Instant payment notifications (IPN) is a PayPal feature that sends messages about payments directly from PayPal to your website back end systems. You can use it to automate back end administrative functions, such as tracking customers and product delivery.

PayPal IPN Download extension for Joomla helps you to build your E-commerce website with Joomla. It is compatible with Joomla 2.5.x and Joomla 3.x. With PayPal IPN Joomla extension, you can easily add digital products, sell digital products and deliver digital products automatically. There are two delivery methods for you to choose, either sending the digital products as an attachment via email, or sending the download link via email. The link will expire after 24 hours for security reason. This user guide will help you to install, configure the PayPal IPN Joomla extension step by step.

  

Installation

This Joomla extension has two part: the extension zip file and the plugin zip file. Once you make the payment, you will get a zip file, which contains the main extension file com_paypalipndownload.zip and plugin file pinp_plugin.zip.

To install the extension and plugin, you need to:

  1. unzip the file, you will get two files:  com_paypalipndownload.zip and pinp_plugin.zip
  2. goto your joomla administrator extension installation page
  3. select com_paypalipndownload.zip extension zip file
  4. upload and install the Joomla extension

 

Configuration

After you install this extension successfully, let's go to the PayPal IPN dashboard page. To make this extension working, we have to make some configurations. To go PayPal IPN extension configuration page, you need to:

  1. Click the header menu "Components"
  2. Select the menu "PayPal IPN Download"
  3. Find the "Options" button on the left upper side and click


In your configuration page, you only need to set the first 3 options to make your Joomla PayPal IPN extension working. The rest of settings are not necessary. If you are familiar with "Clickatell", you can config it with your Clickatell information.

  1. From Name: the name of your PayPal account. It will appear in your delivery email after users make purchase.
  2. From Email: the Paypal merchant account email. This Paypal account will receive all the purchase money.
  3. Testing Mode: it is set on "NO" by default. If you want to test this extension with your PayPal sandbox, you can set it on "YES".
  4. Save settings by click "Save & Close" button on the top.

Manage Products

PayPal IPN Joomla extension allows you to add downloadable products without any limitations. Goods are automatically attached to confirmation emails. These emails are sent to customers payment PayPal email account. Products page will let you manage your products such as adding new products, changing price, and updating delivery mode.

Add New Product

First, let's go to the products list page and add a new product.

  1. Click the header menu "Components" and move your mouse on "PayPal IPN Download" menu.
  2. Click "Products List" in the submenu and go to products list page.
  3. Enter your product name, price, version number
  4. Click "Choose File" to choose your digital product
  5. Set download mode. attachment option will deliver your digital products as email attachment, which is suitable for digital products size below 5MB. download option will send a download link to your customers (The link will expire after 24 hours).
  6. Click "Save & Close" button to upload your digital file and save your product.

 




 

PayPal Configuration

Setup PayPal Instant Payment Notification

  1. Login to your PayPal account at www.paypal.com
  2. Go to Profile -> Selling Tools, find "Instant Payment Notification" and click "update"
  3. Click "Choose IPN Settings" to setup your PayPal IPN
  4. Fill in your notification url. In my example, my notification url is "http://www.html5components.net/joomla30/components/com_paypalipndownload/ipn_response.php"
  5. enable PayPal IPN by selecting "Receive IPN messages (Enabled)"

 

Install PayPal Buy Button Generator Joomla Plugin

To help our customers add PayPal Buy Button in Joomla Article easily, we provide a Joomla plugin along with our PayPal IPN extension. You can find the plugin file (pinp_plugin.zip) in our zip file. You can follow these steps to install and enable this plugin.

  1. Go to Joomla Extension Manager
  2. Upload and install the PayPal Button Generator Plugin zip file
  3. Click "Upload & Install" to install the plugin


 

Configure PayPal Buy Button Generator Joomla Plugin

  1. Go to Joomla Plug-in Manager
  2. Search the plugin by PayPal IPN Download
  3. Click the plugin name and go to options page
  4. Make sure your plugin is enabled
  5. Click "Basic Options" to show PayPal button generator basic options
  6. You can select your "buy now" button style by "select button"
  7. "override button select" is not necessary for beginners



 

Insert PayPal Buy Button in Joomla Articles

Now, we can start to sell our products in Joomla. To sell the product, we shall insert a buy button in the article. With the help of PayPal Button Generator, this job will be very easy. To add a product in your Joomla article, you need to:

  1. In your Joomla Article, add button code {paypalbutton id=1}. The id is your product id which you can find in your "Product Manager" section
  2. Clean button code style (very important), select the whole button and click "Remove Formatting" button on the left top.
  3. Save your article and see result



You have successfully created PayPal buy now button in your Joomla website. Once your customers make a successfully payment, PayPal will can your IPN notification url. This extension will handle all the following jobs:

  1. Deliver the corresponding product to your customers via email
  2. Log all PayPal notification history which will help you watch system status
  3. Record all transactions which will help you monitor all transactions and calculate revenues