I have created a customised shopping cart coded in PHP. Once the user has filled their cart they hit checkout and all of the details, including the address detail, are posted into a PayPal shopping cart and the user can pay using a PayPal account or a credit card.

After the user has paid, PayPal re-directs (and here's the problem - see below) the user back a page on my site. This page conducts a brief to and fro with the PayPal server and, providing everything matches properly, a PDF invoice is emailed to the customer, a despatch note to the store guy and a copy invoice goes to the accounts office.

The problem: If the customer fails to return from the PayPal site then none of the order processing takes place. There are a few factors that may prevent the customer returning to the site and I need to factor this possibility in.

So, my question is, can someone tell me if I use the PayPal IPN system will it send a message to my web server 'listening' page even if the customer doesn't return to the site?

Thanks for your time,

Simon.

Member Avatar for LastMitch

So, my question is, can someone tell me if I use the PayPal IPN system will it send a message to my web server 'listening' page even if the customer doesn't return to the site?

I don't quite understand your question. Once the customer submit the checkout form it will go to the PayPal page and it will also send the data to your database.

I hope that make sense

Read more about how it works:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/acc/ipn-info-outside

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