2012

PayPal Name-Value Pair API Basics
Responding to an NVP Response
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22 August 2012 Name-Value Pair API Developer Guide
NOTE: You must use different API credentials for each server end point. Typically, you obtain
API credentials when you test in the Sandbox and then obtain another set of
credentials for the production server. You must change each API request to use the
new credentials when you go live.
Logging API Operations
You should log basic information from the request and response messages of each PayPal API
operation you execute. You must log the Correlation ID from the response message, which
identifies the API operation to PayPal and which must be provided to Merchant Technical
Support if you need their assistance with a specific transaction.
All responses to PayPal API operations contain information that may be useful for debugging
purposes. In addition to logging the Correlation ID from the response message, you can log
other information, such as the transaction ID and timestamp, to enable you to review a
transaction on the PayPal website or through the API. You could implement a scheme that logs
the entire request and response in a “verbose” mode; however, you should never log the
password from a request.
Responding to an NVP Response
The Name-Value Pair response consists of the answer to the request as well as common fields
that identify the API operation and how it was executed.
The following diagram shows fields in the response to a PayPal NVP API operation:
Related information:
PayPal API Client-Server Architecture
https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp PayPal “live” production server for use with API signatures
https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp Sandbox server for use with API certificates; use for testing
your API
https://api.paypal.com/nvp PayPal “live” production server for use with API certificates
Server end point Description