User Guide
Table Of Contents
- Instant Payment Notification Guide
- Contents
- Preface
- Introducing IPN
- Implementing an IPN Listener
- Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal
- IPN Testing
- IPN Operations on PayPal
- Using Fraud Management Filters With IPN
- IPN Variable Reference
- IPN Transaction Types
- Transaction and Notification-Related Variables
- Buyer Information Variables
- Payment Information Variables
- Auction Variables
- Mass Pay Variables
- Recurring Payments Variables
- Subscription Variables
- Dispute Resolution Variables
- Pay Message Variables
- Preapproval Message Variables
- Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages
- Payment Review Using Notifications
- Revision History
July 10, 2012 3
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Documentation Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 1 Introducing IPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
IPN Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
IPN Protocol and Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
IPN Messages Generated by PayPal Payments Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
IPN Messages Generated by APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
IPN Messages Generated by a Back-Office Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PayPal-Initiated IPN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A Sample IPN Message and Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 2 Implementing an IPN Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Chapter 3 Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal . . . . . . . . . . .21
Setting Up IPN Notifications on PayPal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Dynamically Setting the Notification URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 4 IPN Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Testing Your Listener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
IPN Troubleshooting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 5 IPN Operations on PayPal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Using the IPN History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Resending IPN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33