PayPal API Wont Connect

Question

Here is my situation, I am trying to plug in my PayPal API details into an application that was developed for me. PayPal API details were provided as a placeholder, and it worked fine. When I plugged mine in, however, it would just fail each time. I realize this is extremely vague, and you probably wont be able to help me with so much generalization, however any tips would help! The code is below. In addition, if you know of a way I can get more details about what is going on (an error code, etc) it would also help so I could do more research as well.

Finally, the solution I had come up with before is that I would need to be an upgraded account, however I just need to know whether I need to add a credit card or a bank.

<?php 
class PaymentController extends BaseController {
    public function PPHttpPost($methodName_, $nvpStr_) {

            $PayPalMode         = 'live';
            $PayPalApiUsername  = 'usergame';
            $PayPalApiPassword  = 'passhole';
            $PayPalApiSignature     = 'siggypoo';
            $PayPalCurrencyCode     = 'USD';
            $PayPalReturnURL    = URL::to('/paypal/enter');
            $PayPalCancelURL    = URL::to('/paypal/enter');


            $API_UserName = urlencode($PayPalApiUsername);
            $API_Password = urlencode($PayPalApiPassword);
            $API_Signature = urlencode($PayPalApiSignature);

            $str = '';
            foreach ($nvpStr_ as $key => $nvp) {
                $str .= '&' . $key . '=' . urlencode($nvp);
            }

            if($PayPalMode=='sandbox')
            {
                $paypalmode     =   '.sandbox';
            }
            else
            {
                $paypalmode     =   '';
            }

            $API_Endpoint = "https://api-3t".$paypalmode.".paypal.com/nvp";
            $version = urlencode('76.0');

            $ch = curl_init();
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $API_Endpoint);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

            $nvpreq = "METHOD=$methodName_&VERSION=$version&PWD=$API_Password&USER=$API_UserName&SIGNATURE=$API_Signature$str";

            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $nvpreq);

            $httpResponse = curl_exec($ch);

            if(!$httpResponse) {
                exit("$methodName_ failed: ".curl_error($ch).'('.curl_errno($ch).')');
            }

            $httpResponseAr = explode("&", $httpResponse);

            $httpParsedResponseAr = array();
            foreach ($httpResponseAr as $i => $value) {
                $tmpAr = explode("=", $value);
                if(sizeof($tmpAr) > 1) {
                    $httpParsedResponseAr[$tmpAr[0]] = $tmpAr[1];
                }
            }

            if((0 == sizeof($httpParsedResponseAr)) || !array_key_exists('ACK', $httpParsedResponseAr)) {
                exit("Invalid HTTP Response for POST request($nvpreq) to $API_Endpoint.");
            }

        return $httpParsedResponseAr;
    }

    public function PaymentController() {


        $this->data = array(
            'PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT' => Config::get('app.sponsor_price_per_month'),
            'PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCY' => 'USD',
            'RETURNURL' => URL::to('/paypal/enter'),
            'CANCELURL' => URL::to('/paypal/enter'),
            'NOSHIPPING' => 1,
            'REQCONFIRMSHIPPING' => 0,
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMCATEGORY0' => 'Digital', 
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAME0' => '30 Days Sponsorship',
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_DESC0' => 'Sponsored status on Nae for 30 days.',
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMT0' => Config::get('app.sponsor_price_per_month'),
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTY0' => 1,
            'L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_TAXAMT0' => 0,
        );
    }

    public function exitpage() {

        if (!Auth::check()) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/login');
        } else {
            $user = Auth::user();
        }

        if (!$server = $user->server) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/server');
        }

        if (strtotime($server->sponsored) > time()) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/server');
        }

        $out = $this->PPHttpPost('SetExpressCheckout', $this->data);

        if (strtoupper($out["ACK"]) == "SUCCESS" || strtoupper($out["ACK"]) == "SUCCESSWITHWARNING") {

            return Redirect::to('https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout&token=' . $out["TOKEN"]);
        } else {

            return View::make('standard')->
                with('title', 'Sponsor Server')->
                nest('content', 'pages.sponsor', array(
                    'level' => 'warning',
                    'message' => 'Error processing payment! You have not been charged, please try again. TOKEN'
                ));

        }
    }

    public function enter() {

        if (!Auth::check()) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/login');
        } else {
            $user = Auth::user();
        }

        if (!$server = $user->server) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/server');
        }

        if (strtotime($server->sponsored) > time()) {
            return Redirect::to('/account/server');
        }

        $data = array(
            'TOKEN' => Input::get('token'),
            'PAYERID' => Input::get('PayerID'),
            'PAYMENTACTION' => 'SALE',
            'AMT' => Config::get('app.sponsor_price_per_month'),
            'CURRENCYCODE' => 'USD'
        );

        $out = $this->PPHttpPost('DoExpressCheckoutPayment', $data);

        if (strtoupper($out["ACK"]) == "SUCCESS" || strtoupper($out["ACK"]) == "SUCCESSWITHWARNING") {

            $server->sponsored = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time() + (30 * 24 * 60 * 60));
            $server->save();

            return Redirect::to('/account/server');
        } else {
            return View::make('standard')->
                with('title', 'Sponsor Server')->
                nest('content', 'pages.sponsor', array(
                    'level' => 'warning',
                    'message' => 'Error processing payment! You have not been charged, please try again. 2nd'
                ));
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You were probably mixing up live and sandbox credentials. The code snippet assumes live mode by default.

As for troubleshooting errors, you can look at the response and error code section and the detailed error code documentation