayPal merchant account.

Step 1) Log into your PayPal account

Step 2) Go to Profile -> My Selling Tools -> Website preferences

Step 3) Set Contact Telephone to On (Required Field)

screenshot showing how to accept buyer phone number with a paypal order

Step 4) Save your settings

Automatically Return Customers from PayPal to Your Thank You Page

In this tutorial, I will explain how you can setup your PayPal account to automatically return(redirect) your customers from PayPal to your site’s Thank You page after a payment.

Note: You need to have a PayPal business or premier account to be able to do this. Upgrading from a personal PayPal account to one of these accounts is free.

Steps for Setting up Auto Return:

Step 1: Log into your PayPal account.

Step 2: Go to My Account -> Profile

Step 3: Click on the selling tools link.

Step 4: Check the selling online section

Step 5: Look for “Website Preferences” and click the “Update” link on the far right hand corner of this row. See the following screenshot for reference

getting-paypal-pdt-token-id

Step 6: You should now be on the “Website Preferences” menu.

a) Turn on the “Auto Return” for Website Payments
b) Enter a URL in the Return URL field (your thank you page URL)
c) Scroll down to Payment Data Transfer and enable it.
d) Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button
e) PayPal will give a success message and show you your PDT ID Token
f) Copy the PayPal PDT ID token and use it where you need to specify it.

Note that PayPal does not do auto return if the customer doesn’t pay using their PayPal account.

Expected Behavior After You Enable Auto Return

Scenario 1) Customer pays via paypal account -> Gets automatically redirected to your thank you page.

Scenario 2) Customer pay via a credit card -> Gets shown a receipt page on Paypal -> The customer clicks a link on this page and gets sent to your thank you page.

How to Setup PayPal IPN Notification

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) allows you to integrate your PayPal payments with your website’s back-end operations, so you get immediate notification and authentication of the PayPal payments you receive.

Video Tutorial on PayPal IPN Setup

Written Instruction

Do the following to enable IPN in your PayPal account:

Log into your PayPal account
Go to Profile then “My Selling Tools”
Look for an option labelled “Instant Payment Notification”. Click on the update button for that option.
Click “Choose IPN Settings”
Enter the URL of your website and hit “Save”

Resend PayPal IPN Message

Read the how to resend PayPal IPN message tutorial.

PayPal Beginner Video Tutorials

The PayPal beginner video tutorials is a good resource to check if you are new to PayPal as a merchant.

How to Enable PayPal API Access and Get the API Details

The following steps (with screenshots) show you how you can enable API access in your PayPal account and get the API details to use in your shopping cart admin/configuration screen:

Log in to your PayPal Business account.
Make sure your PayPal account is verified (you need to verify your account before requesting API credentials).
Click on the My Account tab (if you are not there already)
Click on the Profile link.
Click on the My Selling Tools link

paypal-my-selling-tools-link

Click on the update button in the API Access row

Click Request API credentials link.

paypal-request-api-access-screen

Select the Request API signature radio box.
Click Agree and Submit.

api-request-agreement-screen

Copy and paste the API username, password, and signature into your shopping cart’s configuration or administration screen.

You can also check this page on PayPal for instruction on how to get your API details.