PayPal Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools

by Shannon Sofield, Dave Nielsen, Dave Burchell

Overview

If you've bought or sold items through eBay, or through hundreds of other online sites, then you're familiar with PayPal, the online payment service. With PayPal, a valid email address, and a credit card or bank account, you can easily send and receive payments online. Not a bank or financial institution itself, PayPal describes its service as one that builds on the financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards, and using advanced propriety fraud prevention systems, creates a safe, global, real-time payment solution. Put simply, PayPal provides the means for people to conduct financial transactions online, instantly and securely.But there's more to PayPal than meets the eye. PayPal Hacks shows you how to make the most of PayPal to get the most out of your online business or transactions. Authors Shannon Sofield of Payloadz.com and PayPal evangelist David Nielsen guide you through the rigors of using and developing with PayPal. Whether you're building an ecommerce site using PayPal as a transaction provider, or simply trying to pay for an eBay auction without getting burned, PayPal Hacks will give you the skinny on this leading global online payment service.The collection of tips and tricks in PayPal Hacks shows you how to find or even build the right tools for using PayPal to buy and sell on eBay or as a transaction provider for ecommerce on your own site. Written for all PayPal users, from those just starting out to those developing sophisticated ecommerce sites, this book begins with the basics such as setting up your account, then moves quickly into specific tips and tools for buyers, sellers, and developers.With PayPal Hacks, you can:

• Learn extra steps to help protect yourself while buying or selling on eBay
• Save time and money with advanced tips and undocumented features
• Learn dozens of easy-to-follow procedures to help you request and receive payments and fill orders
• Use PayPal to handle subscriptions, affiliate systems, and donations
• Create and customize your customers' checkout process
• Effortlessly integrate PayPal's shopping cart system into your own website
• Implement digital fulfillment with Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and Payment Data Transfer (PDT)
• Develop and distribute ecommerce applications with the PayPal API

Each hack consists of a task to be accomplished or a creative solution to a problem, presented in a clear, logical, and task-oriented format. PayPal Hacks provides the tools and details necessary to make PayPal more profitable, more flexible, and more convenient.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596552961
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/07/2004
Series:	Hacks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	370
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Shannon Sofield is the personification of a hack, he takes anything that is supposed to do one thing, and manipulates it to serve his own purposes, both in his life as a developer and his life in general. If it was supposed to do one thing originally, he probably has it doing something entirely different instead.

Shannon began creating PayPal solutions more than 3 years ago using his original database driven PayPal purchase system that integrated with Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev. Since then, he has gone on to work on implementing unique fixes for common eCommerce problems using PayPal. He has written several tutorials and articles, as well as spoken on the topic of using PayPal in new ways. One of the first members of the PayPal Developer Network, he was added to the PayPal Developer Network Advisory Boards on its inception. He also served several terms as a member of Team Macromedia for their web development program Dreamweaver which he uses in his daily PayPal development. His technical background extends back to the initial Internet boom when he began picking up simple web design that evolved into web planning and programming using a variety of technologies, languages, and databases.

Currently, he manages the PayLoadz Digital Goods eCommerce system that allows merchants to sell digital goods securely with PayPal. One of the first and most successful 3rd party solutions for PayPal, this system made headlines when it launched Madonna's American Life single higher on the Billboard music charts than any previous digital single (and he did it before selling digital music was cool). In addition, he continually contributes to the PayPal Developer Network Message Boards (www.paypaldev.org) which his company, Superfreaker Studios, hosts and maintains.

While not slogging through code at his computer in a caffeinated, sleep-deprived state, Shannon enjoys outdoor activities that fit the time of year. In the Summer he surfs and volunteers for the surfboard manufacturer Wave Riding Vehicles, while in Winter, he can be found on the slopes working on his kicker spins. Year round, he can be found reliving his BMX days on his 24 GT cruiser. Shannon's undergraduate studies majored in Finance and Accounting, while his Maters in Business Administration includes a concentration in Finance. Ctrl+C is his best friend

Dave Nielsen is a Technical Evangelist within the PayPal Developer Network, a member of SDForum's Executive Council and the founder of the Web Services SIG of Silicon Valley. Dave has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Cal Poly: San Luis Obispo. Armed with an education in engineering and marketing, as well as many technical certifications and real world experience, Dave has both the technical skills and business savvy to give him insight into emerging technologies and trends.

As a technical trainer in the early 90's Dave taught classes in languages such as Visual Basic and SQL. Dave was an early Internet programming enthusiast and found himself hounding Microsoft for data-driven web developer tools. After discarding Microsoft's first two efforts (dbWeb and IDC) and taking a chance on early beta versions of IIS and Active Server Pages, Dave became one of the first technical trainers certified to teach the now popular ASP technology.

At PayPal Dave focuses his efforts on creating tools that help developers create ecommerce websites. Some of these projects include the Payment Request Wizard, the JavaScript Button Factory and the PayPal Commerce Starter Kit. Dave is cursed with more than one new product idea every day, but is always available to debate the latest technologies and how well they will be adopted.

Dave can be found online at www.paypalhacks.com, at conferences and "competing" in an occasional triathlon. At home, his girlfriend tries to stop him from selling everything he owns on eBay.

Dave Burchell got his start with computers by programming the Radio Shack TRS-80 in BASIC and the Commodore 64 in 6510 assembly. Currently, Dave's favorite programming languages are Perl and XSLT. A fervent proponent of XML, Dave enjoys solving content-management problems with markup and open source software. His other interests include American history and Hellenistic philosophy. Dave lives with his wife, Renee, and children, Max, Gus, and Samantha Grace, in Lincoln, Nebraska. His web site is http://incolor.inebraska.com/burchell/

Table of Contents

	Credits	vii
	Preface	xv
Chapter 1.	Account Management	1
1.	Create a PayPal Account	2
2.	Verify Your PayPal Account	4
3.	Confirm Your Mailing Address	6
4.	Pay When You've Forgotten Your Password	9
5.	Restore Your Account if It Has Been Limited	11
6.	Create a Separate Login for Each Employee	14
7.	Access Member Information	17
8.	Manage PayPal Email	20
9.	Get Help from PayPal	25
Chapter 2.	Making Payments	28
10.	Send Money to Anyone	29
11.	Choose How to Fund Payments	31
12.	Use Your PayPal Funds Anywhere	35
13.	Pay from a Cell Phone	37
14.	Pay Seller Fees when Buying	40
15.	Send Money Without Creating a PayPal Account	42
16.	Dispute Merchandise Payments	47
Chapter 3.	Selling with PayPal	52
	Introduction
	Upgrade to Business Class	53
	Set Your Payment Receiving Preferences	54
	Identify Yourself to Your Customers	57
17.	Request Money the PayPal Way	58
18.	Ask for Money in Your Own Way	62
19.	Request Money Without an Account	64
20.	Get Your Money	65
21.	Refund a Payment	71
22.	Quick-Link to Transaction Details	72
23.	Lower Your Seller Fees	74
24.	Protect Yourself from Buyer Fraud	78
25.	Protect Yourself from Chargebacks	80
26.	Avoid Chargebacks on Digital Goods	87
27.	Handle Merchandise Disputes Effectively	88
Chapter 4.	Payment Buttons	90
28.	Create a Buy Now Button	92
29.	Use a Custom Button Image	96
30.	Create a Purchase Button for Services	98
31.	Create an Auction Payment Button	98
32.	Provide Purchase Options with Drop-Down Listboxes	102
33.	Include More Than Two Option Fields	104
34.	Override Shipping and Handling Preferences	107
35.	Build Notification Tracking	108
36.	Hack-Proof Your Payment	109
37.	Hack-Proof Your Buttons with Encryption	113
38.	Include Payment Buttons in Email Messages	118
39.	Hide Your Email Address from Spammers	125
40.	Accept Donations	126
41.	PayPal-Enable Your Flash	131
42.	Get More Out of Dreamweaver and PayPal	139
43.	Provide Options with ASP.NET Web Controls	141
44.	Try Accepting Payments in a Bogus Currency	146
Chapter 5.	Storefronts and Shopping Carts	147
45.	Hack Shopping Cart Buttons	147
46.	Create Shopping Cart Links	150
47.	Specify the Size of the Shopping Cart Window	151
48.	Deal with Design and Layout Issues	153
49.	Put Both Cart Buttons in One Form	154
50.	Integrate a Third-Party Shopping Cart with PayPal	155
51.	Customize Checkout Pages	160
52.	Display the Merchant Transaction ID on Your Return Page	164
53.	Remember Your Customers	165
54.	Create a Dynamic Storefront	168
55.	Add Dynamic Storefront Details	172
56.	Insert Dynamic Images	176
57.	Build an Order-Tracking Page	179
58.	Offer Discount Coupons	181
59.	Increase Search Engine Exposure	185
60.	Sell Digital Goods with PayLoadz	187
Chapter 6.	Managing Subscriptions	190
61.	Sell Subscriptions to Your Online Content	191
62.	Offer Tiered Subscriptions	195
63.	Time Your Subscriptions to End on Specific Dates	200
64.	Manage Subscription Passwords the Easy Way	203
Chapter 7.	IPN and PDT	210
	Introduction
	What IPN and PDT Are	210
	How IPN Works	211
	Advantages of PDT	212
65.	Receive Instant Payment Notifications	212
66.	Troubleshoot Instant Payment Notifications	215
67.	Send a Purchase Confirmation Email with IPN	218
68.	Process Shopping Carts with IPN	220
69.	Use IPN with eBay Listings	221
70.	Track Your eBay Products with IPN	223
71.	Deliver Digital Goods with IPN	225
72.	Deliver Digital Goods with a Return Page	227
73.	Implement Price Checking with IPN	230
74.	Provide an Order Summary with IPN	234
75.	Upsell Your Customers	236
76.	Enable Multiple IPN Pages	238
77.	Use Mass Pay to Create an Affiliate System	239
78.	Manage Your Inventory with IPN	243
79.	Display Donation Goals on Your Web Site	246
80.	Display a Recent Donor List	249
81.	Capture Customer Information with IPN	252
82.	Insert Payment Details into a Database with IPN	254
83.	Insert Cart Details into a Database	256
84.	Track Google Referrals	258
85.	Process Payments like a Credit Card with PDT	262
86.	Synchronizing PDT and IPN	268
Chapter 8.	The PayPal Web Services API	271
	Introduction: Create a Developer Account	272
87.	Set up the Sandbox	274
88.	Make Your First API Call	279
89.	Create a Wrapper Class for Your API Calls	285
90.	Use the PayPal API Wrapper Class	289
91.	Refund Payments with the API	292
92.	Handle Transaction Errors within the API Wrapper	296
93.	Retrieve Transaction Details with the API	298
94.	Search for PayPal Transactions	301
95.	Hack the API Wrapper	306
96.	Issue Payments en Masse with the Mass Pay API	314
97.	Pay Affiliates and Suppliers on a Schedule	316
98.	Search eBay for Listings that Accept PayPal	319
99.	Test IPN and PDT in the Sandbox	323
100.	Go Live	324
	Index	327