Paypal Button Creation

[Necuima]

Hi Larry,

I am following your design in part 3 of the book to create a cart which is all fine - great guidance! But the website owner insists that the payment will be via PayPal (PP).  I have looked at part 2 where you use PayPal but with fixed amounts. I am trying to create a button/link to PP for a variable amount and in Australian dollars.  The code works fine as long as I do not try to change the currency.  I also need to add 'thankyou' and 'cancel' links back to the website but I can't seem to do that either. I have Googled for hours without finding the solution.

 

<!-- now the button -->
<form action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank">
  <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
  <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxxx@yyyy.com.au">
  <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Item Description">
  <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="">
  <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="$total">
  <input type="hidden" name="handling" value="0.00">
  <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="0.00">
  <!-- <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="AUD"> -->
  <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="AU">
  <input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF">
  <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_AU/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!">
  <img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_AU/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
  <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
</form>

You can see that I have commented the currency out - with it 'in' I get an error from PP.

Any guidance will be much appreciated.

Best regards from Oz :-)

[Necuima]

Hi Larry,

Found some more code which displays the button nicely but even though the yellow PayPal bar shows the link/hand icon it goes nowhere.  I do have a developer id etc but don't know where to paste it.

 

<form action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank">
				<div id="smart-button-container" style="width: 60%; margin-left: 21%;">
				<div style="text-align: left"><label class="checkout_form_mt_right v_align_top" for="description">Item:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</label><input type="text" name="descriptionInput" id="description" size="40" value="Selected Jane Welsh Works of Art"></div>
				  <p id="descriptionError" style="visibility: hidden; color:red; text-align: center;">Please enter a description</p>
				<div style="text-align: left"><label  class="checkout_form_mt_right v_align_top" for="amount">Amount:&nbsp;&nbsp;</label><input name="amountInput" type="string" id="amount" value="$total"><span> AUD</span><span class='v_align_top white_text'><small><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;Australian dollars</i></small></span></div>
				  <p id="priceLabelError" style="visibility: hidden; color:red; text-align: center;">Please enter a price</p>
				<div id="invoiceidDiv" style="text-align: center; display: none;"><label for="invoiceid"> </label><input name="invoiceid" maxlength="127" type="text" id="invoiceid" value="" ></div>
				  <p id="invoiceidError" style="visibility: hidden; color:red; text-align: center;">Please enter an Invoice ID</p>
				<div style="text-align: center; margin-top: 0.625rem;" id="paypal-button-container"></div>
			  </div>
		  <!-- </form> 	   -->

I tried it with and without the closing form tag.  There's also a heap of JavaScript which comes with this example from PayPal which I have not touched nor included here.

Again, any advice will be most appreciated.

[Necuima]

Hi Larry,  From SO the second code should not have the HTML form tags so I removed them but it still does not work.  I have also tried that code just in a simple HTML script but still no access to PP.  I would prefer to use the first script as at least it got me to PayPal if only I could find a way to set the currency to Australian dollars!  This must be a common thing to do - have a shopping cart in your PHP code and then just interface to PayPal with a single amount to process the financial transaction.  I have done similar with Stripe and that works fine but, as mentioned, the website owner insists on PP.  I look forward to your advice and thank you in anticipation.

[Necuima]

I got there in the end after going down many 'blind alleys'.

<form action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank">
			   <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
			   <!-- <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> -->
			   <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxxx@yyyy.com.au">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Item Description">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="">
			   <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="$total">
			   <input type="hidden" name="handling" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="AUD">
			   <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="AU">
			   <input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF">
			   <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
			   <input type="image" src="./images/PayPal_Button.jpg" alt="Submit" width="100"> <!-- the submit button -->
			</form>

Cheers from Oz.

[Larry]

Ah, kudos for figuring it out and thanks for sharing your journey with us!

[Necuima]

This is now in production.  I've attached the code for anyone else who might be in a similar situation.

if ($local)
	{	// development
		echo <<<DD1
			<!-- DEVELOPMENT TEST!!!-->
			<div class="paypal_box">	<!-- right-shifts the div -->
			<!-- first the PayPal Logo - see: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/logo-center -->
			<img class="PP_logo" src="./images/PP_logo.jpg" alt="PayPal Logo">
			<form action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
			   <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
			   <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxx@yyy.com.au">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Selected Items">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="">
			   <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="$total">
			   <input type="hidden" name="handling" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="AUD">
			   <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="AU">
			   <input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF">
			   <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
			   <input type="image" src="./images/PayPal_Button.jpg" alt="Submit" width="100"> <!-- the submit button -->
			</form>
			</div>	<!-- end paypal_box class div -->
			<br /><br />
DD1;
	}	// end development
else
	{	// production - see: https://cvconnect.commercevision.com.au/display/KB/PayPal+Payments
		echo <<<DD2
			<!-- PRODUCTION!!!-->
			<div class="paypal_box">	<!-- right-shifts the div -->
			<!-- first the PayPal Logo - see: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/logo-center -->
			<img class="PP_logo" src="./images/PP_logo.jpg" alt="PayPal Logo">
			<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
			   <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
			   <input type="hidden" name="business" value="xxx@yyy.com.au">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Selected Items">
			   <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="">
			   <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="$total">
			   <input type="hidden" name="handling" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="0.00">
			   <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="AUD">
			   <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="AU">
			   <input type="hidden" name="return" value="https://xxx/index.php?p=thanks_3">
			   <input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="https://xxx/index.php?p=cancel_3">
			   <input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF">
			   <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
			   <input type="image" src="./images/PayPal_Button.jpg" alt="Submit" width="100"> <!-- the submit button -->
			</form>
			</div>	<!-- end paypal_box class div -->
			<br /><br />
DD2;
	}	// end production

You will recognise the "$local" from one of your other books 🙂

As an aside, when obtaining guidance from your E-Commerce book, I used PDO for all database activities and that has worked fine.

All the best, Necuima

[Larry]

This is great! Kudos and thanks for sharing!