2013

Authorization and Capture API Operation Reference
DoCapture API Operation
3
28 February 01, 2013 Name-Value Pair API Developer Guide
INVNUM (Optional) Your invoice number or other identification number that is displayed to
you and to the buyer in their transaction history. The value is recorded only if the
authorization you are capturing is an Express Checkout order authorization.
NOTE: This value on DoCapture overwrites a value previously set on
DoAuthorization.
Character length and limitations: 127 single-byte alphanumeric characters
NOTE (Optional) An informational note about this settlement that is displayed to the buyer
in email and in their transaction history.
Character length and limitations: 255 single-byte characters
SOFTDESCRIPTOR (Optional) Per transaction description of the payment that is passed to the buyer’s
credit card statement.
If you provide a value in this field, the full descriptor displayed on the buyer’s
statement has the following format:
<PP * | PAYPAL *><Merchant descriptor as set in the Payment
Receiving Preferences><1 space><soft descriptor>
Character length and limitations: The soft descriptor can contain only the following
characters:
 Alphanumeric characters
 - (dash)
 * (asterisk)
 . (period)
 {space}
If you pass any other characters (such as “,”), PayPal returns an error code.
The soft descriptor does not include the phone number, which can be toggled between
your customer service number and PayPal’s Customer Service number.
The maximum length of the soft descriptor is 22 characters. Of this, the PayPal prefix
uses either 4 or 8 characters of the data format. Thus, the maximum length of the soft
descriptor information that you can pass in this field is:
22 - len(<PP * | PAYPAL *>) - len(<Descriptor set in Payment
Receiving Preferences> + 1)
For example, assume the following conditions:
 The PayPal prefix toggle is set to PAYPAL * in PayPal’s administration tools.
 The merchant descriptor set in the Payment Receiving Preferences is set to EBAY.
 The soft descriptor is passed in as JanesFlowerGifts LLC.
The resulting descriptor string on the credit card is:
PAYPAL *EBAY JanesFlow
MSGSUBID (Optional) A message ID used for idempotence to uniquely identify a message. This
ID can later be used to request the latest results for a previous request without
generating a new request. Examples of this include requests due to timeouts or errors
during the original request.
Character length and limitations: string of up to 38 single-byte characters.
This field is available since version 92.0.
Field Description