Question

I use on my site Paypal hosted bottons. When visitors click buttons on my site, a process all data on server, after that i get from paypal via api special link and simply redirect visitors to Paypal

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=XXXXXXXXXXXXX

All data like paypal account, custom field, prices and sicounts are safe.

Now I want to implement third party shopping cart on my site. I want to prepare all data like product name, price, discounts, coupons, special offers, etc on server side and redirrect visitors to paypal

But I can’t find analog of hosted button for shopping cart form on Paypal manuals

So I should to use usual form with hidden fields

    <div>
    <form method="post" action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr">
        <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
        <input type="hidden" name="upload" value="1">
        <input type="hidden" name="business" value="[e-mail]">
        <input type="hidden" name="custom" value="asgasgasgagahsdgsdghsgag">
        <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="EUR">
        <input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://return.link">
        <input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="http://cancel.link">
        <ul>
            <li>
                <input name="quantity_1" value="1">
                <input type="hidden" name="item_name_1" value="Product 1">
                <input type="hidden" name="amount_1" value="25.01">
                <input type="hidden" name="discount_amount_1" value="5.00">
            </li>
            <li>
                <input name="quantity_2" value="1">
                <input type="hidden" name="item_name_2" value="Product 2">
                <input type="hidden" name="amount_2" value="12.71">
                <input type="hidden" name="discount_amount_2" value="5.00">
            </li>
        </ul>
        <input type="submit" value="Checkout">
    </form>
</div>

I don’t like this way, cause data like account email, custom variable, prices and discounts are note safe

Is there any analog of hosted button for shopping cart in paypal?

Answer 1

I would recommend using the Express Checkout API instead of Payments Standard. This gives you complete freedom to customize the checkout solution the way you need to and use your own dynamic variables, etc. but everything is nicely hidden from users because it all happens over the API.