Credit Card Processing (Paypal?)

[billbarker]

A quick search of the forums (fora?) only returned one real mention of paypal, but this appeared to be for a 'static' value, ie $100 subscription, and that was a post 'over 120 days old' so the advice to create a new post has been taken!

I was wondering if it was possible to pass requests for variable values (ie, not just $121 subscription, but $3 one day, £33 another), and do you get any feedback from paypal (at the time the transaction is accepted) that the calling routine can pickup and mark the payment as 'made'?

If not paypal, any credit card payment processor would be acceptable, however one that stored users details would be preferable (paypal is actually quite good like this) as my users will be making frequent payments.

Thanks

Bill

[Bruce]

Hi Bill,

We don't get PayPal here, so it's not something I've looked into much - perhaps others can help.

In concept you can do whatever the payment processor allows you to do - you need to read up on their API to see what they offer and so on. But if they support it you can typically do it.

cheers
Bruce

[billbarker]

Ok, after quite a bit off account setup, and configuration, the paypal process seems to be going ok.
I now need to 'embed' some html on a button, but don't seem to see any option for html...
I need to 'execute' the following on a button press... any suggestions?

<form method="POST" action="https://payflowlink.paypal.com">

<input type="hidden" name="LOGIN" value="syntax">

<input type="hidden" name="PARTNER" value="Paypal">

<input type="hidden" name="DESCRIPTION" value="Pay Fees">

<input type="hidden" name="AMOUNT" value="25.00">

<input type="hidden" name="TYPE" value="S">

<input type="submit" value="Click Here to Purchase">

</form>


As always.. thanks in advance

Bill

[kevin plummer]

Hi Bill,

check out the web client docs. I would also run the netdemo.app to test.

Cheers,

Kevin

[billbarker]

Yup, that's the place to look. I have not even 'noticed' all the web client stuff, I've been so wrapped up in web server!

Bruce 'walked' me through this yesterday on the webinar, but I need to wait for the recording to 'land' to watch (an re-watch) a few times

I have now got the nettalk demo running, along with the docs.

Thanks

[billbarker]

actually, things have moved on a little, having played with the net talk demo.. I now understand what you mean by...'you will get the results back...' as in 'this returns a whole website html'.

This was why I was not really understanding your answer, because I was not asking the right question!

I have realised I can just pass loads of parameters to paypal when I go to the url :-

'https://payflowlink.paypal.com?LOGIN=syntax&PARTNER=Paypal&DESCRIPTION=Pay Fees&AMOUNT=' & led:Value & '&TYPE=S&submit=Click Here to Purchase'

the 'reply' that I was thinking in my head was the 'reply' from paypal telling me how successful it had been processing the payment request..... this is still ongoing.

Just thought I'd mention it, as no doubt there will be more questions to follow (I've not yet finished the functionality of 'calling' paypal yet')

[Bruce]

Hi Bill,


>> I have realised I can just pass loads of parameters to paypal when I go to the url :-
'https://payflowlink.paypal.com?LOGIN=syntax&PARTNER=Paypal&DESCRIPTION=Pay Fees&AMOUNT=' & led:Value & '&TYPE=S&submit=Click Here to Purchase'

Yes, but this is functionally the same as doing a POST after a bunch of SETVALUE()'s and considered "more secure" because the URL part is "seen" by proxies, and loggers and so on, and so that parameter data can show up in places where POST Data does not. So it's considered a better practice to use the POST than the FETCH.

>> the 'reply' that I was thinking in my head was the 'reply' from paypal telling me how successful it had been processing the payment request..... this is still ongoing.

It kinda depends on what PayPal does when you submit the form. Do they process immediately? Do they ask the user for more information? And so on.... If they takes the user through a whole payment process then that's a different question, and perhaps one we can explore further on Thursday... (go get a headset with a Mic before then   )

Cheers
Bruce

[billbarker]

Yup, you pass all the info to paypal, and then they 'take over' from there..... they offer the user the choice of either logging into paypay, or simply entering your credit card info (paypal have a big tv advertising campaign on in the UK at the moment, so I guess paypal is going to pretty much become the credit card processor of choice) - they then either return 'post' or 'get'.

(Bruce.. if you take a look at the app I sent you with the pound sign issue (if you still have it), you can see this by pressing one of the buttons that does/doesn't have a pound sign on when the app is running!)

I will go shopping before thursday!

[Larry Sand]

We developed a class that uses the classic PayPal API with IPN, I wonder what this sort of thing is worth using the REST API too?  It really is just setting up the xml and passing it to paypal (there are a lot of options though)... It's just one of the web payment processing options we've integrated.

[Larry Sand]

Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right.  We're not selling anything.  What do you need help with/or are trying to do.  Do you need the basic workflow?  or?

Larry

[billbarker]

Larry,

My basic requirement is to take credit card payments. Paypal seemed the most useful for a few reasons, mainly because these payments will be 'repeat' payments, and paypal seems a very simple process once you have created an account, and associated credit cards (and they are currently running a tv ad campaign, and with the widespread use of eBay, many people in the uk already have a paypal account).

I have set up a 'sandpit' on paypal, but have reached a bit of a dead end, simply down to lack of knowledge, I'm very new to 'web' programming, and I'm finding the learning curve pretty steep (I'm old and find it very frustrating as I've been using clarion for over 25 years and know it so well, this is so far out of my comfort zone, but getting better!).

The paypal docs seemed to suggest passing data with 'posts', but that was beyond my 'scope' (!) so I have resorted to simply jumping to a url with a few parameters (see earlier posts).. but as I don't seem to be able to log into a paypal account once I 'Land' on the paypal test system I have drawn a blank so far (and have put this on the back burner, to return to later in the development of this system, it's going to take a while and I was hoping at the point the time came that I MUST have this processing I would have ingested enough knowledge to progress!)

Not sure all this makes sense, in summary I think I need paypal integration, but I haven't got very far!!


Thanks

Bill

[Larry Sand]

Bill,

My session just timed out and it ate my long reply (awesome).  So here is the short version:

self.post() sends an HTML POST, self.fetch() send an HTML GET.  To use the classic api for PayPal you'll use the .post() and send a soap packet (XML).

The thing you have to wrap your head around is there are three entities and their connections in a tokenized CC transaction.  The user sitting at their browser, your NTWS, and PayPal.

You send your user the page and they click the spend more money now button.  Your NTWS formulates a packet and POSTS it to PayPal (it's async so you need to wait for the response). and then you can finalize the transaction and send the user a response page.   HOWEVER, the connection can drop etc.... and the IPN Instant Payment Notification helps but you still must have a system to put transactions of unknown disposition in a queue for processing.  There's an API you call with the ref number of the transaction to find out what happened to it.

Does that help?

Larry Sand

[billbarker]

Larry,

I think this is going to take some studying! Hopefully in a few weeks some of the concepts will be a little more familiar!

Bill

[MyBrainIsFull]

TO Larry
I had the same problem, so now I type it in notepad then cut and paste.

k

[billbarker]

Larry,

Ok, I'm getting no where with this... any chance I could throw a little money your way, to get a solution?

Thanks