[ic] Does Interchange work with Paypal?

[Stephanie Smith]

> 	I am new to Interchange 4.8.3. I have setup a working catalog. I also
> opened up a paypal account. I opened one up so I can be able to do credit
> card transaction over the web. Does Interchange work with Paypal? How/What
> do I need to do about setting this up and making it work? Any information
> would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I haven't atually gotten Interchange installed yet, so this is slightly
hypothetical. But since using PayPal with any sort of shopping cart
systems amounts to inserting a link on the checkout page, I figure its safe
enough to answer ;)

What you can do, out of the box, with PayPal, is provide your customers
with a link back to PayPal, which is prepopulated with the order amount,
and invoice number. This will look something like:

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="payments@shoujocon.com">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="SAS online purchase Order#
<?=$orderid?>">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value=<?=$orderid?>>
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value=<? printf("%.2f", $cart_total);
?>>
<input type="image"
src="http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-but03.gif" border="0"
name="submit">
</form>

However, PayPal will still be working independent of Interchange, and
you'll have to manually check for any new payments which come into PayPal,
and invoice them as paid within Interchange. If you want Interchange (or
whatever) to be able to query PayPal for any new payments that have come
in, and have update itself accordingly (never mind actually
"processing" CC orders in real time)..... that'll take a fair bit of
monkeying, and I have no idea how to go about it (if it even can be realisticly
done).

If you look at PayPal's website, you'll find more information on various
ways that you can accept payments on websites. What I describe was adapted
from the Selling Single-Items option. (They prefer to hardcode a price in
the link, but there's no reason you can't just grab it from a variable,
and use the same link for any number of items).

Hope that helps some!

Steph