2004
Instant Payment Notification Manual
1
Copyright 2004 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved
Introduction to Instant Payment Notification
(IPN)
Automate online payments with back-end server-to-server
integration
PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) allows you to integrate PayPal payments
with your website’s back-end operations. IPN provides immediate notification and
confirmation of PayPal payments you receive, allowing you to:
• Customize your website’s response to customer purchases in real-time.
• Track customers through the notification’s “pass through” variables.
• Automate your fulfillment operations.
• Store transaction information in your own database.
Once you activate IPN, you will receive an IPN when a payment is first sent which
will state the status of the payment (Completed or Pending). If the payment was
“Pending,” you will receive another IPN when the payment clears, fails, or is denied.
IPN can be seamlessly integrated with each of the PayPal Website Payments solutions
(Buy Now Buttons, PayPal Shopping Cart, Subscriptions and Recurring Payments, and
Donations), as well as with regular PayPal “Send Money” payments, and lets you focus
on selling, not on manually tracking your orders.
Get the most out of your online business today: start using IPN.