How to Test a PayPal Button
PayPal provides buttons for online customer purchases. Website owners put the order buttons on their websites. The customer clicks on the order button and buys the product through PayPal's order pages. PayPal users should test a PayPal button before using it for purchases made by real customers. The user can use PayPal testing tools to run a test purchase for a button. The test purchase does not require a credit card or other real payment. Users can confirm that the button successfully processes a sale and then use it for real purchases on their websites.
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Instructions
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1
Register with the PayPal Sandbox service. This is a free service that allows users to test a PayPal button and other features. Do not confuse this with the normal PayPal order-processing service. The Sandbox account will not process real purchases.
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Log in at the Sandbox account with the chosen email address and password and create both a buyer test account and a seller test account. Create these accounts by clicking on "Test Accounts" and the "Create Test Account" link. Choose either "Buyer" or "Seller" for the "Account Type" option. Fill in an email address and click the "Create Account" button. PayPal uses default settings for the other items. Write down the passwords because the PayPal Sandbox testing site will ask for those passwords.
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Click on "Test Account" and choose the seller test account. Click on "Enter Sandbox Test Site" and sign into the PayPal Sandbox site. Click on "Merchant Services" and the "Buy Now Button" link to create the PayPal test button. Enter the details for the product to be sold and click "Create Button" to generate the code for the button.
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Ensure that the form action and other PayPal links in the code have the word "sandbox" as follows:
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"
Paste the code into the web sales page for the product to be sold. Log into the web host's cPanel and click on "File Manager" to find the file for the sales page. Select the file and click on the "Edit" button to add the code to the page. Save the page after adding the button code.
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Click on the buyer test account in the PayPal Sandbox account and click on "Enter Sandbox Test Site" to log in with the username and password. Click on the test button on the web page. PayPal order pages ask the visitor to log in at PayPal to make the purchase. Log in with the PayPal Sandbox buyer account email and password and complete the PayPal test purchase.
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Check the seller and buyer test accounts in PayPal Sandbox. Click on "My Account" and "Overview" to confirm the test purchase. The transaction will show in the middle of the page as a recent transaction.
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Tips & Warnings
Run a refund test of the test purchase. Click on the "Details" link of the test purchase in the PayPal Sandbox seller account. Click on "Issue Refund" to do the refund test. Confirm the refund from the "Overview" tab.
Do not forget to remove the "sandbox" references in the code of the PayPal test button before using it for real purchases. Otherwise, the button will direct customers to the Sandbox testing site.
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Comments
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Great tutorial for buginers.. Thanks.
