Modules for PayPal IPN and usage

coldfingertips has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a few BUY NOW buttons on my page for PayPal. The way its setup now is they buy it then they wait a few hours until I recieve an email and give them the link to download from.

I don't like this method and neither do the people paying for the downloads. Anyway, I've been reading up on PayPal's IPN and it seems like there are a few beautiful modules which do the work for you.

Business::PayPal::IPN seems like a perfect one.

All the tutorials I read on the IPN though state "To ensure that a payment has been made into your PayPal account, you must verify that the email address used as your "receiver_email" has been registered and confirmed in your PayPal account. "

How are you supposed to confirm with a script that their e-mail address is found in your paypal account? All the modules and all the example source code from tutorials SAY this, but none of them give you any idea on what you're supposed to do! I'm stuck and confused. Anyone in here familiar with PayPal mind offering advice?

Comment on Modules for PayPal IPN and usage

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Re: Modules for PayPal IP and usage by gaal (Parson) on Jan 15, 2005 at 07:43 UTC
Doesn't "receiver" mean you? I'm not familiar with PayPal at all, but it sounds like you have to make sure you'd "registered and confimed" your own address with them to ensure you get your payment. I'd suggest asking them, though. First, to make sure you're not losing money. And second, to give them a chance to clean up their docs.	[reply]
Re: Modules for PayPal IPN and usage by blueberryCoffee (Scribe) on Jan 15, 2005 at 08:44 UTC
It means your email address must be registered with Paypal. The same thing is needed to do a transaction worth more than $500 dollars.	[reply]
Re^2: Modules for PayPal IPN and usage by coldfingertips (Pilgrim) on Jan 15, 2005 at 09:02 UTC
So all it's really saying is I have to have a PayPal account? That's all it means?	[reply]
Re: Modules for PayPal IPN and usage by b10m (Vicar) on Jan 15, 2005 at 10:20 UTC
Yes, basically all you need is a PayPal account. The documentation¹ provided by PayPal is rather clear, so I suggest you first read up on that, before looking at the Perl modules. In a nutshell: Your customer makes a payment, PayPal's server posts the data to your script, your script checks it and returns the data to PayPal. A nice thing is that you can test this in the PayPal sandbox² -- b10m All code is usually tested, but rarely trusted. ¹ https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/ipn-intro-outside ² https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ipn-test-about-outside	[reply]
Re^3: Modules for PayPal IPN and usage by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Jan 15, 2005 at 20:46 UTC
You have to have more than a PayPal account: you have to confirm your email address. When you set up your account, PayPal sent an email to the address you used. That email contains a link to PayPal. When you access that link, PayPal knows the email got to you and that your email address works. From the PayPal help section: How do I confirm my email address? and Getting Started - Email Confirmation. When you view your account in PayPal, it shows you your primary email address. Follow that link and PayPal shows you all of the email addresses you have associated with your account. Unconfirmed addresses have an "(Unconfirmed)" under them. If your address unconfirmed, you can select it and choose the "Confirm" submit button, which sends you the confirmation email that has the link you need. -- brian d foy <bdfoy@cpan.org>	[reply]