I have created the following perl program using the paypal example: #!/usr/local/bin/perl # more header stuff not shown $pfile=$datapath."paypal.log"; $oline="PAYPALCK TOP $nicedate $nicetime"; open PFILE, ">>$pfile"; print PFILE "$oline $br \n"; close PFILE; $query=""; $lockok = 0; $lockuser = ""; $lockmeth = "lock"; $lockfile = "lockpay.pal"; &tiptop; exit; sub tiptop { # read post from PayPal system and add 'cmd' read (STDIN, $query, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'}); &makeit; $query .= '&cmd=_notify-validate'; # post back to PayPal system to validate use LWP::UserAgent; $ua = new LWP::UserAgent; $req = new HTTP::Request 'POST','https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr'; $req->content_type('application/x-www-form-urlencoded'); $req->content($query); $res = $ua->request($req); } sub makeit { # split posted variables into pairs @pairs = split(/&/, $query); $count = 0; foreach $pair (@pairs) { ($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair); $value =~ tr/+/ /; $value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg; $variable{$name} = $value; $count++; } # assign posted variables to local variables $receiver_email = $variable{'receiver_email'}; $item_name = $variable{'item_name'}; $item_number = $variable{'item_number'}; $custom = $variable{'custom'}; $payment_status = $variable{'payment_status'}; $payment_date = $variable{'payment_date'}; $payment_gross = $variable{'mc_gross'}; $mc_fee = $variable{'mc_fee'}; $txn_id = $variable{'txn_id'}; $first_name = $variable{'first_name'}; $last_name = $variable{'last_name'}; $address_street = $variable{'address_street'}; $address_city = $variable{'address_city'}; $address_state = $variable{'address_state'}; $address_zip = $variable{'address_zip'}; $address_country = $variable{'address_country'}; $payer_email = $variable{'payer_email'}; $newline="$nicedate\t$nicetime\t$receiver_email\t$item_name\t$item_number\t$custom\t$payment_status\t$payment_date\t$mc_gross\t$mc_fee\t$txn_id\t$first_name\t$last_name\t$address_street\t$address_city\t$address_state\t$address_zip\t$address_country\t$payer_email"; $lockuser=$payer_email; if (length($lockuser)<5) { $lockuser=$msgto; } # NEW PALFORM if ($res->is_error) { $newline="ERROR".$newline; } elsif ($res->content eq 'INVALID') { $newline="INVALID".$newline; } $valcnt=1; if ($res->content eq 'VERIFIED') { # check the payment_status=Completed if ($payment_status eq "Completed") { $valcnt=2; # check that txn_id has not been previously processed # someday write the code to open the file, search for txn etc. $valcnt=3; # check that receiver_email is your Primary PayPal email $rm=$receiver_email; if (index($allaccts, $rm)>-1) { $valcnt=4; } } } $newline=$valcnt.$newline; # process payment (LOG EVERYTHING) # &lockdb; open OFILE, ">>$pfile"; print OFILE "$newline\n"; close OFILE; # &unlockdb; &sendmsg } and everytime a payment comes in I get nothing... zero.. so I wonder HOW do we test this LOOP or does someone have to buy $1.00 items and we pay PayPal so I can make this go around and around and test it? eduhosting.org free websites for teachers

If you would like to test your script with the live PayPal system, you may want to change the price of some items to $0.01 and buy them from yourself for purposes of testing. But no matter if you are paying a dollar or a penny, when you are done with your testing you can refund the payments and any PayPal fees will also be refunded.

I like to keep two PayPal accounts, one personal and one business, so I can buy with the personal from the business for testing purposes. At the end of the day I just log in to the business account and refund each payment.

Dave Burchell
PayPal Technical Support
PayPal, an eBay company