Looking to Integrate Your ColdFusion eCommerce Application With PayPal?

If you develop any ColdFusion eCommerce applications, you will eventually run into a client who prefers to use PayPal™ or would like to offer PayPal as a payment option. I thought it might be useful to offer a few helpful insights and links.

1. If you haven't already done so, you'll need to build your shopping cart application
• If you need to build one yourself and don't know where to start, I recommend checking out the CFWACK (ColdFusion 8 Web Application Construction Kit) Volume 1: Getting Started at Chapter 22 'Online Commerce'
2. Sign up for access to PayPal's Sandbox test environment
• This is where you'll get your credentials to test API's
• You'll need new credentials before going live which would be generated by the actual client's account.
• Have the client log in to their PayPal account and then:
  • Under 'My Account', select 'Profile'
  • Under 'Account Information', select 'API Access'
3. Set up some Test Accounts in PayPal's Sandbox test environment
• You'll need at least one Personal and one Business test account
  • This is very easy, and I'm not sure why it doesn't just pre-populate with this information
4. Visit the PayPal Integration Center
• Here you'll select which integration method to utilize
• By the way, if you're going with Express Checkout and you're using ASP, .NET, PHP, JSP, or Java SDK, you've got to see their new Integration Wizard which generates the code for you. It's pretty slick. Wish they had one for ColdFusion though.

Now that you've traversed some of the areas of PayPal, here's the golden nugget ... visit the downloads area of the PayPal Developer Center. There you'll find a .zip file that contains working sample code (in ColdFusion!) for most implementations which covers Website Payments Pro and the ever-popular Express Checkout.

Hopefully this helps get you started in the right direction for your next PayPal integration with your ColdFusion eCommerce application.