Advanced Features Guide

Table Of Contents
Express Checkout Advanced Features Guide April 2012 51
Handling Recurring Payments
Recurring Payments With the Express Checkout API
3
Getting Buyer Details Using GetExpressCheckoutDetails
The GetExpressCheckoutDetails method returns information about the buyer, including
name and email address stored on PayPal. You can optionally call this API after PayPal
redirects the buyers browser to the ReturnURL you specified in the SetExpressCheckout
request.
The GetExpressCheckoutDetails request has one required parameter, TOKEN, which is
the value returned in the SetExpressCheckout response.
PayPal does not return the values you specified for the following parameter fields in the
GetExpressCheckoutDetails response unless the transaction includes a purchase. PayPal
ignores the fields if you set up a billing agreement for a recurring payment that is not
immediately charged.
PAYMENTREQUEST_n_DESC
PAYMENTREQUEST_n_CUSTOM
PAYMENTREQUEST_n_INVNUM
Creating the Profiles With CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile
After your buyer has agreed to the recurring payments billing agreement on your confirmation
page, you must call CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile to create the profile. If you are
creating multiple recurring payments profiles, you must call
CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile once for each profile you plan to create.
If the transaction includes a mixture of a one-time purchase and recurring payments profiles,
call DoExpressCheckoutPayment to complete the one-time purchase transaction. Then call
CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile for each recurring payment profile you plan to
create.
IMPORTANT: PayPal does not create the recurring payments profile until you receive a
success response from the CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile call.
To obtain the best rates for digital goods, set values for the following required payment details
item fields:
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_NAMEn
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_AMTn
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_QTYn
L_PAYMENTREQUEST_0_ITEMCATEGORYn (you must set the value to Digital)
NOTE: The payment details item fields are available with version 69.0 and later of the
CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile API.
The CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile response contains a Profile ID, which is an
encoded string that uniquely identifies the recurring payments profile.
The following is a CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile example that enables you to
obtain the best rates for digital goods items.