Paypal Standard
Summary
This section will help to cover all the questions and configuration options of the Paypal "Standard" payment.
Configuration
Paypal Standard got a facelift for OpenCart v1.4.9. Multiple statuses, PDT support, better IPN support, debugging.
These are the recommended settings for your paypal account to get the full benefit. Some settings may not exist for certain countries and personal accounts, but follow whatever settings you can:
1. Login to your Paypal account
2. Click on "Profile" (the actual word)
3. Click on "Website Payment Preferences"
AutoReturn = On
Return URL = http://www.mysite.com(this gets overridden anyway so it doesn't matter)
Payment Data Tranfer (PDT) = On (copy Identity Token and paste in OpenCart Paypal configuration area)
Encrypted Website Payments = Off
Paypal Account Optional = On
Contact Telephone Number = Recommended: On (Optional)
Express Checkout Settings (Giropay) = Off
4. Click on "Profile" again (the actual word)
5. Click on "Instant Payment Notification Preferences"
6. Enable IPN messages
7. Notification URL = http://www.mysite.com(this gets overridden anyway so it doesn't matter)
8. Click on "Profile" again (the actual word)
9.Click on "Language Encoding"
10. Click on "More Options"
11. Change the char encoding to "UTF-8" instead of "Windows-1252" or whatever it currently is
Echecks
When a customer pays with paypal but has no money in his account, Paypal marks it as an echeck. This means paypal is transferring money from the customer's bank account to their paypal account, and when it gets there, paypal will pay you. In v1.4.8 and older, e-checks were still being marked as complete, and it was possible for a customer to get his item before actually having money in the account. As of v1.4.9, echecks are automatically and properly handled.
If you want to disallow echecks all together, you can do this:
1. Login to your Paypal account
2. Click on "Profile" (the actual word)
3. Click on "Payment Receiving Preferences"
4. Check the "Block echecks and German bank transfers" checkbox
Shipping
Shipping is automatically passed through the cart, but if paypal is not showing the shipping charges, then it is likely due to the paypal account settings set to use custom shipping values. To disable this and allow the cart to pass the shipping cost in:
1. Login to your Paypal account
2. Click on "Profile" (the actual word)
3. Click on "Set Up Shipping Calculations"
4. Check the box for "Click here to allow transaction-based shipping values to override the profile shipping settings listed above"
5. Clear any custom shipping settings and save
Accepting Credit Cards
If your paypal account is Business or Premiere (meaning you have an added a bank account to the account) then you should be able to accept credit cards on the paypal page as opposed to only paypal accounts. Follow these steps to enable this feature:
1. Login to your Paypal account
2. Click on "Profile" (the actual word)
3. Click on "Website Payment Preferences"
Paypal Account Optional = On
4. Save
This will enable the option for customers to pay with their credit cards. However, Paypal is a strange creature with their payment page. Paypal uses a lifetime cookie if you've previously logged in. And the logic of that cookie is:
- If you have been to the paypal site in the past and have logged in with your paypal account, then it still will NOT show you the CC form. This is because they know you have a paypal account since your browser has the cookie so they assume you want to use your paypal account.
- If you have NOT been to paypal's site in a while (or ever) then your browser will not have the cookie, so it WILL show the CC form.
Best way to test this is to delete your cookies from paypal and try checking out. You should see the CC form AND paypal account login. Then login to your paypal account and logout. Then try checking out again. This time you will only see the paypal account login and the credit card option is only a small link. That is just how paypal works.
