PayPal MassPay API - How does it work exactly?

Question

I have gone through the Paypal website, looked at their dozens of FAQS and documents, and still don't have a great idea as to how to integrate the Paypal Masspay API. I was hoping I'd have better luck on here :).

I have an app that gives users prizes, with an oracle SQL database that populates whenever a user redeems a prize.

Would I need to download the SDK onto my app, include the PayPal IPN, and call the MassPay API each time a user redeems a prize?

I have attempted to contact Paypal multiple times to no avail.

Answer 1

Not sure which aspect of your question is most problematic for you. I assume that you've looked at the concept diagram at

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/mass-payments

where the Excel worksheet is roughly analogous to a table's (or query's) worth of payees.

You would normally provide scripting code on your server/website that would submit that payee/amount list through the MassPay API calls against the PayPal website. If you only have one or two payees at a time, this is not the usual way to make a payment to your users (one-offs are generally Adaptive Payments API). It's not a downloadable app, though.

So is your app something the users download and interact with your site? If so, the correct place to put the code that faces PayPal (and actually transfers money around) is on your site's server. Not on the handset.

Answer 2

I finally reached a capable support member of the PayPal Team. The answer I got:

No SDK needed. All I need to do is set up an API call from my server to their server each time I want to reference a payment.