Administration of the application, such as creating product items and testing the IPN system, is all performed via a set of password protected web pages.
The following sections describe the main features of each page.
Administration of the application, such as creating product items and testing the IPN system, is all performed via a set of password protected web pages.
The following sections describe the main features of each page.
This page is used to set up all the PayPal settings for the application.
This address must match the PayPal address that you use to login to PayPal. It is your registered PayPal address. It must be the PRIMARY PayPal email address, that is, if you have multiple email address registered on PayPal, you must use the one defined as primary.
This is displayed for information only, and is the url which PayPal IPN uses to post its data to.
Choose the currency for your products. This sets the default currency which can then be changed for each individual item.
The full url address of a web page which the user will see if they cancel their attempt to purchase the item. If this is blank, then a standard page on the PayPal site will be displayed. It is an optional entry, but gives a better impression to a customer and would say something like 'You have cancelled your purchase'.
Note : we have found that the web page should be .php and not .htm or .html
The full url address of a web page which the user will see after they have completed their purchase. If this is blank, then a standard page on the PayPal site will be displayed. It is an optional entry, but gives a better impression to a customer and might say something like 'Thank your for your purchase, you will receive an email in a few minutes. If you do not, then etc'
Note : we have found that the web page should be .php and not .htm or .html
This is displayed for information only, and is the url of the script which the sandbox testing server will post to. Sandbox testing is described in the associated page testing.
The PayPal developer system has a Sandbox testing facility. Sandbox testing is described in the associated page testing. By entering an email address that you have created in the Sandbox, you can test purchases via the Sandbox rather than via the live PayPal system.
Enter in a suitable item code such as 'product01'
A short description of the item.
Value to two decimal places
Set the PayPal currency code for this item. Note that if you have different currency codes, the sales totals are not able to handle multiple currencies.
Provides a title for the product.
When an item is purchased, this line is the subject of the email.
When a key code is purchased, this line is the body text of the email.
The email has to send the key code details to the purchaser. To include these items in the email you should include something like the following :
Your key code is <key_codes>
The variable <key_codes> defined by < and > characters will be replaced with the information when the email is sent out and should be left as they are.
Enter each code one line at a time.
This defines the lower limit for the number of codes. When the lower limit is reached and email is sent to the administrator.
Lists all the completed transactions, those from the live systems and from the test facilities.
You may delete transactions from this list and that will remove the values from the sales totals page and also from the sales graph showing sales / month. This is useful if you are testing and have test transactions appearing in your sales totals.
There are two ipn tests which may be performed on a product item : local test and Sandbox test. See testing page.
Use my local test IPN page
To perform a local test go to the IPN test page and select the product you wish to test. This will take you to another page which displays all the input fields which must be filled out to run this test. Most of them are filled out automatically for you from the product information list. The only one entry that you have to enter in yourself is the payer email address. This should be a valid email address which acts as the purchaser.
The test by-passes the IPN system but does test all other elements of the application.
You may wish to test what happens when you change other entries on the page, such as the gross payment.
Use my test via the Sandbox.
Refer to the associated page testing for more information.
To perform a test using PayPal's developer system rather than the live PayPal system, go to the IPN test page and select the product you wish to test. This will take you to another page where there will be a buy now button for this product.
You need to login to the developer network before you actually do the test.
Pressing this button will take you to the PayPal developer site where you then continue as though it were a live sell.
In this system, the sandbox test only checks single item purchases and not cart purchases.
To use this test you must have set up an account at the PayPal developer site - http://developer.paypal.com
Choose the product from the list.
Select email format as either HTML or plain text.
Enter in the subject line for the email.
Enter in the body text for the email.
Pressing Submit will send an email to each of the purchasers of the selected product who are in the table saleshistory.
This display enables you to create a complementary sell, that is to sell an item to a customer but where the customer does not actually pay for the item.
Filling in the details will send an email to the given email address. The email will contain a key code as for normally purchased items.
The recommended method of backing up your database is described in the following article.
The recommended method of restoring the database is described in the following article.
You will also need to back up your web files by copying them to a safe place on your computer.
The sales display enables selection of to / from dates to display the totals sales for the defined period. It calculates totals, but at the moment the total does not differentiate between currencies. If this proves to be a problem, I should be able to fix it, but I believe most users will only sell with one currency.
Pricing : PHP-KeyCodes costs $45 U.S. Dollars.
Purchase PageDemo : View an on-line demo illustrating the admin pages. Demos are live and you may purchase test items for $0.01 in value.
Demo Page