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PayPal Developer Community >
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Website Payments Pro (US) >
Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
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Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
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PayPal_HarryX 
PayPal Staff
Posts: 340
Registered: 06-07-2006
Message 1 of 35
Viewed 51,675 times
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Because a picture is worth 1,000 words, here it is:
From a technical point of view, there are two components in Website Payments Pro.
1. Direct Payment API
This API allows you to take credit card payments directly on your website. This is the top part of the picture. Your customers don't have to leave your site and come to PayPal. You send their credit card information from your server to PayPal's server. PayPal will process the payment and, if successful, deposit the money in your PayPal account.
At this moment, this API is available only to US merchants and supports only the USD currency. Customers can pay with credit cards issued outside the US.
For this part, there is a separate Website Payments Pro application and a $20/month fee in addition to the usual per-transaction fee. The merchant must apply for Website Payments Pro, get approved, and agree to the $20/month fee. You must also offer your customers the opportunity to pay from PayPal account if you use Direct Payment API.
2. Express Checkout APIs
The Express Checkout APIs allow you to take payments from customers with PayPal accounts. You send your customers to PayPal for authorizing the payment. They return to your site and you finalize the payment.
This feature is available worldwide where PayPal is available and supports all currencies that PayPal supports. At this moment, it does not support German bank transfers.
If you don't use Direct Payment API, you don't have to apply for Website Payments Pro. There's no separate monthly fee for using the Express Checkout APIs. All you need is a PayPal Business or Premier account.
The Express Checkout APIs give you direct control over the payment process.
- All communication between you and PayPal are from server to server. There's no need to encrypt your payment form.
- Real time response. When the customer returns to your site, the payment has been authorized by the customer, but it hasn't been completed yet. You make an API call to finish the payment and get a real time response for success or failure. Unless it's an eCheck, you don't have to wait for an IPN.
IMHO, if you are on Java or .NET, it's easier to code against the Express Checkout APIs than against the HTML-based Website Payments Standard. In Website Payments Standard you have to generate a dynamically encrypted form, push it out to the browser and hope the browser will post it to PayPal. With Express Checkout APIs, you control everything from the server side.
For more information about Websites Payments Pro, see
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07-09-2006 05:59 AM
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Re: Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
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PayPal_HarryX
PayPal Staff
Posts: 340
Registered: 06-07-2006
Message 3 of 35
Viewed 51,628 times
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Hi Wim,
Thank you for your comments.
A key message from PayPal to its users is "Privacy is Built In." As a PayPal user I can pay without giving out my credit card number. I can also pay with my PayPal balance or bank account without running up credit card balance and risking paying interests on the debt. There is more in PayPal than just a simple credit card pass-through. If PayPal were a simple credit card pass-through, people would just pay by credit card. And coming to PayPal to authorize every payment puts me in complete control. I know money won't move without my approval. If somebody got hold of my PayPal user name, without a password, they couldn't do anything except for paying me. If somebody got hold of my credit card and ran some charges on it, I will have to spend tremendous amount of time and efforts to fight them off. That's why PayPal requires that all sites who use Direct Payment API also offer the customers the opportunity to pay by PayPal account. And the best way to do that is via the Express Checkout APIs.
The sentence "With Express Checkout APIs, you control everything from the server side." refers to the setup and finalization of the payment, in contrast to PayPal's Website Payment Standard product. In Website Payment Standard, you also send the customer to PayPal. But the setup is done as an HTML form in the browser. If you don't encrypt the form, the form is in plain view in the browser and is vulnerable to form hacking. When the customer authorizes the payment and returns to your site, the payment is already completed. Suppose you don't want payments from country X due to fraud risk, the best you can do is refunding the payment. In Express Checkout APIs, you set up the payment through a SetExpressCheckout API call. The browser can't see what you send to PayPal. When the customer authorizes the payment, you get to see the details with a GetExpressCheckoutDetails API call. If you like them, you pull the trigger with DoExpressCheckoutPayment. If you don't like what you see, put up a message saying your products are not available in country X and no money changes hand.
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07-09-2006 03:06 PM
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Re: Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
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jungtao
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: 08-28-2006
Message 4 of 35
Viewed 50,238 times
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Hello Harry,
Thank you for the post. I understand that Paypal wants to offer the best security for its users. Having that said, I'm developing a site for my client and they are getting very impatient with the completion of their site. The only thing left on site development is the payment integration. Currently my Direct Payment testing integration to a point where i receive a success response. I would like to launch asap. however i just ran accross this post and now see that i need to also integrate the Express Checkout? Can i launch without having Express Checkout offered at this point. If so, what is the next step i need to launch?
Thank you in advance.
Jung
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08-28-2006 11:49 PM
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Re: Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
[ Edited ]
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caliguian
Visitor
Posts: 5
Registered: 01-08-2007
Message 6 of 35
Viewed 46,903 times
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Is it still true that the DirectPayment option only allows USD? If that is no longer the case, where can I find documentation on how to submit the value in other currencies? Thanks! Oh, and has anyone ever gotten the "Express Checkout" stuff to work? I have tried two different development companies with supposed experience in this, and neither could do it. It seems that it is WAY more difficult than it should be, and that it should be called something other than "Express Checkout" since it actually takes more steps than paying through the Direct Payment method. If I just don't add the express checkout buttons, would Paypal actually care at all? Message Edited by caliguian on 01-08-200710:44 PM
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01-08-2007 10:40 PM
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Re: Website Payments Pro In a Nutshell
[ Edited ]
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PP_MTS_Ahmad
Moderator
Posts: 2377
Registered: 06-07-2006
Message 7 of 35
Viewed 46,821 times
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Hi caliguian,
Direct Payment does supports other currencies as well, documentation on the APIs are in the API Reference, I would recommend opening another thread on the difficulty you are having trying to use another currency, include info such as what SDK you are using and where you are stuck in your coding.
To get an idea of why it is called Express Checkout, please take a look at the Standard and Express Checkout payment flows here. Express Checkout can be easy to implement once you have an idea of how to the 3 Express Checkout API work, this page gives both a diagram as well as info on how the 3 APIs are used, there is also an Express Checkout Integration Guide that gives details on how to implement it.
If you are still have difficulty understanding how Express Checkout works then I would suggest creating a ticket here and one of the tech agents should be able to ask you. Message Edited by PayPal_Ahmad on 01-11-2007 12:46 PM
Ahmad
Merchant Tech Services, PayPal
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01-11-2007 12:45 PM
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