PayPal via the API
To handle PayPal via the API directly, follow our quick start guide on direct API integrations, or use the steps below.
Create a transactions
To create a PayPal transaction, set the method
to paypal
and the redirect_url
to the endpoint of your application that can handle the customer returning once they’ve completed approving the transaction on paypal.com
.
See the POST /transactions
API endpoint for more details.
If successful, the response of this transaction will include a status
set to buyer_approval_pending
as well as a payment_method.approval_url
.
About tokenization
If your PayPal account supports Reference Transactions, then you can pass the store=true
parameter to each request to vault a buyer’s PayPal account for future use.
This does require you to tick the Payment tokenization toggle for your PayPal connection in your dashboard.
Once stored, you can use the stored PayPal account for future transactions without redirecting the buyer to PayPal.
Handle redirect to PayPal
Your application will need to redirect your customer to PayPal where they will be required to authenticate the payment. To do so, redirect the customer to the payment_method.approval_url
. After they’ve authenticated themselves, the customer will be redirected back to the redirect_url
that you set when creating the transaction.
If the customer abandons the checkout or somehow experiences network connection issues, the transaction state can get out of sync between your application and ours. We recommend the following best practices in handling these situations.
Handle the return to your app
When the customer is redirected back to your app, the transaction status is not known. Your application will therefore need to call our API to get the latest transaction status. To do this, your redirect_url
will be appended with the transaction_id
.
Although we also provide the transaction_status
in this callback, it’s
recommended to also fetch the latest status via the API, as the status may
have changed since.
After you’ve handled the redirect, you can display a message to your customer letting them know the result of the transaction.
Fetch the latest status
Finally, after the transaction has been created your application can get the latest details and status using the transaction ID received via the callback to the redirect URL, or on direct callback from the API.
The transaction includes details about the payment method used and the status of the transaction.
Visit the API reference documentation for full details about the transaction resource, and any other API.
Webhooks
In order to receive timely updates regarding the status of your PayPal transactions please set up a PayPal webhook URL. In the PayPal Merchant Dashboard create a webhook with that URL. Once set up you will be given a webhook ID by PayPal, provide this back to the team.
FraudNet
FraudNet is a PayPal-developed, JavaScript library that collects browser-based data to help reduce fraud. Upon checkout, the FraudNet library sends data elements to PayPal Risk Services for fraud and risk assessment.
When creating transactions using PayPal Billing Agreements, the PayPal FraudNet library must be included on the checkout page for all transactions. When using Embed, the PayPal FraudNet library is included automatically. If you are using Direct API directly, you will need to use the device fingerprinting library which includes the PayPal FraudNet library.
Set Transaction Context Values (STC)
Set transaction context values (STC) are used to provide additional information to support PayPal’s advanced risk analysis. Below is an outline of the values required. These values should be included in the connection options for PayPal (connection_options[paypal-paypal]
). Below are examples for a retail or a marketplace transaction where retail transactions are those sold directly by the merchant on record, while a marketplace transaction is sold by a third party on the merchant’s website.
PayPal uses sender
and receiver
to refer to the transfer of funds where the sender
is the buyer who is transmitting funds to the reciever
or merchant.
Data Field Name | Description | Use case | Sample values |
---|---|---|---|
sender_account_id | Unique buyer ID | Both | buyer_id or buyer’s external_identifier |
sender_first_name | Buyer’s first name | Both | first_name |
sender_last_name | Buyer’s last name | Both | last_name |
sender_email | Buyer’s email address | Both | email_address |
sender_phone | Buyer’s phone number | Both | phone_number |
sender_country_code | Buyer’s country code in ISO Alpha-2 Country code | Both | AU or NZ |
sender_create_date | Creation date of the buyer’s account in ISO 8601 date format | Both | created_at |
sender_signup_ip | IP address that the buyer used to sign up to the platform | Marketplace | 10.220.90.20 |
sender_popularity_score | Risk-based scoring on the buyer, best efforts assessment by the marketplace | Marketplace | high, medium or low |
receiver_account_id | Unique seller ID | Marketplace | A12345N343 |
receiver_create_date | Date of seller creation on marketplace platform in ISO 8601 date format | Marketplace | 2024-06-09T 19:14:55.277-0:00 |
receiver_email | Seller’s registered email on the marketplace platform | Marketplace | seller@marketplace.com |
receiver_address_country_code | Sellers’s country code in ISO Alpha-2 Country code | Marketplace | US |
business_name | Seller’s business name on the marketplace | Marketplace | Seller Pty Ltd |
recipient_popularity_score | Risk-based scoring on the seller, best efforts assessment by the marketplace | Marketplace | high, medium or low |
first_interaction_date | Date of the first integration between the buyer and seller on the marketplace | Marketplace | 2024-06-09T 19:14:55.277-0:00 |
txn_count_total | Total number of transactions between the buyer and seller to date, across all methods | Marketplace | 3 |
delivery_information | Delivery method for an intangible item if there is an associated email/phone. It acts as the shipping address for an intangible, only required for intangible goods (e.g. gift cards) | Retail | phone_number or email_address |
highrisk_txn_flag | Flag for high-risk items such as gift cards where (1) is high risk and (0) is non high risk | Retail | Boolean value (0 or 1) |
transaction_is_tangible | The item being solid is tangible (1) or intangible (0) | Marketplace | Boolean value (0 or 1) |
vertical | Vertical flag for the seller transactions that are in several verticals | Both | Retail, Household goods, clothing, tickets |
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