Glossary Item Box

Squirrelcart v4.4.0

PayPal Website Payments Pro

Overview

PayPal Website Payments Pro allows you to accept payments through PayPal directly on your website, using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. It also allows you to accept PayPal payments if the customer wishes to pay with their PayPal account instead of paying directly with a credit card.

 

More information on PayPal Website Payments Pro can be found here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview-outside

How it Works

In the diagram above, when the customer pays using a credit card directly on your website, Squirrelcart makes use of PayPal's Direct API method. When the customer pays using their PayPal account, Squirrelcart uses PayPal's Express Checkout method.

 

Express Checkout

With Express Checkout, your customer can bypass Squirrelcart's address form. They are sent to PayPal to choose a shipping address, and funding method. PayPal sends them back to your site to choose their shipping method and to complete payment.

Technical Requirements

Website Payments Pro has the following requirements:

Business Requirements
Enabling PayPal Website Payments Pro
  1. Sign Up
    You will need a PayPal Business account in order to use Website Payments Pro. If you do not have one, go to https://www.paypal.com  and click Sign Up. Be sure to choose a business account when signing up. After you sign up, you will receive an email with confirmation instructions. Confirm your account, and then continue below.
  2. Apply for Website Payments Pro
    Navigate to Merchant Tools and select PayPal Website Payments Pro. Enter the required information about you and your business. You will be notified by email when your application review is complete; typically, applications are reviewed in one business day.
  3. Accept Agreement
    After you receive the approval email from PayPal, you must accept their billing agreement.
    1. Log in to https://www.paypal.com
    2. In the top left corner, click Accept Billing Agreement
    3. Stay logged into PayPal for the next steps.
  4. Add your bank account
    You must have a bank account added to your PayPal Business Account. If you do not have one, you can add one as follows:
    1. Click Profile
    2. Under Financial Information, select Bank Accounts
    3. Enter your bank account information
  5. Obtain API credentials
    1. Log in to https://www.paypal.com
    2. Click Profile
    3. Click API Access
    4. Click Request API Credentials


       

      If you already requested API credentials, the link under Option 2 will read differently and will allow you to view those credentials. You can use those already existing API credentials with Squirrelcart if needed.

      Squirrelcart supports using either an API Signature (recommended) OR a client side SSL certificate file.

    5. Click the radio button next to Request API signature:Agree
    6. Click the Agree and Submit button 
    7. An API username, password, and signature will be generated for you. Write this information down or save it in a file for reference.
  6. Open the PayPal Website Payments Pro record in Squirrelcart
     
  7. Enter your API Username in the API Username field
  8. Enter your API Password in the API Password field
  9. Enter your API Signature in the API Signature field

    Alternate Authentication Method

    Authenticating with an API Signature as explained above is the recommended method.

    For backwards compatibility with older versions, we also support authenticating with a client side security certificate file instead of an API Signature. If you prefer to use a client-side security certificate file:

    - Make sure the file is named paypal_cert_key.pem
    - Upload the file to your sc_data folder  
    - Enter the full server specific path to your certificate file in the API Signature field, including the file name. Examples of paths are:
    /home/youraccount/sc_data/paypal_cert_key.pem
    C:/youraccount/sc_data/paypal_cert_key.pem
  10. Choose your transaction type using the Transaction Type field. Mouse over the field name for more information.
  11. Check the Enabled field
  12. Set the Payment Mode field to Live
  13. If you do not wish to gather shipping address information from PayPal, check the No Shipping field
  14. Click Save Changes
IPN (Instant Payment Notification)

PayPal's Instant Payment Notification allows you to integrate PayPal payments with Squirrelcart's order management feature. IPN provides immediate notification and confirmation of PayPal payments you receive, and allows Squirrelcart to update the payment status on orders in your database. If you activate IPN, you will receive an IPN when a payment is first received, which will display the status of the payment (Completed or Pending). If the payment status was Pending, you will receive another IPN when the payment clears, fails, or is denied.

 

Enabling IPN

  1. Login to your PayPal account at PayPal.com
  2. Click the Profile tab
  3. Click Instant Payment Notification Preferences
  4. Click Edit
  5. Click the checkbox, and enter the URL as follows:

    http://www.EXAMPLE.COM/squirrelcart/paypal_ipn.php

    Change the domain name to match your site. If you have installed Squirrelcart in a subdirectory, be sure to add that to the URL. For example, if your storefront page is http://www.example.com/store/store.php, then your IPN URL would be http://www.example.com/store/squirrelcart/paypal_ipn.php.
  6. Click Save
  7. Open the PayPal Website Payments Pro record in Squirrelcart
  8. Check the IPN field
  9. If you wish to receive an email from Squirrelcart each time an IPN is received from PayPal, check the Test IPN field
  10. Click Save Changes

 

 

 

 


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