PayPal Checkout Buttons and Custom Variables

Question

I have created a rather simple photo gallery that I wish to apply PayPal Checkout buttons. The basics are simple enough, but what I want to do is to at least pre-populate the named fields as part of the button or pass variables contained in each individual page through to the cart.

Each page contains a picture ID, date, and title. I would like to be able to pass this data along so that when someone clicks "Add to Cart", the data is already there. Right now the only way I can see the buttons working is creating custom fields and having the customer copy and paste the data themselves, kind of a pain.

If I could figure this one thing out PayPal checkout might be worth while. Has anyone here ever done this?

Answer 1

You need something like this? I got it out of the PayPal docs awhile back. I'm using it in a production app now. Please test before using though :)

<form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" style="margin:4px 0px 0px 4px;">
<input type="image" src="<ADD_TO_CART_BUTTON>.jpg" border="0" name="submit" alt="Add this item to your shopping cart">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
<input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="<YOUR_PAYPAL_EMAIL>">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="<THE_ITEM_NAME>">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="<THE_ITEM_NUMBER_SKU_OR_WHATEVER>">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="<HOW_MUCH_IT_COSTS>">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="cn" value="<CUSTOM_TEXT_FOR_THE_BUYER_TO_LEAVE_YOU_SPECIAL_INSTRUCTIONS>">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="lc" value="US">

<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-ShopCartBF">
<input type="hidden" name="address_override" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="business_cs_email" value="<YOUR_PAYPAL_EMAIL>">
    <input type="hidden" name="return" value="<WHERE_TO_TAKE_THE_USER_AFTER_PURCHASE_LIKE_thankyou.html>">
    <input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="<IF_YOU_PROCESS_ORDERS_THROUGH_YOUR_SITE_THE_CALLBACK_URL_GOES_HERE>">

</form>

You'll need one of these for each item you're selling.

Signup at http://sandbox.paypal.com and start working in their sandbox to try this out.

Also check out http://www.x.com and http://www.paypal-labs.com. They've been doing some cool stuff with checkouts.

Answer 2

Also check out using the "custom" PayPal variable, which you can use to pass any information you want to PayPal and get it back when the transaction completes.