This code is over a decade old and no longer relevant. Please consult Paypal developer documentation instead.
A PayPal Instant Payment Notification (IPN) class for PHP 5.
Use the IpnListener class in your PHP IPN script to handle the encoding
of POST data, post back to PayPal, and parsing of the response from PayPal.
- Switch between live and sandbox by setting the
use_sandboxproperty. - Supports both secure SSL and plain HTTP transactions by setting the
use_sslproperty (SSL is recommended). - Supports both cURL and fsockopen network libraries by setting the
use_curlproperty (cURL is recommended). - Verifies an HTTP "200" response status code from the PayPal server.
- Get detailed plain text reports of the entire IPN using the
getTextReport()method for use in emails and logs to administrators. - Throws various exceptions to differentiate between common errors in code or server configuration versus invalid IPN responses.
This code is intended for web developers. You should understand how the IPN process works conceptually and you should understand when and why you would be using IPN. Reading the PayPal Instant Payment Notification Guide is a good place to start.
You should also have a PayPal Sandbox Account with a test buyer account and a test seller account. When logged into your sandbox account there is an IPN simulator under the 'Test Tools' menu which you can used to test your IPN listener.
Once you have your sandbox account setup, you simply create a PHP script that
will be your IPN listener. In that script, use the IpnListener() class as shown
below. For a more thoroughly documented example, take a look at the
example/ipn.php script in the source code.
<?php
include('ipnlistener.php');
$listener = new IpnListener();
$listener->use_sandbox = true;
try {
$verified = $listener->processIpn();
} catch (Exception $e) {
// fatal error trying to process IPN.
exit(0);
}
if ($verified) {
// IPN response was "VERIFIED"
} else {
// IPN response was "INVALID"
}
?>
Documentation has not been generated yet, but, there are phpDocumentor style
docstrings (comments) throughout ipnlistener.php which explain the important
public properties and methods.
I have also written a more in-depth IPN tutorial on my blog: PayPal IPN with PHP
Problem
The processIpn() method throws the following exception:
cURL error: [52] GnuTLS recv error (-9): A TLS packet with unexpected length was received.
Solution
When cURL is compiled with GnuTLS the call to PayPal will fail if the SSL version
is not explicitly set as a cURL option. Set the force_ssl_v3 property to force
SSL 3:
$listener = new IpnListener();
$listener->force_ssl_v3 = true;
Note: force_ssl_v3 is now true by default
Problem
PHP Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION
cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in ...
Solution
If you need PHP safe mode, you can disable CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION using the
follow_location property.
$listener = new IpnListener();
$listener->follow_location = false;
Note: follow_location is now false enabled by default
Here is an example of a report returned by the getTextReport() method. Create
your own reports by extending the IpnListener() class or by accessing the data
directly in your ipn script.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[09/09/2011 8:35 AM] - https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr (curl)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:35:39 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Set-Cookie: c9MWDuvPtT9GIMyPc3jwol1VSlO=Ch-NORlHUjlmbEm__KG9LupR4mfMfQTkx1QQ6hHDyc0RImWr88NY_ILeICENiwtVX3iw4jEnT1-1gccYjQafWrQCkDmiykNT8TeDUg7R7L0D9bQm47PTG8MafmrpyrUAxQfst0%7c_jG1ZL6CffJgwrC-stQeqni04tKaYSIZqyqhFU7tKnV520wiYOw0hwk5Ehrh3hLDvBxkpm%7cYTFdl0w0YpEqxu0D1jDTVTlEGXlmLs4wob2Glu9htpZkFV9O2aCyfQ4CvA2kLJmlI6YiXm%7c1315575340; domain=.paypal.com; path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: cookie_check=yes; expires=Mon, 06-Sep-2021 13:35:40 GMT; domain=.paypal.com; path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: navcmd=_notify-validate; domain=.paypal.com; path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: navlns=0.0; expires=Thu, 04-Sep-2031 13:35:40 GMT; domain=.paypal.com; path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: Apache=10.72.109.11.1315575339707456; path=/; expires=Sun, 01-Sep-41 13:35:39 GMT
X-Cnection: close
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
VERIFIED
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
test_ipn 1
payment_type instant
payment_date 06:34:51 Sep 09, 2011 PDT
payment_status Completed
address_status confirmed
payer_status verified
first_name John
last_name Smith
payer_email [email protected]
payer_id TESTBUYERID01
address_name John Smith
address_country United States
address_country_code US
address_zip 95131
address_state CA
address_city San Jose
address_street 123, any street
business [email protected]
receiver_email [email protected]
receiver_id TESTSELLERID1
residence_country US
item_name something
item_number AK-1234
quantity 1
shipping 3.04
tax 2.02
mc_currency USD
mc_fee 0.44
mc_gross 12.34
mc_gross_1 9.34
txn_type web_accept
txn_id 51991334
notify_version 2.1
custom xyz123
charset windows-1252
verify_sign Ah5rOpfPGo5g6FNg95DMPybP51J5AUEdXS1hqyRAP6WYYwaixKNDgQRR
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