Member Avatar for adi2011

Hi,

I am planinng to Errand and Concierge business and my website will be major link between my customers and me. This is how I planned my website to work:

1. Customer visits my website and want to order certain type of Errand service, lets say buying/delivering groceries. First thing he does is that he needs to do is to fill out errand simple form where he will leave contact details (name/surname, paypal email address, mobile phone number, type of service etc).

2. When I receive all this info from simple form on my email, my task is to send him URL via email which will lead my customer to his paypal account where he will immediately see two items in his order summary (for example one is "shopping groceries in amount of Eur 45.30" and the second one is "errand service per hour Eur 20.00" and total amount of these two items is Eur 65.30).

3. So, after customer pays via paypal this order summary I am starting my engines and straight to the grocerie store to complete my task:)

Now, I don't have any problems with steps 1. and 3. my problem is in step 2. because I am not sure how can I generate this URL which should lead customer to his paypal account and automatically show him order summary which will always contain two items:

1.) type of errand service
2.) price of the errand service per hour (Eur 20.00)

This is how I planned it work, if you perhaps have any better suggestions they are all welcome because I want to my errand website simple for use and efficient by using simple "booking" form any PayPal integration.

Any help is appreciated and many hanks in advance for prompt replys!

Cheers,
Adi:)

Edited by adi2011 because: n/a
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #949455

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and a practical plan tying ’s original workflow to concrete, safe ways to generate a PayPal payment link.

Two maintained options fit this use case: (A) a simple PayPal Payments Standard "cart upload" (HTML form that posts multiple items to PayPal) — easiest to implement for two fixed items; (B) the modern PayPal Checkout / Orders API (server-side REST flow that creates an order and returns an approval URL) — preferred for production, mobile, and better control. (developer.paypal.com)

Recommended minimal workflow (keeps the booking form simple and secure):

  • Create an order record server‑side (store client contact, calculated prices, a unique order id).
  • Generate a short payment URL on the site (e.g. /pay/ORDER123) that serves a small page which POSTs the PayPal cart to PayPal (or auto-submits it). This avoids sending raw forms in email and prevents tampering.
  • Example (cart-upload form that posts two items):
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
  <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
  <input type="hidden" name="upload" value="1">
  <input type="hidden" name="business" value="merchant@example.com">
  <input type="hidden" name="item_name_1" value="Groceries">
  <input type="hidden" name="amount_1" value="45.30">
  <input type="hidden" name="item_name_2" value="Errand service (per hour)">
  <input type="hidden" name="amount_2" value="20.00">
  <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="EUR">
  <input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="https://example.com/paypal-ipn">
  <input type="submit" value="Pay with PayPal">
</form>

Security and reliability notes (gaps not covered in earlier replies by ): never trust client-submitted prices — calculate on the server; only dispatch errands after receiving a verified PayPal notification (IPN or Webhook) indicating a Completed payment; store txn_id to avoid double-processing. Use PayPal’s IPN/Webhooks verification to validate events. (developer.paypal.com)

If building a new, public service or expecting growth, implement the Orders API flow for a better UX and programmatic control (create order server-side, send the returned approval link to the buyer, capture after approval). Test thoroughly in sandbox before live deployment. (developer.paypal.com)

Member Avatar for Member #949455

Now, I don't have any problems with steps 1. and 3. my problem is in step 2. because I am not sure how can I generate this URL which should lead customer to his paypal account and automatically show him order summary which will always contain two items:

You need to create a table that includes a column for:

1.) type of errand service
2.) price of the errand service per hour (Eur 20.00) for the URL

After that, when a client click on those 2 things it will be part of the checkout sheet.

Once the client submit the sheet, the data will go to the database and the other to PayPal account.

To integrate Paypal you can read this:

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