How does instant payment notification work for PayPal?
Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is a message service that automatically notifies merchants of events related to PayPal transactions. Merchants can use it to automate back-office and administrative functions, including automatically fulfilling orders and providing customers with order status. Why use Instant Payment Notification
Why does PayPal not wait for an IPN message?
Because IPN is not a real-time service, your checkout flow should not wait for the IPN message before it is allowed to complete. If the checkout flow is dependent on receiving an IPN message, processing can be delayed by system load or other reasons. You should configure your checkout flow to handle a possible delay.
Can a PayPal message be lost or delayed?
Although PayPal usually processes IPN messages immediately, IPN is not synchronized with actions on your website. Internet connectivity is not always 100% reliable and IPN messages can be lost or delayed.
How to implement an IPN solution for PayPal?
To implement an IPN solution, you need to perform the following tasks: Plan your IPN Solution for both backend and listener: Decide which language you are going to use and review the PayPal IPN listener code samples. Plan what backend tasks need to be done for each type of IPN message ( IPN Transaction Types) received.
What does an IPN message on PayPal mean?
PayPal sends IPN messages for every type of transaction or transaction status update (including payment and subscription notifications), and each notification type contains a unique set of fields.
How does PayPal send payment information to merchant?
When customers pay for goods or services, PayPal sends a secure FORM POST containing payment information (IPN messages) to the URL. The IPN listener detects and processes IPN messages using the merchant backend processes.