Integration Guide

PayPal Payments Standard Integration Guide June 2012 143
Recurring Payments – Subscribe Buttons
Advanced Features of Subscribe Buttons
3
– Step 2 of “Page 2 – Specifying Advanced Features of Your Subscribe Button” on
page 177
 Write the HTML code for Cancel Subscription buttons manually.
See “Sample HTML Code for an Unsubscribe Button” on page 168.
Generating Usernames and Passwords with Subscribe Buttons
Let PayPal generate unique usernames and passwords for your subscribers when they sign up
for subscription memberships to your website. Use PayPal Subscriptions Password
Management to enable access to members-only content on your website automatically.
IMPORTANT: Subscriptions Password Management and Auto Return are incompatible. Turn
Auto Return off if you want PayPal to manage subscription passwords.
For more information, see “Auto Return” on page 351.
How Subscriptions Password Management Works
After subscribers sign up for your subscription, PayPal generates their usernames and
passwords automatically. PayPal displays the generated values to subscribers on the PayPal
payment confirmation page and in the PayPal confirmation email. In addition, PayPal displays
generated usernames and initial passwords to subscribers from their PayPal accounts.
Your website uses the generated usernames and initial passwords to set up new accounts so
that your subscribers can log in. Your website receives new subscription messages through
Instant Payment Notification, which requires advanced programming skills to implement.
After you implement Instant Payment Notification on your website, you write additional
programming code that captures the generated usernames and initial passwords for new
subscriptions. You should also write code to capture cancellation and end-of-term notices, so
that you can update your member database to turn off access to members-only content.
For more information about Instant Payment Notification, see the
Instant Payment Notification
Guide.
Downloading the Subscriptions Password Management Perl Script
PayPal provides a Perl script that you can use to help automate access to members-only
content for new subscribers, provided your website uses “Basic Authentication” with an
Apache web server that runs on Linux. The Perl script interacts with Instant Payment
Notification to automatically activate and deactivate subscriber accounts on your website.
NOTE: You must agree to the terms of use before you can download the installation manual
and the Perl script from the PayPal website.