TIP 239: Adding PayPal eCommerce

Name: PayPal eCommerce Extension

Developer: Transmit Media

Source: www.transmitmedia.com/golive/paypal/

Cost: Free

The PayPal eCommerce Extension allows you to add basic ecommerce to your Web sites by creating payment buttons and basic shopping-cart functionality. Visitors to your site can use credit cards to pay for items, allowing you to accept credit-card payments for items or services that you sell on your site. To receive payments, you will need to open up a free PayPal business account (unless you already have one). Customers making payments to you need not have a PayPal account, only a valid credit card. Payments made to you will be credited to your PayPal business account. PayPal even supports payments in several currencies, including US$, CA$, Euro, British pound, and Japanese yen.

The extension consists of four new objects that are added to the Objects palette. When you drag any of the objects onto a page, a helpful wizard pops up (Figure 239), asks you a few questions, and writes all the necessary PayPal code for you.

Figure 239. Add one of the four PayPal objects to a page, and the wizard gathers all the required information.

The palette objects are:

• Buy Now: Inserts a PayPal button that visitors can click to pay you with any major credit card. Visitors will be taken to the PayPal Web site where they can then enter payment information, which will be credited to your PayPal account.

• Add to Cart: This button allows visitors to add multiple products or services on your site to their personal shopping cart.

• View Cart: This button allows visitors to view the contents of their shopping carts without having to add a new item.

• Subscription: Recurring payments can be used to set up an ongoing charge or payment plan for customersfor example, a monthly or quarterly fee instead of a one-time charge.