PayPal IPN

[slyme]

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.

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