seting up paypal

[phrog]

I am having a real problem understanding how to connect up OSCommerce to Paypal. I have a paypal account and have set all the options for a merchant account with them. I have turned on the paypal payment module in OSC. I have not installed any contributions.

 

How do I hook up my site to the paypal service. I've seen the "buy now" buttons but would prefer that the information from the OScommerce shopping cart be sent to paypal. How exactly do I do this? I feel stupid asking this as I certainly don't consider myself a computer illiterate but the more I look into how to do this the more confused I get. Is there a definitive guide to how to connect up to Paypal and which contributions actually work?

 

I am almost there to setting up shop and this is just about the last step before I can go live.

 

Please someone help me.

[Guest]

Those Buy Now buttons from Paypal won't be necessary. If you mean the ones on your store, they just work with the shopping cart feature. When you install a paypal Contribution, enable it in your Admin Panel and it will be offered as a payment method at checkout, just like the others. Read up on the Contribs available. I use the stock one from osC.

[Guest]

Go to your Admin page.

 

Click on My Store. Click on Modules.

 

Select the PayPal module. Click to Install it.

 

Enable it by setting it to 'true'.

 

Enter the payment address of your PayPal account.

 

Select the currency you're willing to accept...I have mine set to USD only.

 

Leave Payment Zone as 'none'. Meaning....everyone can pay with PayPal.

 

Select 'Order Status' from the dropdown box to be whatever you want. That's what will appear on customers' screens when they log back in to your website to check the status of their order. I set mine to 'processing'. When their items shipped, I use Admin to change their status to 'shipped' later.

 

Set Order Of Display. All this means is....do you want it to be the first payment option on the checkout screen or not? I set it to 0, to be first. We all like instant payments from PayPal. :)

 

That's it. You've installed PayPal as a payment option for your website. You don't need any contribs at all.

 

On that note, there's a lot of talk about installing another PayPal contrib to redirect customers back to your website after their payment is completed when they're in PayPal.

 

Go to your PayPal account...via paypal.com...and log in. Click on Profile.

 

Click on Website Payments or words to that effect. Turn on 'Auto-Return'. That will return customers back to your website. You'll be asked for a URL that the customer should be sent back to. Type in:

 

www.yoursite.com/checkout_success.php

 

Works like a charm. The customer will pay, and within a couple of seconds, be redirected back to the Checkout Success page which shows what they bought and Thank You very much for your business.

 

Andrea

[Guest]

Yes, I'm set up just as Andrea describes. Every once in a while, I have a customer quick enough to surf away to (probably) their paypal account stuff before the autoreturn function brings them back to complete the order. This is why folks created and use the order logging contributions. I don't use them. It is rare enough for me that I just work around it. I just posted my methods earlier tonight if you're curious. Just look down in this forum or General Help. I don't remember exactly where I did it.

[Guest]

Same is true for me, Dan.

 

Once in a while...all of these buyers who are conditioned to make their payment thru PayPal and kill the screen....like eBayers...they don't return to the site and the order may not make the database and you won't receive the order e-mail.

 

You'll get an e-mail from PayPal about somebody paying you X-amount, and have no clue what they bought.

 

But, like you said, Dan, it's so rare that it happens....I don't see the point in confusing and frustrating newbies by suggesting they install contribs for it.

 

On that note.....I almost feel guilty suggesting a contrib, but here goes.

 

There is one called Better PayPal Description.

 

Without it, your e-mails from PayPal give you nothing but a serial number for the transaction. In other words, there's no item by item breakdown of what the customer actually bought.

 

So, in the event the 1 out of 1000 doesn't return to your site so the order makes the database.....you will need to know what exactly they purchased in the e-mail PayPal sends you. And then you can go into your items and subtract or delete inventory if you have to.

 

After all, you don't wanna be the guy that has to write to your customer and say.....Thanks for your order and your fast payment! Ummmm....what did you purchase?

 

To look at this contrib, it says, very clearly, that you must have the PayPal IPN 1.0 module installed.

 

Ignore that.

 

You can download the files for the contrib and apply the exact same file changes to your existing paypal.php file that comes pre-installed with OSC. You DON'T need to install the PayPal IPN 1.0 mod to do it.

 

Just look for the same files the author is referencing in the contrib and look for the lines of code he directs you to....and apply those line additions to your existing paypal.php file and you're good to go.

 

How do I know this? Because I did it to my own site. And it works perfectly.

 

Instead of getting a PayPal e-mail that says.....order ABC99993333ABC...it says:

 

Actual Item Name and Quantity....however many items were purchased.

 

Learning how to use OSC is hard enough, in my opinion. The less contribs we throw at everyone, the better.

 

Even if I did just do that. LOL. But, hey, it's a baby contrib. Not one of those.....whoosh! right over the top of your head contribs like some can be.

 

Andrea

[phrog]

Same is true for me, Dan.

 

Once in a while...all of these buyers who are conditioned to make their payment thru PayPal and kill the screen....like eBayers...they don't return to the site and the order may not make the database and you won't receive the order e-mail.

 

You'll get an e-mail from PayPal about somebody paying you X-amount, and have no clue what they bought.

 

But, like you said, Dan, it's so rare that it happens....I don't see the point in confusing and frustrating newbies by suggesting they install contribs for it.

 

On that note.....I almost feel guilty suggesting a contrib, but here goes.

 

There is one called Better PayPal Description.

 

Without it, your e-mails from PayPal give you nothing but a serial number for the transaction. In other words, there's no item by item breakdown of what the customer actually bought.

 

So, in the event the 1 out of 1000 doesn't return to your site so the order makes the database.....you will need to know what exactly they purchased in the e-mail PayPal sends you. And then you can go into your items and subtract or delete inventory if you have to.

 

After all, you don't wanna be the guy that has to write to your customer and say.....Thanks for your order and your fast payment! Ummmm....what did you purchase?

 

To look at this contrib, it says, very clearly, that you must have the PayPal IPN 1.0 module installed.

 

Ignore that.

 

You can download the files for the contrib and apply the exact same file changes to your existing paypal.php file that comes pre-installed with OSC. You DON'T need to install the PayPal IPN 1.0 mod to do it.

 

Just look for the same files the author is referencing in the contrib and look for the lines of code he directs you to....and apply those line additions to your existing paypal.php file and you're good to go.

 

How do I know this? Because I did it to my own site. And it works perfectly.

 

Instead of getting a PayPal e-mail that says.....order ABC99993333ABC...it says:

 

Actual Item Name and Quantity....however many items were purchased.

 

Learning how to use OSC is hard enough, in my opinion. The less contribs we throw at everyone, the better.

 

Even if I did just do that. LOL. But, hey, it's a baby contrib. Not one of those.....whoosh! right over the top of your head contribs like some can be.

 

Andrea

 

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I will try this out this evening and then report back on my success. I had thought that I had followed all the right steps for setting up the payment module but obviously not. I'll try getting things going before I add any contribs to the mix though.

[phrog]

Success! I just set it up and it worked perfectly! I hadn't set one little thing properly - figures!

 

I'll do a little testing first then perhaps I'll try to do the little contrib that andrea suggested

 

Thanks for all your help! Very much appreciated.

 

Scott