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Configuring PayPal Express Checkout Payment Plug-in

Express Checkout solution is a part of the PayPal Website Payments Pro solution. Thus, to use PayPal Express Checkout, you need to sign for a business account at PayPal and apply for PayPal Website Payments Pro.

Express Checkout payment solution works with any of the currencies supported by PayPal.

PayPal Express Checkout is a combination of the checkout process on your website, PayPal login and review pages on https://www.paypal.com, and PayPal Web Services API SOAP requests/responses. Express Checkout allows customers the option to pay quickly through PayPal.

Your customer always starts and completes his order on your website:

  1. When a customer clicks 'Checkout with PayPal', he is transferred to PayPal to log in.
  2. A customer then selects a shipping address and payment method and approves the use of PayPal.
  3. PayPal then returns a customer to your website to review and finalize an order.

To use the PayPal API with the plug-in, you will need to obtain and upload a merchant certificate file. You can get the test certificate (Sandbox API) immediately, and obtaining the Live certificate (to use the plug-in API in live mode) takes some time because your application is to be approved by PayPal in this case.

To obtain the certificate:

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.
  2. Click the Profile subtab.
  3. Click the API Access link in the Account Information column.
  4. Click Request API Certificate.
  5. Click Download on the API Certificate page.

PayPal will notify you by e-mail to let you know if you qualify for a Live Certificate.If you have requested a Sandbox Certificate, you can download it immediately from the API Certificate page.

To configure the PayPal Express Checkout plug-in:

  1. Click the Edit button on the plug-in screen. Fill the form that appears:
    1. Enter the PayPal server URL into the Server URL field (default is https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr)
    2. Type the e-mail address that is marked as 'Primary' in your PayPal Account Profile into the Primary Email field.
    3. Into the Business Email field you can optionally enter any of e-mail addresses specified in your PayPal Account Profile to prevent your Primary Email be shown on Internet.
    4. Enter the PayPal API URL into the Express Checkout API URL field (default is https://api-aa.paypal.com/2.0/).
    5. Enter your PayPal API Account Name as it was specified during your application for new API Certificate (live) into the User field.
    6. Enter your PayPal API Account password as it was specified during your application for new API Certificate (live) into the Password field.
    7. Merchant certificate. Uploaded from PayPal API Certificate (live). Specify the certificate file location on your local computer or click the Browse button and locate the file.
    8. If you want the plug-in to automatically check transactions status, you can enable this feature by checking the Enable Transaction Check box. In this case, the following fields will become enabled and you must fill these fields:

      GetTransactionDetails API URL - Enter the URL to be used by the plug-in to send transaction status requests to PayPal (default is https://api.paypal.com/2.0/).

      Check Status period - You can set the frequency (in hours) for payments status polling, i.e., periodical automated plug-in requesting the payment gateway for transactions processing results. This is the plug-in feature that allows you to monitor payments processing on the payment gateway side with the pre-set frequency.

      Note that if you enter the zero value, the plug-in will not check transaction status at all.

    9. To check the integration with PayPal API, you enable the test mode when transactions processing is just emulated and no real money is sent anywhere. To use the test mode, you must upload the Sandbox API certificate. To switch the plug-in in the test mode, check the Test mode box. In this case, the following fields will become enabled and you must fill these fields:

      Server URL - enter the test API URL into this field (default is https://api-aa.sandbox.paypal.com/2.0/)

      Express Checkout API URL - Enter the testing PayPal API URL into this field (default is https://api-aa.sandbox.paypal.com/2.0/

      GetTransactionDetails API URL - Enter the URL to be used by the plug-in to send transaction status requests to PayPal in the test mode (default is https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/2.0/).

      Test User - Enter your PayPal API Account Name as it was specified during your application for Sandbox API Certificate.

      Test Password - Enter your PayPal API Account password as it was specified during your application for Sandbox API Certificate into the field.

      Test Merchant certificate. Uploaded from PayPal API Sandbox Certificate. Specify the certificate file location on your local computer or click the Browse button and locate the file.

    10. Key in the Button title. For example, this could be the name of payment system. This title will be displayed directly on the button for online-payment at HSPstore, on the final stage of subscription registration, when a customer selects how to pay for the services ordered.
    11. You can add both the short and the detailed description. Quick description of a payment method will be displayed below the button. The Long description of a payment method will be displayed in a separate section entitled Pay Online.
  2. Click the Update button.

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