Integration Guide
Table Of Contents
- Order Management Integration Guide
- Preface
- Introduction
- Payment Data Transfer
- Instant Payment Notification (IPN)
- Transaction History and Reporting Tools
- IPN and PDT Variables
- About These Tables of Variables
- test_ipn Variable in Sandbox
- IPN Variables in All Posts
- Buyer Information
- Basic Information
- Advanced and Custom Information
- Website Payments Standard and Refund Information
- Currency and Currency Exchange
- Auctions
- Mass Payment
- Dispute Notification Variables
- PDT-Specific Variables
- Downloadable History Log Columns and Values
- Index
Introduction
Differences between Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and Payment Data Transfer (PDT)
16 October 2006 Order Management Integration Guide
z Merchant Sales Reports:
– Settlement Report (STL): Contains only the records of all balance-effecting daily
transactions. Can be coordinated with Settlement System or created independently of the
moving of money.
– Transactions Detail Report (TDR): Status of all transactions (including non-complete
transactions such as eCheck) in the account in a 24 hour period. A super set of data
contained in Settlement Report including buyer and auction data.
– Order Report (ODR): List all orders created in a 24-hr period with the order ID. Only
appropriate for those merchants using the order functionality on their website.
– Dispute Resolution Report (DRR): List all cases that changed in status or were created
in a 24-hr period. Allows a merchant to reconcile cases against money moving
transactions.
z History Log: View an online record of your received and sent payments.
z Downloadable Logs: Keep track of your transaction history by downloading it into
various file formats (suitable for financial settlements).
For more information about PayPal's reports, see
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-
bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/reports-intro-outside.
Differences between Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and
Payment Data Transfer (PDT)
PDT's primary function is to display payment transaction details to buyers when they are
automatically redirected back to your site upon payment completion; however, there are cases
where you will not receive notification of all transactions, such as with pending transactions,
refunds, and reversals. For these reasons, or if you are using this data to fulfill orders, PayPal
strongly recommends that you also enable Instant Payment Notification (IPN).
Both IPN and PDT send back the same data; however, there are several important differences.
PDT:
z Requires Auto Return to be enabled.
z Auto Return will include an ID that can be used to query PayPal for the complete
transaction details.
z It is possible to miss a notification if the user closes the browser before the redirection is
complete.
IPN:
z Does not require Auto Return to be enabled.
z At the end of the website payment flow, PayPal POSTs the IPN data asynchronously (i.e.
not as part of the website payment flow).
z IPNs will also POST for EFT completions, reversals, and refunds.