Implement PayPal Express

Implement PayPal Express to authorize, capture and purchase payments.

Prerequisites

If you want to follow along, you need the following items:

• An Elastic Path Commerce Cloud account and the Client ID and Client Secret of your store, available from Commerce Manager.
• An access token.
• A PayPal Express account.
• Configured products and gateway using Commerce Manager or API.

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Enable PayPal Express through the PayPal website and Commerce Manager, and provide the API Key.
2. Set up the checkout workflow to use PayPal Express as a dedicated provider when making payment calls.

Enable PayPal Express

To enable PayPal Express, you must do so from the PayPal dashboard and Commerce Manager.

1. Create an account or sign in to PayPal Express Dashboard.

2. On the Sandbox sidebar, click Accounts.

   You will see Sandbox Accounts.

3. Go to Manage Accounts of the default business account. A menu appears. Click View and Edit.

4. In the Account Details dialog box, click API Credentials.

5. On the API Credentials tab, find and copy the following values:

   • Username
   • Password
   • Signature

6. Go to Commerce Manager.

7. Go to Settings > Payment Gateways > PayPal Express Checkout and Edit.

8. Click Enabled.

9. Enter the Login, Password and Signature from PayPal.

10. Click Save.

Set up the checkout flow

Use the API to create a checkout flow.

At minimum, you need the ability to:

1. Setup and confirm the Purchase workflow.
2. Setup and confirm the Authorization workflow.

Purchase workflow

This section walks you briefly through steps required to set up and confirm a purchase.

You can use any URL safe value you want for your cart IDs. If a cart doesn’t already exist with that ID, it’ll be created the first time you add an item. If this request is successful, you’ll get a 201 response with all of the cart items that exist in the updated cart.

1. POST checkout using a customer object.

   note

   Ensure that you use a valid country code.

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/carts/{{cartID}}/checkout. For more information, see Checkout.

   {
    "data": {
       "customer": {
         "email": "john@yourcompany.com",
         "name": "John Doe"
       },
       "billing_address": {
         "first_name": "John",
         "last_name": "Doe",
         "company_name": "YourCompany",
         "line_1": "2nd Floor British India House",
         "line_2": "15 Carliol Square",
         "city": "Newcastle upon Tyne",
         "postcode": "NE1 6UF",
         "county": "Tyne & Wear",
         "country": "GB"
       },
       "shipping_address": {
         "first_name": "John",
         "last_name": "Doe",
         "company_name": "YourCompany",
         "phone_number": "(555) 555-1234",
         "line_1": "2nd Floor British India House",
         "line_2": "15 Carliol Square",
         "city": "Newcastle upon Tyne",
         "postcode": "NE1 6UF",
         "county": "Tyne & Wear",
         "country": "GB",
         "instructions": "Leave in porch"
         }
      }
   }
   

2. POST Setup Purchase from PayPal Express.

   note

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/orders/{{orderID}}/payments. For more information, see PayPal Express Payments.

       {
           "data" : {
               "gateway" : "paypal_express",
               "method" : "purchase",
               "options" : {
                   "return_url": "http://localhost:7000/return",
                   "cancel_return_url": "http://localhost:7000/cancel",
                   "address_override": 0
               }
           }
       }
   

3. Get the response value. Copy and open in a browser.

   ...
   "redirect_url": "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout&token=EC-63F12300EY677963V"
   ...
   

4. Go to the PayPal redirect URL from Step 3 and sign in under the Personal account to make a payment.

   note

   If you sign in and are not redirected to the Personal account, go to the Sandbox sidebar, click Manage Accounts and then Personal view and edit.

5. Click Continue to confirm the payment.

   This returns a URL with a PayerID, such as http://localhost:7000/return?token=EC-63F12300EY677963V&PayerID=6KQCR66SFS6B8. Note the PayerID value.

6. POST Confirm the purhcase with the payment using the PayerID value from the previous step.

   note

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/orders/{{orderID}}/transactions/{{transactionID}}/confirm. For more information, see Get a Transaction.

   {
     "data" : {
       "gateway" : "paypal_express",
       "method" : "purchase",
       "payment" : "xxxxxxxxx"
      }
   }
   

   The following is the response:

   {
     "data": {
       "id": "xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx",
       "type": "transaction",
       "reference": "xxxxxxxxxxx",
       "gateway": "paypal_express",
       "amount": 10000,
       "currency": "USD",
       "transaction_type": "purchase",
       "status": "complete",
       "relationships": {
           "order": {
               "data": {
                   "type": "order",
                   "id": "xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx"
               }
           }
       },
       "meta": {
           "display_price": {
               "amount": 10000,
               "currency": "USD",
               "formatted": "$100.00"
           },
           "timestamps": {
               "created_at": "2020-05-12T23:28:11Z",
               "updated_at": "2020-05-12T23:29:11Z"
               }
           }
       }
   }
   

7. Go to Commerce Manager.

8. Go to Orders. Find the order. The status shows Paid and under the Transaction status is Complete.

Authorization flow

This section walks you briefly through steps required to set up and authorize a purchase.

You can use any URL safe value you want for your cart IDs. If a cart doesn’t already exist with that ID, it’ll be created the first time you add an item. If this request is successful, you’ll get a 201 response with all of the cart items that exist in the updated cart.

1. POST checkout using a customer object.

   note

   Ensure that you use a valid country code.

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/carts/{{cartID}}/checkout. For more information, see Checkout.

   {
    "data": {
       "customer": {
         "email": "john@yourcompany.com",
         "name": "John Doe"
       },
       "billing_address": {
         "first_name": "John",
         "last_name": "Doe",
         "company_name": "YourCompany",
         "line_1": "2nd Floor British India House",
         "line_2": "15 Carliol Square",
         "city": "Newcastle upon Tyne",
         "postcode": "NE1 6UF",
         "county": "Tyne & Wear",
         "country": "GB"
       },
       "shipping_address": {
         "first_name": "John",
         "last_name": "Doe",
         "company_name": "YourCompany",
         "phone_number": "(555) 555-1234",
         "line_1": "2nd Floor British India House",
         "line_2": "15 Carliol Square",
         "city": "Newcastle upon Tyne",
         "postcode": "NE1 6UF",
         "county": "Tyne & Wear",
         "country": "GB",
         "instructions": "Leave in porch"
         }
      }
   }
   

2. POST Setup Authorization from PayPal Express.

   note

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/orders/{{orderID}}/payments. For more information, see PayPal Express Payments.

       {
           "data" : {
               "gateway" : "paypal_express",
               "method" : "authorize",
               "options" : {
                   "return_url": "http://localhost:7000/return",
                   "cancel_return_url": "http://localhost:7000/cancel",
                   "address_override": 0
               }
           }
       }
   

3. Get the response value. Copy and open in a browser.

   ...
   "redirect_url": "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout&token=EC-63F12300EY677963V"
   ...
   

4. Go to the PayPal redirect URL from Step 3 and sign in under the Personal account to make a payment.

   note

   If you sign in and are not redirected to the Personal account, go to the Sandbox sidebar, click Manage Accounts and then Personal view and edit.

5. Go to Manage Accounts of the Personal account. A menu appears. Click View and Edit.

6. Click Continue to confirm the payment.

   This returns a URL with a PayerID, such as http://localhost:7000/return?token=EC-63F12300EY677963V&PayerID=6KQCR66SFS6B8. Note the PayerID value.

7. POST Confirm the purchase with the payment as the PayerID value.

   note

   The URL used in this call was http://localhost/v2/orders/{{orderID}}/transactions/{{transactionID}}/confirm. For more information, see Get a Transaction.

   {
     "data" : {
       "gateway" : "paypal_express",
       "method" : "authorize",
       "payment" : "xxxxxxxxx"
      }
   }
   

8. Go to Commerce Manager.

9. Go to Orders. Find the order. The status shows Authorized and under the Transaction status is Complete.

10. Capture the authorization. This POST to PayPal to make the payment. The Dashboard payment becomes paid.

    POST http://localhost/v2/orders/{{orderID}}/transactions/{{transactionID}}/capture
    

Further reading

• Payments
• Checkout workflow
• Configure PayPal Express API
• Carts API
• Gateways API
• Payments API - Paying for an order