Paypal Plugin Help/Tutorial

[jmoises]

Hello i have manage to make work the paypal plugin to make a payment and display correct information in paypal site, but i will be very happy if somebody can give me instructions-directions and how to do the next step after paymet is done, to get all the information and mark my invoice/order pay. i know that i need some url so paypal send the fields but here is where i am stuck

Thanks for any help, i am pretty sure more than one will need this, i search in forum and no luck

 

[rob]

I'll add this to the list of video tutorials we want to make....
However, in general all you need to do is to create elements for:

• IPN Custom Element
• IPN Txn-Id Element
• IPN Payment Element
• IPN Status Element
• IPN Address Element

and we deal with the PayPal IPN so that when its completed those fields are filled in with the transaction details

 

[jmoises]

Yes but do i need to create a new form or in the same form that has the paypal plugin?

thanks rob

 

[cheesegrits]

Same form. When we do the redirect to PayPal on submission, we pass PayPal the a specific URL for them to call back with any IPN responses, which points to the same row on the same form/list as the plugin.

So you just create the elements Rob specified, for storing the specific IPN response values, and assign them in the PayPal plugin. Fabrik will automatically fill them out with the information passed back from PayPal in their callback(s).

So, for example, a successful payment will then write "Completed" into the IPN Status element. or you might get a "Pending" response, if the transaction involves more than a simple "from PayPal balance" on their end.

Note that the status can change, so for example if a transaction is disputed some time later, it could change. Or it might take a couple of days to change from Pending to Cempleted. In other words, you can't assume there will only ever be one status change.

BTW, do you have a PayPal developer account and a sandbox? If not, you really need to create one, so you can enable "Test mode" in our plugin, which will then talk to PayPal's sandbox system, instead of the live one, making testing all this stuff a LOT easier (and safer!)

-- hugh

 

[jmoises]

Thanks cheesegrits, for your information now i have more clear how can i do it, and yes i have a paypal developer account, i will make some test with this information and thank again!

 

[jmoises]

Other question, it is possible to Conditional use of the Paypal Pluggin? for example, i have a Inovice Form, and i like to have Payment's options, Like Cash, Deposit, Paypal, if the user select in the form cash or deposit i dont need to use the plugin that is setup in the same form, in case of paypal Be able to use the plugin, but and extra button to pay using paypal ( i dont now if this is necesary).

What about transaccions, i will like to have a list of payment transaccions, i will need and extra list(table) to manage this, after paypal "complete" the payment can i use a validation or plugin that make a new entry on the transaction table? i am asking this becuase you say that the status can change.

thanks

 

[cheesegrits]

Yes, Conditional use of the PayPal plugin is available by using the Condition option. Which, as the tooltip says, is optional PHP code which returns true or false.

You can access the posted data either with:

$your_element = $formModel->getElementData('tablename___your_element', true);

... or by access the $data array directly.

So if you have (say) a radio element with the payment choice, and the value for the PayPal option is (say) '2', after fetching the element value, you would then do ...

return $your_element[0] == '2';

If that doesn't work, do this:

var_dump($data);exit;

... as the first line of your condition code, and look at the data structure it dumps to your brower, which should tell you how the data is structured and what values you are getting.

As for "another list", it sounds like you want to maintain a transaction journal, which would mean using a "IPN PHP file", and write a few lines of PHP to add a row to your journal table for every IPN response from PayPal. As per the tooltip on that option in the plugin settings, there are some examples of building an IPN PHP file in the ./scripts folder in the main paypal form plugin folder.

We do actually log all IPN callbacks in the standard fabrik_log table, but probably not in a format that would suit your requirements.

-- hugh

 

[jmoises]

Thanks Again Hugh! and yes i like to have a transaction journal, i will try to test all and i post if i need more help!

 

[jmoises]

Hugh, it work this way:

$formapago ='{invoice___payment_method}';
return $formapago == '2';

But know i have a question, i will need to add a new PHP Plugin in the same form where the PAYPAL plugin is, this php code will validate if the invoce is pay then update some element in other table, my question is What "Proceess Script" Use that dosnt affect the paypal plugin functionability

Thanks for your help

 

[cheesegrits]

Probably onAfterProcess.

-- hugh

 

[IamJim]

I'll add this to the list of video tutorials we want to make....

Posting as the application I need to make is also needing this.

Rob? In regards to "list of tutorials", I have 2 questions..

1) Is there anything more recent? All from 2008? Is there some "hidden ones" that only subscribers have access to?

2) Them being Flash based, really not cool...and I had read somewhere else someone chatting with Hugh about HTML5 [ I think he mentioned iPhone, let alone..I have a Blackberry 8530 and have no reason to spend money on a new phone at all] as that would be nice. PDF's presentations also would be super...like a lot of well established Joomla authors have also done.

3) OK they "exist" on a webserver, but I need to download them (preferably in a ZIP format) and run them locally.

How can I do this please? Sorry this is off topic, but the first thing I need to get done is a Form w/Fabrik that takes payments with the user having the options...and be able to track also.

Regards and thanks~~

Jim

 

[rob]

Hugh's working on them for 3.1
They're going to still be flash based I would imagine though. We won't be doing PDF's though - all written documentation is in the wiki now.
To download you right click on the link and your browser should give you an option to 'save target as' (or similar depending on which browser you use)

 

[IamJim]

For 3.1 and will they be good for 3.0.8 also?
Just like the help in Joomla and it feeds to ONLINE Wiki, that is worthless offline

For now? Can you please zip up > http://fabrikar.com/help/tutorials or whatever it takes to run in OFFLINE mode please?

And anyway for what's "in the wiki" so one can work offline? YES, I know it will change but it's like this.. I live in the country, have to PAY per gig of bandwidth, the conection is not that good and and about 400Kbs...and just the other day after doing the udpate process of Download Github > open Zip > upload zip..

That took over 2 hours to complete...and I could not do anything else with my computer.. I did the math? And if I had to update from github every day, that's 10% of my life and $20.00 a month just for Fabrik updates. That's very unexceptable really, don't you think?

Long story short, and if you'd like a continued subscriber and/or contributor..Please, somehow I need to get the existing Tutorials in a ZIP (to safe bandwidth) and the wiki can wait...

Sound fair? And thanks again for the reply.

Jim

 

[rob]

They will be for 3.1 only. We are focusing on 3.1, 3.0.8 is for Joomla 2.5 only and as Joomla 2.5 is nearing the end of its shelf life we can't invest resources in making tutorials for it.

And anyway for what's "in the wiki" so one can work offline?

We aren't going to be providing downloadable content in the foreseable future, the forum/wiki has no option for it. Perhaps one of these offline services might be worth looking at http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/read-website-offline/

http://www.sothink.com/product/swfcatcher/firefox/# should allow you to download any of the swf files, from within firefox, that way you only download those you need, should save you some bandwitdth compared to downloading a zip of all the tutorials.

That took over 2 hours to complete...and I could not do anything else with my computer.. I did the math?

Perhaps it would be worthwhile learning to use git then if download times are an issue. That way you set up git on your server (say an hour of reading the github tutorials (on line only im afraid ) then you run 1 command to update your site's files. This would only update the changed files, update them directly on your site and allow you to rollback using git if there were issues.
Alternatively log into your server and use the 'wget' and 'tar' commands to grab the zip and un-zip it directly in the server.
The download is the easiest way for users to get hold of our code, we don't claim it to be the quickest way to update sites with the lowest bandwidth use, each user is free to use which ever update method best suits his needs.
Just out of interest what country do you live in where you pay$20 a month to download say 20mb of data :0 ?

 

[IamJim]

Hi Rob, and thanks for the reply.

1) I went ahead and just did File-Save As for the tutorials...

Any updates on this...as those are actually worthless for 3.0/3.1 etc...and my subscription is coming up for renewal...and going to decide today or tomorrow on what to do.

2) Will look into the Github update method you speak off...but it makes me wonder, as to why a "Fabrik Routine" is not simply "built into Joomla" somehow in order to do this, like so many other Joomla components do?

3) re: Just out of interest what country do you live in where you pay$20 a month to download say 20mb of data :0 ?

I said ~~ $ 20.00 per Gig of data is the rate. By the time the 20mb is downloaded, and un zipped and and uploaded to the remote server? It's a 60meg process of EATING bandwidth, and if having to do that once a day every day per month = 1.75 gig of data...in which? (If was a Joomla Option), it could be pulled down from my leased servers.

Again, sorry for the late reply...have not had time again for Fabrik until now, and I guess? I'll go GitHubbing now, and update before I go any further...which might be tomorrow.

And, do you think any tutorials will be released prior to my subscription monthly anniversary?

Jim

 

[IamJim]

/* bump */
Again, sorry for the late reply...have not had time again for Fabrik until now, and I guess? I'll go GitHubbing now, and update before I go any further...which might be tomorrow.

And, do you think any tutorials will be released prior to my subscription monthly anniversary?

 

[troester]

Tutorials, WIKI, GitHub are free.

 

[IamJim]

Tutorials, WIKI, GitHub are free.

Hello Troester, and again as always~~ Thank you for your replies...but not the one I was looking for in regards to upgraded tutorial pertaining to RECENT releases and how-to's.

WIKI? Yes, nice to have,,,but the "process flow" from page to page is non-existent to an existent, if you know what I mean... Such as ? Next Page, or bullet/highlghting reference to another page.

So true!! But dealing w/ 5 year old is not fun. Very time consuming and flustering, especially when one is paying $ 20.00 EURO = $ 27.13 USD a month now for? In my world, of being self employed..no other income than hustling web work, that is equivalent to one weeks of Groceries at http://www.aldi.com/ let alone the fact that waiting for responses and fixes, I would be money ahead working at McDonalds, yet?.. As getting fixes and replies days later, heck man.. I have lost my train of thought. Let's face it...seems like very few Live, Breath and die with Fabrik... and it's said really.. Why? It's a great idea/tool etc...and as a programmer of old...growing up in paper tape, beta teams from DOS 3.0 to 6.22, [and also was on Borland's team] Win3.1 and then NT 3.0/3.5/3.51/4.0 I then went to 2000 team and finally went to work for a Microsoft Subcontractor in October of 2000. Enough ranting on that.

Thing is, I am "not alone" in my quest or requests either...

http://fabrikar.com/forums/index.php?threads/tweak-tutorials-to-help-new-users.35094/

and here is a search for "new tutorials" > http://fabrikar.com/forums/index.php?search/549913/&page=3&q=new+tutorials&o=date

Last years answer was "busy working on 3.xx etc...and I also read posts form Rob/Hugh back in March that they were "in process", yet none exist? From installing the latest J3.x/F3.x installs, I am REALLY IMPRESSED as to it works!! {the install I did last time, which is weeks ago. }

I'm not done with this yet, but right now tossing it up....and will add to it for sure.

Regards, Jim