PayPal Plugin With Multiple Items to Purchase

toad 05 Mar, 2014
Curious if Chronforms in conjunction with the PayPal plugin will work this way:

We have an event that requires an automatic registration fee of $100 and only the Name, Address, etc., of the primary registrant. There is the option to add additional registrants ($100 each person) and requires all extra attendees to be listed within the form only with their name. There is also the option to purchase a sponsorship level with different prices ($1,000, $3,500, etc.). Obviously I would have to create 'buttons' for each optional pricing for the sponsorships (which would be easy), for the extra attendees, and the required registration fee. But I'm not sure how the automated registration fee and the additional registrants would work/be implemented with the PayPal plugin Chronoforms uses.

Below is a sample of what the hardcopy form looks like:
[attachment=0]Capture.JPG[/attachment]

After the user fills out the information and is sent to PayPal to pay, what if the user changes their mind and doesn't complete the PayPal payment process? Does Chronoforms already send the registration information to the admin email prior to the payment processing? Or is the email sent AFTER the payment has been processed.

I thought I would save some time and ask first before diving into using Chronoforms to see if it can accomplish the above.
GreyHead 05 Mar, 2014
HI toad,

The answers to your questions are - it all depends. You can do pretty much anything with ChronoForms and PayPal but the first step is deciding exactly what you need to do.

At the basic level you can send the user to PayPal using a ReDirect URL. With this the only confirmation you get is the email from PayPal so someone needs to cross-check the applications with any failed payment advices. With the redirect you can send information about variable amounts and, if you wish, also about the 'options' that make up the total payment.

If you want instant confirmation then you need to use one of the more advanced PayPal interfaces with IPN (Instant Payment Notification) or Express Checkout. These are supported a a basic level by the ChronoForms plug-ins but you can add more functionality with custom coding if you need it.

Basically the IPN transactions work with a behind the scenes hand-shake between your site and PayPal. You save the data, give the transaction a unique id, then send the user to PayPal. PayPal sends back a message asking your site to confirm the transaction, once that is done the payment is confirmed (or not) and PayPal sends back a final message.

So, as I said, the first step is to decide what you want.

Bob
toad 06 Mar, 2014
The basic needs are to allow the primary user to register with their information, have an automatic purchase for this single user of $100 (registration fee), give the user the option to purchase a sponsorship of their choice and the ability to add any additional registrants, requiring their name only.

The user can be forwarded to PayPal for payment processing, to keep it easy.

"With the redirect you can send information about variable amounts and, if you wish, also about the 'options' that make up the total payment."

I'm assuming that this is with the use of the 'params' box to fill in the parameters that need to be passed?

"If you want instant confirmation..."
The user will need confirmation with the form-filled information of the registrants information--which is already done via Chronoforms email. The main concern is if Chronforms is sending the email PRIOR to payment being fulfilled, which the hand-shaking process kicks in prior to the email being sent. Is the setup of the IPN rather easy to set up with Chronoforms? Or is this requiring more than what is within the default of Chronoforms?

Right now there already is a Basic PayPal account, so nothing fancy. Is there a video tutorial of how this can be implemented?
GreyHead 28 Mar, 2014
Hi toad,

I'm assuming that this is with the use of the 'params' box to fill in the parameters that need to be passed?

Yes, check the PayPal docs for the names of the parameters you need to send.

Is the setup of the IPN rather easy to set up with Chronoforms?

Reasonably straightforward but it won't work with a Basic PayPal account so be sure that you need it first.

Bob
This topic is locked and no more replies can be posted.