PayPal IPN vs. Website Payments Standard for newbies

[susan767]

Having received help from so many supporters on the forum and using a number of great contributions,

I thought that I needed to give back a little.

 

For those newbies trying to decide between PayPal IPN and Website Payments Standards, here's a simple comparison of the two to facilitate your decision.

 

PayPal IPN

1. Order acknowledgement email is sent to the buyer as soon as a purchase is made from PayPal website (even if the buyer does not return to your store).

2. You will NOT be able to use html email contributions (add-ons) for order acknowledgement emails. (The reason is provided below)

3. There is insufficient information on the order acknowledgement email. Only order number, link to the invoice and date ordered. No info about the product or address. This is a major drawback, in my opinion.

4. When a buyer completes payment on PayPal website, the button for returning to your store says "Complete Your Order". (This is not an issue if you turn auto-return "on")

 

PayPal Website Payments Standard

1. Order acknowledgement email is sent to the buyer only after he/she returns to your store after making payment from PayPal website. This is a major drawback, in my opinion.

2. You will be able to use html email contributions (add-ons), as opposed to PayPal IPN.

3. The order acknowledgement email includes information such as the name of the product purchased, total amount, delivery/billing address and paymenet method, in addition to order number, invoice link and date ordered.

4. When a buyer completes payment on PayPal website, the button for returning to your store says "Return to xxx's Store". (This is not an issue if you turn auto-return "on")

 

***

 

Customers not returning to your store after making a payment from PayPal is no longer an issue (at least for the two options above) because they both store order information in your database as soon as customers leave your store for PayPal website.

 

As for why you can't use html email contributions (add-ons) with PayPal IPN, this is because PayPal IPN creates order acknowledgement emails from ipn.php, which is different from order_processing.php, which other modules (including PayPal Website Payments Standard) use to generate order acknowledgement emails. All of html email contributions on the forum (that I've checked out so far) modify order_processing.php, and not ipn.php.

 

I'm sure all of the drawbacks I described above can be overcome by adding and/or modifying PHP codes, but because I'm not a programmer nor familiar with PHP codes, I can only provide a comparison rather than solutions.

 

If anyone has suggestions or advice regarding solutions or add-ons for improvements, I'm all ears.

 

Susan

[Jackzzz]

I installed paypal IPN 1.4 on the latest version rc2a, Order email is sent to me as soon as a purchase is made from PayPal website,

but some Status's Preparing [PayPal IPN] does not change to Pending, I do not know the reasons????

I have to check email to see who paid. Supposed as soon as the customers paid, the Status's Preparing [PayPal IPN] should change to "Pending"

 

 

Thanks for help!

[jhande]

This is the version to use - PayPal IPN v2.3.3

 

 

;)

[Jackzzz]

Thanks, I will use - PayPal IPN v2.3.3

[Jackzzz]

This is the version to use - PayPal IPN v2.3.3

 

 

;)

 

I just installed the PayPal IPN v2.3.3 on the latest version rc2a,

when I checked out, the total price on my page is not same as the price on the paypal page.???

 

For example:

 

Sub-total: 25

shipping fee:4.99

insurance:3.75

--------------

Total:33.74

 

After I clicked the confirm order, the next page on paypal shows Total price: 35.80. The total price does not match with the price on paypal???

 

any solution for this problems???

 

Thanks.