Paypal Standard - sandbox

1.) How do I setup eCart to use PayPal Standard and the sandbox?

2.) And then once my testing is complete with my shopping cart and IPN listener file how do I switch over to the live PayPal standard environment?

Thank you!

Ok, I deleted everything and started from scratch thinking that maybe I missed something along the way. Nope. And I find zero documentation on using Paypal sandbox in terms of eCart. What am I missing here?

Ok, so how do I test an existing eCart 5 site using PayPal Standard in the sandbox?

And then when I am done testing, how to I flip it over to PayPal live?

If it's in server behaviors can you point me to specific ones? What pages?

Again, this is PayPal Standard. Thank you!

with paypal payments standard, there is not really a way of making test transactions.

paypal standard works like this:

* on the confirm page, the user clicks the checkout button and them is brought to the paypal site

* on the paypal site they chose their payment method, if paypal accepts that method as a valid payment method, the user is directed back to your site.

* At this point the transaction is placed in queue to be processed on a first come first served basis. this can take seconds, hors or even days for the transaction to be processed with the merchant bank.

* when the transaction is processed, the paypal system will use the notification method you have set up in your paypal account, most common is to use IPN.

* If you use IP a POST will be sent to the page yo have specified to receive the IPN POST and process the information

the IPN receiving page is a page that you set up to receive the IPN POSt and store information about the transaction in your database.

It's really only the IPN page that needs sand box testing
Information on IPN Testing can be found here:
webscr?cmd=_ipn-test-about-outside


PayPal standard is a difficult gateway to deal with, it is not a simple one to set up.

If you are looking for a free option that is easier to set up, I suggest using Paypal Express checkout.

Hi Jason,

I understand how PayPal standard works and have used IPN previously. I already have that part of code done, have used it very successfully before, and it's ready to go. I understand the PayPal side.

What I am asking is how do I configure eCart to work in the sandbox? What code needs to be changed in eCart. I realize I can dig all over the place to figure it out but there has to be documentation on this right?

My customer has no interest in using PayPal Express or Paypal Pro. Yes, we understand the difference. Does WebAssist have documentation on what code needs to be changed in order to test PayPal Standard in the sandbox and then changed back when going live?

Thank you

there is not a sand box for paypal standard, paypal standard does not have a sandbox


all that a sandbox would be able to test with standard is whether the cart details are passed over correctly.

the testing of a standard implementation is done by testing the IPN.

Jason,
Sorry but I'll take issue with the statement that Paypal standard doesn't have a sandbox. I think that is misleading. The sandbox does a very nice job of testing PayPal Standard apps. Yes there is a manual process that you have to go through to test IPN but you can test everything else from passing the data to PayPal, making the payment, returning back to your website, and capturing the PDT information that PayPal sends back.

And imo any application using PayPal Standard should be using both PDT and IPN.

I realize that you guys don't like PayPal Standard and I can understand why, but if someone says PayPal Standard is what they are going to use, then really you should do everything to support it, especially considering PayPal Standard is a choice inside of the Checkout Wizard.

I asked a simple question, never got an answer, and figured it out myself. It was so simple I suppose I should have never needed to ask.

I dont like paypal standard because it is not at all easy to set up.

setting up both PDT and IPN is not something that is easy to walk a beginner through, and here in the support forum, I encounter more people that understand IPN or PDT and have to walk them through it all together to regularly.

to best of my knowledge there isn't a sandbox for paypal standard, but apparently I'm wrong.

I would love it if you would share the information with the class so that I can be better informed

Absolutely!

As a matter of fact I stand corrected, the sandbox DOES send the IPN automatically. I just did not have mine set up correctly. So I am able to test the entire app in the sandbox - from app to paypal sandbox, make payment using test buyer, return to app, retrieve PDT, and then IPN gets sent.

All you have to do is configure the test seller account in the sandbox exactly like you would in the live environment - i.e. turn on and configure IPN and PDT. One thing I came across is that when you try to access the Profile in the seller account that it can be flaky. So I always right click on Profile and open up in a new window or tab. It may fail 4 or 5 times before finally it lets me in to configure IPN and Website Payment Preferences.

Obviously use the test seller email account to make the sale, and use the PDT token in that account. Point the app to the sandbox.paypal.com in the button (confirm.php) and in the success.php and ipn.php files. And you have to use ssl in the pdt code for some reason in the sandbox.

I'm logging all data returned by PDT and IPN into their own respective tables so I can use this for debugging and more importantly so I have a record of each transaction with Paypal. I'm working on code to make use of it all now.

Took me a while to pull all of the pieces together but now that I have it, it works like a champ and is quite easy to understand. I think making use out of that data may be the difficult part but we'll see.

If you need additional info or help let me know

Ok, thanks for the info.