PayPal Instant Payment Notification - 2012 User Guide

Instant Payment
Notification Guide

Last updated: July 10, 2012

IPN Guide
Document Number: 10087.en_US-20120710

© 2012 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal is a registered trademark of PayPal, Inc. The PayPal logo is a trademark of PayPal, Inc. Other
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The information in this document belongs to PayPal, Inc. It may not be used, reproduced or disclosed without the written approval of PayPal, Inc.
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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Documentation Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 1 Introducing IPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

IPN Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

IPN Protocol and Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

IPN Messages Generated by PayPal Payments Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

IPN Messages Generated by APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

IPN Messages Generated by a Back-Office Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

PayPal-Initiated IPN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

A Sample IPN Message and Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 2 Implementing an IPN Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Chapter 3 Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal . . . . . . . . . . .21

Setting Up IPN Notifications on PayPal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Dynamically Setting the Notification URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 4 IPN Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Testing Your Listener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

IPN Troubleshooting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 5 IPN Operations on PayPal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Using the IPN History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Resending IPN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

July 10, 2012 3

Contents

Chapter 6 Using Fraud Management Filters With IPN . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 7 IPN Variable Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

IPN Transaction Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Transaction and Notification-Related Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Buyer Information Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Payment Information Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Auction Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Mass Pay Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Recurring Payments Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Subscription Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Dispute Resolution Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Pay Message Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Preapproval Message Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Payment Review Using Notifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Revision History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

4 July 10, 2012

Preface

This document describes the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) message service.

Documentation Feedback

Help us improve this guide by sending feedback to:
[e-mail]

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 5

Documentation Feedback

6 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

1

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is a message service that notifies you of events related to
PayPal transactions. You can use it to automate back-office and administrative functions, such
as fulfilling orders, tracking customers, and providing status and other information related to a
transaction.

 IPN Overview
 IPN Protocol and Architecture
 A Sample IPN Message and Response
 Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms

IPN Overview

IPN notifies you when an event occurs that affects a transaction. Typically, these events
represent various kinds of payments; however, the events may also represent authorizations,
Fraud Management Filter actions and other actions, such as refunds, disputes, and
chargebacks.

Introducing IPN

IPN is a message service that PayPal uses to notify you about events, such as:

 Instant payments, including Express Checkout, Adaptive Payments, and direct credit card

payments, and authorizations, which indicate a sale whose payment has not yet been
collected

 eCheck payments and associated status, such as pending, completed, or denied, and

payments pending for other reasons, such as those being reviewed for potential fraud

 Recurring payment and subscription actions
 Chargebacks, disputes, reversals, and refunds associated with a transaction

In many cases, the action that causes the event, such as a payment, occurs on your website;
however, your website is not the only source of events. In many cases, events can be generated
by Website Payment Standard buttons, the PayPal API, or by PayPal itself.

You detect and process IPN messages with a listener, sometimes called a handler, which is a
script or program that you write. It waits for messages and passes them to various back-end or
administrative processes that respond the messages. PayPal provides sample code that you can
modify to implement a listener that detects IPN messages.

The actions to take when your listener is notified of an event are specific to your needs.
Examples of the kinds of actions you might take when your listener receives an IPN message
include the following:

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 7

Introducing IPN

IPN Overview

 Trigger order fulfillment or enable media downloads when a check clears or a payment is

made

 Update your list of customers
 Update accounting records
 Create specialized “to do” lists based on the kind of event

You are typically notified of events by email as well, but the IPN message service enables you
to automate your response to events. The following diagram shows how events can occur and
how PayPal responds with IPN messages that it sends to your listener:

8 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Introducing IPN

IPN Protocol and Architecture

The diagram shows requests and responses, which are the result of processing button clicks or
API operations on PayPal. PayPal sends an IPN message when it sends a response to a request.
The IPN message is not actually part of the response sent to your website. Rather, the IPN
message is sent to the your listener, which allows you to take actions that are not directly tied
to the operation of your website.

NOTE: The diagram does not show the IPN authen tication protocol messages that validate the

IPN message.

IPN is an asynchronous message service, meaning that messages are not synchronized with
actions on your website. Thus, listening for an IPN message does not increase the time it takes
to complete a transaction on your website.

The IPN message service does not assume that all messages will be received by your listener
in a timely manner. Because the internet is not 100% reliable, messages can become lost or
delayed. To handle the possibility of transmission and receipt delays or failures, the IPN
message service implements a retry mechanism that resends messages at various intervals
until you acknowledge that the message has successfully been received. Messages may be
resent for up to four days after the original message.

NOTE: Unless you are certain that a failure occurred on the the Internet, the most likely cause

of lost, delayed, or duplicate IPN messages is faulty logic in the listener itself.

Because messages can be delivered at any time, your listener must always be available to
receive and process messages; however, the retry mechanism also handles the possibility that
your listener could become swamped or stop responding.

The IPN message service should not be considered a real-time service. Your checkout flow
should not wait on an IPN message before it is allowed to complete. If your website waits for
an IPN message, checkout processing may be delayed due to system load and become more
complicated because of the possibility of retries.

IPN Protocol and Architecture

IPN is designed to be secure, reliable, and asynchronous. To meet these requirements, the
protocol requires you to acknowledge receipt of IPN messages. The IPN service provides a
retry mechanism to handle cases in which a message is not acknowledged; for example, when
a transmission or receipt failure occurs.

When you enable IPN, PayPal sends messages to the IPN listener at the URL you specify in
your account’s profile. You can override the URL to associate other IPN listeners with specific
transactions. In this case, you specify the listener’s URL when you set up a Website Payment
Standard button or a PayPal API operation.

The IPN protocol consists of three steps:

1. PayPal sends your IPN listener a message that notifies you of the event

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 9

Introducing IPN

IPN Protocol and Architecture

2. Your listener sends the complete unaltered message back to PayPal; the message must

contain the same fields in the same order and be encoded in the same way as the original
message

3. PayPal sends a single word back, which is either VERIFIED if the message originated with

PayPal or INVALID if there is any discrepancy with what was originally sent

Your listener must respond to each message, whether or not you intend to do anything with it.
If you do not respond, PayPal assumes that the message was not received and res ends the
message. PayPal continues to resend the message periodically until your listener sends the
correct message back, although the interval between resent messages increases each time. The
message can be resent for up to four days.

This resend algorithm can lead to situations in which PayPal resends the IPN message while
you are sending back the original message. In this case, you should send your response again,
to cover the possibility that PayPal did not actually receive your response the first time. You
should also ensure that you do not process the transaction associated with the message twice.

IMPORTANT: PayPal expects to receive a response to an IPN message within 30 seconds.

Your listener should not perform time-consuming operations, such as creating
a process, before responding to the IPN message.

After PayPal verifies the message, there are additional checks that your listener or back-end or
administrative software must take:

 Verify that you are the intended recipient of the IPN message by checking the email address

in the message; this handles a situation where another merchant could accidentally or
intentionally attempt to use your listener.

 Avoid duplicate IPN messages. Check that you have not already processed the transaction

identified by the transaction ID returned in the IPN message. You may need to store
transaction IDs and the last payment status returned by IPN messages in a file or database
so that you can check for duplicates. If the transaction ID sent by PayPal is a duplicate, you
should not process it again.

NOTE: You must track the last payment status returned by IPN messages because PayPal

could send an IPN for a pending payment and a second one for the completed
payment, both of which would have the same transaction ID. Relying on just the
transaction ID could lead to the completed payment being treated as a duplicate.

 Because IPN messages can be sent at various stages in a transaction’s progress, make sure

that the transaction’s payment status is “completed” before enabling shipment of
merchandise or allowing the download of digital media.

 Verify that the payment amount actually matches what you intend to charge. Although not

technically an IPN issue, if you do not encrypt buttons, it is possible for someone to capture
the original transmission and change the price. Without this check, you could accept a
lesser payment than what you expected.

10 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Protocol and Architecture

IPN Messages Generated by PayPal Payments Standard

PayPal generates an IPN message when your customer clicks a PayPal Payments Standard
(previously known as Website Payments Standard) payment button, such as a Buy Now
button, and completes the transaction on PayPal. You can use this notification to kick-off order
fulfillment, enable digital media downloads, store information in a customer relationship
management (CRM) or accounting system, and so on.

The following diagram shows both the web flow and the IPN message authentication protocol:

Introducing IPN

The numbers in diagram correspond to the following steps:

1. The button action initiates a payment that completes on PayPal

2. PayPal sends your IPN listener a message that notifies you of the event

3. Your listener sends the complete unaltered message back to PayPal; the message must

contain the same fields in the same order and be encoded in the same way as the original
message

4. PayPal sends a single word back, which is either VERIFIED if the message originated with

PayPal or INVALID if there is any discrepancy with what was originally sent

Your IPN listener must implement the IPN authentication protocol (steps 2, 3, and 4 in this
diagram). After successfully completing the protocol, your back-office or administrative
process vets the contents of the message and responds appropriately. For example, if the
payment status for the transaction is “Completed,” your system can print a packing list or
email a password to your customer for downloading digital media.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 11

Introducing IPN

IPN Protocol and Architecture

IPN Messages Generated by APIs

PayPal generates an IPN message when you invoke an API operation, such as
DoExpressCheckoutPayment of DoDirectPayment during checkout or an Adaptive
Payments Pay, Preapproval, or ExecutePayment API operation. You can use this
notification to kick-off order fulfillment, enable digital media downloads, store information in
a customer relationship management (CRM) or accounting system, and so on.

The following diagram shows both the web flow and the IPN message authentication protocol:

The numbers in the diagram correspond to the following steps:

1. The API operation initiates a payment on PayPal.

2. PayPal sends your IPN listener a message that notifies you of the event

3. Your listener sends the complete unaltered message back to PayPal; the message must

contain the same fields in the same order and be encoded in the same way as the original
message

4. PayPal sends a single word back, which is either VERIFIED if the message originated with

PayPal or INVALID if there is any discrepancy with what was originally sent

Your IPN listener must implement the IPN authentication protocol (steps 2, 3, and 4 in this
diagram). After successfully completing the protocol, your back-office or administrative
process vets the contents of the message and responds appropriately. For example, if the
payment status for the transaction is “Completed,” your system can print a packing list or
email a password to your customer for downloading digital media.

12 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Messages Generated by a Back-Office Procedure

PayPal generates an IPN message when you perform actions that invoke the PayPal API,
regardless of whether it is from your website or from a back-office or administrative
procedure. You can use this notification to trigger an email to your customer, store information
in a CRM or accounting system, and so on.

The following diagram shows both an administrative web flow and the IPN message
authentication protocol:

Introducing IPN

IPN Protocol and Architecture

The numbers in diagram correspond to the following steps:

1. Your back-office or administrative process invokes a PayPal API operation; for example, it

could invoke the RefundTransaction API operation when your employee issues a
refund.

2. PayPal sends your IPN listener a message that notifies you of the event

3. Your listener sends the complete unaltered message back to PayPal; the message must

contain the same fields in the same order and be encoded in the same way as the original
message

4. PayPal sends a single word back, which is either VERIFIED if the message originated with

PayPal or INVALID if there is any discrepancy with what was originally sent

Your IPN listener implements the IPN authentication protocol (steps 2, 3, and 4 in this
diagram). After successfully completing the protocol, your listener or back-office or
administrative process vets the contents of the message and responds appropriately. For
example, your system can notify the customer of the refund by email.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 13

Introducing IPN

A Sample IPN Message and Response

PayPal-Initiated IPN Messages

Some IPN messages generated by PayPal are not directly associated with a web flow. PayPal
generates an IPN message when external events arise that might affect a transaction, such as
disputes, chargebacks, echeck clearing, and various recurring payment and subscription
events.

In this case, events that trigger IPN messages are not directly related to actions on your
website. The following diagram shows the steps your listener must take:

The numbers in diagram correspond to the following steps, which implement the IPN message
authentication protocol:

1. PayPal sends your IPN listener a message that notifies you of the event

2. Your listener sends the complete unaltered message back to PayPal; the message must

contain the same fields in the same order and be encoded in the same way as the original
message

3. PayPal sends a single word back, which is either VERIFIED if the message originated with

PayPal or INVALID if there is any discrepancy with what was originally sent

After successfully completing the protocol, your back-office or administrative process vets the
contents of the message and responds appropriately. For example, the IPN messages may
trigger you to print shipping labels for items whose payments have cleared, investigate
disputes and chargebacks, store information in an accounting system, and so on.

A Sample IPN Message and Response

An IPN message consists of variables that describe the transaction. These variables contain
information about you, your customer, and the details of the transaction itself.

PayPal sends a message, similar to the following one, for a $19.95 purchase made by Express
Checkout:

14 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Introducing IPN

A Sample IPN Message and Response

mc_gross=19.95&protection_eligibility=Eligible&address_status=confirmed&pay
er_id=LPLWNMTBWMFAY&tax=0.00&address_street=1+Main+St&payment_date=20%3A12%
3A59+Jan+13%2C+2009+PST&payment_status=Completed&charset=windows­1252&address_zip=95131&first_name=Test&mc_fee=0.88&address_country_code=US&
address_name=Test+User¬ify_version=2.6&custom=&payer_status=verified&add
ress_country=United+States&address_city=San+Jose&quantity=1&verify_sign=Atk
OfCXbDm2hu0ZELryHFjY-Vb7PAUvS6nMXgysbElEn9v­1XcmSoGtf&payer_email=gpmac_1231902590_per%40paypal.com&txn_id=61E67681CH32
38416&payment_type=instant&last_name=User&address_state=CA&receiver_email=g
pmac_1231902686_biz%40paypal.com&payment_fee=0.88&receiver_id=S8XGHLYDW9T3S
&txn_type=express_checkout&item_name=&mc_currency=USD&item_number=&residenc
e_country=US&test_ipn=1&handling_amount=0.00&transaction_subject=&payment_g
ross=19.95&shipping=0.00

Variable Notes

Information about you:

receiver_email = [e-mail] Check email address to make sure that this is not a spoof
receiver_id = S8XGHLYDW9T3S
residence_country = US

Information about the transaction:

test_ipn = 1 Testing with the Sandbox
transaction_subject =
txn_id = 61E67681CH3238416 Keep this ID to avoid processing the transaction twice
txn_type = express_checkout Type of transaction

Information about your buyer:

payer_email = [e-mail]
payer_id = LPLWNMTBWMFAY
payer_status = verified
first_name = T est
last_name = User
address_city = San Jose
address_country = United States
address_country_code = US
address_name = Test User
address_state = CA
address_status = confirmed

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 15

Introducing IPN

A Sample IPN Message and Response

Variable Notes

address_street = 1 Main St
address_zip = 95131

Information about the payment:

custom = Your custom field
handling_amount = 0.00
item_name =
item_number =
mc_currency = USD
mc_fee = 0.88
mc_gross = 19.95
payment_date = 20:12:59 Jan 13, 2009 PST
payment_fee = 0.88
payment_gross = 19.95
payment_status = Completed Status, which determines whether the transaction is

complete
payment_type = instant Kind of payment
protection_eligibility = Eligible
quantity = 1
shipping = 0.00
tax = 0.00

Other information about the transaction:

notify_version = 2.6 IPN version; can be ignored
charset = windows-1252
verify_sign = AtkOfCXbDm2hu0ZELryHFjY-

Vb7PAUvS6nMXgysbElEn9v-1XcmSoGtf

Before you can trust the contents of the message, you must first verify that the message came
from PayPal. To verify the message, you must send back the contents in the exact order they
were received and precede it with the command _notify-validate, as follows:

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify­validate&mc_gross=19.95&protection_eligibility=Eligible&address_status=conf
irmed&payer_id=LPLWNMTBWMFAY&tax=0.00&...&payment_gross=19.95&shipping=0.00

16 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

PayPal will then send one single-word message, VERIFIED, if the message is valid; otherwise,
it will send another single-word message, INVALID.

IMPORTANT: After you receive the VERIFIED message, there are several important checks

you must perform before you can assume that the message is legitimate and
not already processed:

Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms

You can use IPN with other notification mechanisms. For example, you can use PDT or the
API to determine real-time information about a transaction and let IPN notify you of any
changes after the transaction occurs.

Introducing IPN

Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms

If you are using PayPal Payments Standard, you can use PDT to obtain information about the
transaction. If you are using Express Checkout or Direct Payment, the PayPal API notifies you
of the status and details of the transaction immediately and automatically. In either case, you
can immediately display to your customer the information being returned from PayPal. You
should not use IPN for this purpose.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 17

Introducing IPN

Non-IPN Notification Mechanisms

18 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

2

Implementing an IPN Listener

You write your IPN listener in the scripting or programming language of your choice and host
it on your web server. You can use sample code provided by PayPal as a starting point.

The PayPal SDKs for PayPal Payments Standard contain sample code in various programming
languages that you can modify to create your own listener. As a good programming practice,
as well as to keep things simple, your IPN listener should listen for a post from PayPal and
dispatch it immediately to another routine or process that handles the business logic associated
with the message. If your listener is structured in this way, it will be a simple and tight loop
that listens for a message and dispatches it for processing by your application logic.

For a list of code samples for IPN, refer to the following link:

Code Samples - Instant Payment Notification

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 19

Implementing an IPN Listener

20 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Identifying Your IPN Listener to

3

PayPal

After you implement and test your IPN listener, you make your listener known to PayPal by
specifying the listener’s URL in your account’s pro file. Optio nally, you can override the URL
to specify another listener for specific payments.

 Setting Up IPN Notifications on PayPal
 Dynamically Setting the Notification URL

Setting Up IPN Notifications on PayPal

After you implement and test your IPN listener, you identify the listener to PayPal by selecting
Instant Payment Notification Preferences from your account’s profile. You then specify
your listener’s URL and click the box to activate it.

Your listener must be located at the URL that you specify in the profile. Before you activate
your listener on PayPal, you should test the listener using the IPN simulator in the Sandbox.

IMPORTANT:

The steps to set up your listener for Sandbox testing and to set up your listener for live
operation on PayPal are the same. The only difference is that you log into the Sandbox to set
up your listener for Sandbox testing and you log into PayPal to set up your listener for live
operation.

NOTE: Sandbox testing goes beyond simply using the IPN simulator. The IPN simulator only

sends IPN messages to a listener; it does not perform the complete operation; for
example, it does not complete a transaction. Sandbox testing involves performing the
same actions in the Sandbox as you expect to be performed when the listener goes
live.

After you log in, follow these instructions to set up your listener:

1. Click Profile on the My Account tab.

2. Click Instant Payment Notification Preferences in the Selling Preferences column.

3. Click Choose IPN Settings to specify your listener’s URL and activate the listener.

The following screen appears:

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 21

Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal

Setting Up IPN Notifications on PayPal

4. Specify the URL for your listener in the Notification URL field.

5. Click Receive IPN messages (Enabled) to enable your listener.

6. Click Save.

The following screen appears:

7. Click Back to Profile Summary to return to the Profile after activating your listener.
You also can click Edit settings to modify your notification URL or disable your listener.

You can click T u rn Off IPN to reset your IPN preferences.

22 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal

Dynamically Setting the Notification URL

Dynamically Setting the Notification URL

You can specify an IPN listener for a specific payment; this is the only way to receive IPNs
associated with Adaptive Payments. In this case, PayPal sends the IPN message to the listener
specified in the notification URL for a specific button or API operation instead of the listener
specified in your Profile.

To specify a notification URL

For a/an ... specify your IPN Listener’s URL in the ...
PayPal Payments Standard button notify_url HTML form variable
NVP API operation NOTIFYURL field of the DoDirectPayment,

DoExpressCheckoutPayment, or DoReferenceTransaction request

SOAP API operation NotifyURL field of the DoDirectPayment,

DoExpressCheckoutPayment, or DoReferenceTransaction request

Adaptive Payments API operation ipnNotificationUrl field of the Pay or Preapproval request

NOTE: The IPN message will always be sent to your notification URL unless receiving IPNs

have been disabled. Even though you have not enabled receiving IPN messages in
your Profile or you have reset your preference by turning off IPN messages, PayPal
still sends IPN messages to the notification URL you specify for a specific payment.

IPN messages not sent because you disabled the preference in your Profile will appear
in the IPN history when you enable receiving IPNs. After they appear in the history,
you can choose whether or not to resend them.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 23

Identifying Your IPN Listener to PayPal

Dynamically Setting the Notification URL

24 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Testing

4

After you implement your listener and start it running on your web server , you can use the IPN
simulator in the Sandbox to send IPN messages to the URL at which your listener is running.
This tool allows you to verify that you are receiving IPN messages correctly.

 Testing Your Listener
 IPN Troubleshooting Tips

Testing Your Listener

The first level of testing is to ensure that your IPN listener receives messages and handles
them appropriately . This level of testing requires you to have your IPN listener running at your
notification URL; however, it does not require you to set up the listener in the Profile.

You must be logged into the Sandbox to use the IPN simulator. Not all API operations are
available using the IPN simulator.

To set up and send an IPN message using the simulator:

1. Select Instant Payment Notification (IPN) simulator from Test Tools.

2. Enter the URL to receive the notification and the kind of notification you want to test on

the following screen:

When you select the kind of transaction that you want to test, a form containing test data
appears:

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 25

IPN Testing

Testing Your Listener

3. Keep or modify the values of fields that you want to include in the IPN.
By default, only populated fields are displayed. You can check the Show all fields box to

view all fields. The simulator does not check the validity of fields that you change.

26 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

4. Click Send IPN.
The IPN message is sent to the specified URL and the results of the operation are displayed

at the top of the page.

After Completing This Task:

If your IPN listener receives a message, you know that it is properly installed on your web
server. The default messages sent by the IPN simul ator are valid, thus, if your listener responds
correctly to the message, it should receive a VERIFIED message. If you do not receive any
message or if you receive an INVALID message after responding to the original message from
PayPal, you will need to troubleshoot your listener.

IPN Troubleshooting Tips

IPN failures fall into three categories: not receiving any IPN messages from PayPal, receiving
some but not all IPN messages, and receiving INVALID messages from PayPal after
responding to a message.

IPN Testing

IPN Troubleshooting Tips

If you do not receive any IPN messages from PayPal

 Check the IPN History page on PayPal. It tells you whether PayPal sent the IPN message

and whether your listener responded to it. It may also provide information about the status
of the server on which your listener is running. If necessary, from this page you can also
request that PayPal resend the IPN message.

 Check that the path to your IPN listener is correct and you are using that path correctly in

your IPN notification URL; for example, the file path is often similar to, but not the same
as, the URL.

 Verify that your firewall settings are not blocking HTTP POST messages from PayPal.
 If the logs for your web server are available, check the logs to confirm that messages are

being sent to your web server and check for any errors that may have occurred.

If you receive some messages but not others

 Verify that your IPN listener is responding to all messages, even those you do not intend to

process.

 Check that the account is valid and confirmed; for example, if you send money to an

unconfirmed account, PayPal does not send an IPN message.

If you receive an INVALID message

 Check that your are posting your response to the correct URL, which is

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr or
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr, depending on whether you are testing

in the Sandbox or you are live, respectively.

 Verify that your response contains exactly the same IPN variables and values in the same

order, preceded with cmd=_notify-validate.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 27

IPN Testing

IPN Troubleshooting Tips

 Ensure that you are encoding your response string and are using the same character

encoding as the original message.

NOTE: If you receive multiple IPN messages for the same transaction or if messages appear

to be out of order, this is not necessarily an indication that your listener is
malfunctioning. For example, if you do not respond in time, PayPal resends the
message. You should investigate these situations; however, because they could be
caused by a logic errors or performance problems as well.

28 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Operations on PayPal

5

The IPN History page on PayPal provides additional information to help you troubleshoot IPN
messages. You can use the IPN History page to determine the status of IPN messages and to
resend them, if necessary.

 Using the IPN History
 Resending IPN Messages

Using the IPN History

Use the IPN History page on PayPal to view IPN messages sent to you from PayPal and
request that messages be resent. You can select the IPN messages to review by date range, by
delivery status, and by PayPal transaction

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 29

IPN Operations on PayPal

Using the IPN History

The search results contain the following information:

 The date and time that PayPal created the IPN message
 Whether this IPN message was the original message or whether it was resent, which is

indicated in the Date/time created column

 The IPN message ID assigned by PayPal
 The current status, which is one of the following values:

– Sent indicates that PayPal sent the message to your IPN listener
– Failed indicates that PayPal did not receive an acknowledgement to the message

30 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Operations on PayPal

Using the IPN History

– Queued indicates that PayPal is ready to send the message
– Retrying indicates that message was resent between 1 and 15 times and PayPal

continues to be resend the message

– Disabled indicates that the message will not be resent because the merchant’s account

has been disabled

NOTE: If you have requested that PayPal resend the IPN message and the status has not

been updated for the attempt, resending is appended to the status, e.g. Failed

- resending.

 Your server’s response to the HTTP POST that delivered the IPN message to your listener.

For more information about these codes, see

HTTP/1.1.

 If the message is related to a PayPal transaction, the ID of the PayPal transaction associated

with the message; you can

T o see more information about an IPN message, click on the message ID. The IPN details page
appears:

RFC 2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol --

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 31

IPN Operations on PayPal

Using the IPN History

In addition to the information on the IPN History page, the details contain the following
information:

 Whether this IPN message was the original message or whether it was resent
 The last time the message was resent
 The URL on which your listener was running when the message was sent
 The number of retries before the message was successfully acknowledged
 The type of IPN message

32 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Resending IPN Messages

You can use the IPN History page to request that PayPal resend one or more IPN messages.
You can search the IPN message history for the messages that may need to be resent and then
select them.

T o make a request that PayPal resend IPN messages, mark one or more messages for PayPal to
resend and click the Resend selected button to make the request:

IPN Operations on PayPal

Resending IPN Messages

If you check the box for To send an IPN again to a profile URL..., the message will be resent
to the current profile URL instead of the URL associated with the original message. If you do

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 33

IPN Operations on PayPal

Resending IPN Messages

not check this option, PayPal sends the message to the same URL to which the original
message was sent, which is not necessarily the current profile URL.

You may receive a confirmation notice alerting you to the possibility that you will receive
duplicate messages. Click Confirm to resend; otherwise click Cancel:

After you make the request, PayPal notifies you that the messages have been resent and
updates the status. The status indicates that PayPal is resending the message until it actually
has been resent:

34 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Operations on PayPal

Resending IPN Messages

When the message has been sent, your server’s response to the HTTP POST is used to update
the HTTP response code field. A value of 200 indicates that your server successfully received
the IPN message. Other values typically indicate a server configuration error for the server that
hosts your IPN listener. For more information about these codes, see

Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1. If you do not see a response code, you should check that your

RFC 2616: Hypertext

sever is running.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 35

IPN Operations on PayPal

Resending IPN Messages

36 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

6

Using Fraud Management Filters With IP N

Fraud Management Filter actions are reported in IPN payment messages only when a filter
causes the payment to be pended awaiting your review or a when you accept or deny a filter­pended payment. Filter actions are not reported when filters flag payments for review, allow
payments to be accepted, or cause them to be denied.

When a payment occurs, an IPN message shows the transaction’s payment status as
Completed, regardless of whether a Fraud Management Filter was activated or not. There is
no special notification for transactions that are flagged by a Fraud Management Filter. If a
Fraud Management Filter is set to Deny, PayPal does not send an IPN message when the filter
actually causes the payment to be denied.

When a transaction is pended, however, PayPal sends an IPN message containing one or more

fraud_management_pending_filters_
the payment to be pended, where n=1 specifies the first filter, and so on. In addition, the
payment_status variable is set to Pending. The following example shows an IPN message

in which two filters cause the transaction to be pended:

n variables, which identify the filters that caused

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 37

Using Fraud Management Filters With IPN

txn_type = virtual_terminal
payment_date = 17:11:42 Jul 15, 2008 PDT
last_name =
receipt_id = 3075-7371-4622-1677
residence_country = US
pending_reason = address
item_name =
payment_gross = 3.33
mc_currency = USD
business = [e-mail]
payment_type = instant
verify_sign = APYUGJhXGkUmvFnZf4I5co6CedKKAowZjfT4T7GXWJMDnZ0uFLkcq.oH
payer_status = unverified
test_ipn = 1
fraud_management_pending_filters_1 = Maximum Transaction Amount
tax = 0.00
txn_id = 5XN64179EB804362B
fraud_management_pending_filters_2 = Unconfirmed Address
quantity = 1
first_name =
receiver_email = [e-mail]
payer_id = PUWAJRBB8NM74
receiver_id = 2RXLTRMGT3M2G
item_number =
payment_status = Pending
shipping = 0.00
mc_gross = 3.33
custom =
charset = windows-1252
notify_version = 2.4

NOTE: If the transaction is for an authorization or an order, the auth_status variable may

also be set to Pending.

If a transaction has been pended, PayPal sends an IPN message when the payment has been
accepted or denied. The following example shows an IPN message indicating that a pended
transaction has been accepted:

38 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Using Fraud Management Filters With IPN

txn_type = virtual_terminal
payment_date = 17:11:42 Jul 15, 2008 PDT
last_name =
receipt_id = 3075-7371-4622-1677
residence_country = US
item_name =
payment_gross = 3.33
mc_currency = USD
business = [e-mail]
payment_type = instant
verify_sign = AFcWxV21C7fd0v3bYYYRCpSSRl31AjcbYkD.VCCBmpD4lZq.yYTxBKkr
payer_status = unverified
test_ipn = 1
fraud_management_pending_filters_1 = Maximum Transaction Amount
tax = 0.00
txn_id = 5XN64179EB804362B
fraud_management_pending_filters_2 = Unconfirmed Address
quantity = 1
receiver_email = [e-mail]
first_name =
payer_id = PUWAJRBB8NM74
receiver_id = 2RXLTRMGT3M2G
item_number =
payment_status = Completed
payment_fee = 0.45
mc_fee = 0.45
shipping = 0.00
mc_gross = 3.33
custom =
charset = windows-1252
notify_version = 2.4

The following example shows an IPN message indicating that a pended transaction has been
denied:

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 39

Using Fraud Management Filters With IPN

txn_type = virtual_terminal
payment_date = 17:09:40 Jul 15, 2008 PDT
last_name =
receipt_id = 0739-3836-3393-2098
residence_country = US
item_name =
payment_gross = 2.11
mc_currency = USD
business = [e-mail]
payment_type = instant
verify_sign = AFcWxV21C7fd0v3bYYYRCpSSRl31ASrKFBPwac7aQm47p8CMLrdParSt
payer_status = unverified
test_ipn = 1
fraud_management_pending_filters_1 = Maximum Transaction Amount
tax = 0.00
txn_id = 53R82724RM1848354
fraud_management_pending_filters_2 = Unconfirmed Address
quantity = 1
first_name =
receiver_email = [e-mail]
payer_id = PUWAJRBB8NM74
receiver_id = 2RXLTRMGT3M2G
item_number =
payment_status = Denied
shipping = 0.00
mc_gross = 2.11
custom =
charset = windows-1252
notify_version = 2.4

40 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

7

IPN Variable Reference

PayPal returns related variables for each kind of IPN message. Not all variables are returned
for each type of transaction.

 IPN Transaction Types
 Transaction and Notification-Related Variables
 Buyer Information Variables
 Payment Information Variables
 Auction Variables
 Mass Pay Variables
 Recurring Payments Variables
 Subscription Variables
 Pay Message Variables
 Preapproval Message Variables
 Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages
 Dispute Resolution Variables

IPN Transaction Types

Typically, your back-end or administrative processes will perform specific actions based on
the kind of IPN message received. You can use the txn_type variable in the message to
trigger the kind of processing you want to perform.

Transaction Type
(txn_type) Description

— Credit card chargeback if the case_type variable contains chargeback
adjustment A dispute has been resolved and closed
cart Payment received for multiple items; source is Express Checkout or the PayPal

Shopping Cart.

express_checkout Payment received for a single item; source is Express Checkout
masspay Payment sent using MassPay
mp_signup Created a billing agreement
merch_pmt Monthly subscription paid for PayPal Payments Pro

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 41

IPN Variable Reference

Transaction and Notification-Related Variables

Transaction Type
(txn_type) Description

new_case A new dispute was filed
recurring_payment Recurring payment received

recurring_payment
_expired

recurring_payment
_profile_created

recurring_payment
_skipped

send_money Payment received; source is the Send Money tab on the PayPal website
subscr_cancel Subscription canceled
subscr_eot Subscription expired
subscr_failed Subscription payment failed
subscr_modify Subscription modified
subscr_payment Subscription payment received
subscr_signup Subscription started
virtual_terminal Payment received; source is Virtual Terminal
web_accept Payment received; source is a Buy Now, Donation, or Auction Smart Logos button

Recurring payment expired

Recurring payment profile created

Recurring payment skipped; it will be retried up to a total of 3 times, 5 days apart

Transaction and Notification-Related Variables

Transaction and notification-related variables identify the merchant that is receiving a
payment or other notification and transaction-spe cific information.

Variable Name Description

business Email address or account ID of the payment recipient (that is, the

merchant). Equivalent to the values of receiver_email (if payment is
sent to primary account) and business set in the Website Payment
HTML.

NOTE: The value of this variable is normalized to lowercase characters.

Length: 127 characters

charset Character set
custom Custom value as passed by you, the merchant. These are pass-through

variables that are never presented to your customer
Length: 255 characters

42 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Buyer Information Variables

Variable Name Description

ipn_track_id Internal; only for use by MTS and DTS
notify_version Message’s version number
parent_txn_id In the case of a refund, reversal, or canceled reversal, this variable

contains the txn_id of the original transaction, while txn_id contains a
new ID for the new transaction.

Length: 19 characters

receipt_id Unique ID generated during guest checkout (payment by credit card

without logging in).

receiver_email Primary email address of the payment recipient (that is, the merchant). If

the payment is sent to a non-primary email address on your PayPal
account, the receiver_email is still your primary email.

NOTE: The value of this variable is normalized to lowercase characters.

Length: 127 characters

receiver_id Unique account ID of the payment recipient (i.e., the merchant). This is

the same as the recipient's referral ID.
Length: 13 characters

resend Whether this IPN message was resent (equals true); otherwise, this is the

original message.

residence_country ISO 3166 country code associated with the country of residence

Length: 2 characters

test_ipn Whether the message is a test message. It is one of the following values:

 1 – the message is directed to the Sandbox

txn_id The merchant’s original transaction identification number for the payment

from the buyer, against which the case was registered.

txn_type The kind of transaction for which the IPN message was sent.
verify_sign Encrypted st ring used to validate the authenticity of the transaction

Buyer Information Variables

Buyer information identifies the buyer or initiator of a transaction by payer ID or email
address. Additional contact or shipping information may be provided.

Variable Name Description

address_country Country of customer’s address

Length: 64 characters

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 43

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Var iables

Variable Name Description

address_city City of customer’s address

Length: 40 characters

address_country_code ISO 3166 country code associated with customer’s address

Length: 2 characters

address_name Name used with address (included when the customer provides a Gift

Address)
Length: 128 characters

address_state State of customer’s address

Length: 40 characters

address_status Whether the customer provided a confirmed address. It is one of the

following values:

 confirmed – Customer provided a confirmed address.
 unconfirmed – Customer provided an unconfirmed address.

address_street Customer’s street address.

Length: 200 characters

address_zip Zip code of customer’s address.

Length: 20 characters

contact_phone Customer’s telephone number.

Length: 20 characters

first_name Customer’s first name

Length: 64 characters

last_name Customer’s last name

Length: 64 characters

payer_business_name Customer’s company name, if customer is a business

Length: 127 characters

payer_email Customer’s primary email address. Use this email to provide any credits.

Length: 127 characters

payer_id Unique customer ID.

Length: 13 characters

Payment Information Variables

Payment information identifies the amount and status of a payment transaction, including fees.

Variable Name Description

auth_amount Authorization amount

44 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Variables

Variable Name Description

auth_exp Authorization expiration date and time, in the following format:

HH:MM:SS DD Mmm YY, YYYY PST
Length: 28 characters

auth_id Authorization identification number

Length: 19 characters

auth_status Status of authorization
echeck_time_processed The time an eCheck was processed; for example, when the status changes

to Success or Completed. The format is as follows: hh:mm:ss MM DD,
YYYY ZONE, e.g. 04:55:30 May 26, 2011 PDT.

exchange_rate Exchange rate used if a currency conversion occurred.

fraud_managment_pending_fil
ters_

x

One or more filters that identify a triggering action associated with one of
the following payment_status values: Pending, Completed, Denied,
where

x is a number starting with 1 that makes the IPN variable name

unique;

x is not the filter’s ID number. The filters and their ID numbers

are as follows:

invoice Passthrough variable you can use to identify your Invoice Number for this

purchase. If omitted, no variable is passed back.
Length: 127 characters

item_name

x Item name as passed by you, the merchant. Or, if not passed by you, as

entered by your customer. If this is a shopping cart transaction, PayPal
will append the number of the item (e.g., item_name1, item_name2,
and so forth).

Length: 127 characters

item_number

x Pass-through variable for you to track purchases. It will get passed back to

you at the completion of the payment. If omitted, no variable will be
passed back to you. If this is a shopping cart transaction, PayPal will
append the number of the item (e.g., item_number1, item_number2,
and so forth)

Length: 127 characters

mc_currency

 For payment IPN notifications, this is the currency of the payment.
 For non-payment subscription IPN notifications (i.e., txn_type=

signup, cancel, failed, eot, or modify), this is the currency of the
subscription.

 For payment subscription IPN notifications, it is the currency of the

payment (i.e., txn_type = subscr_payment)

mc_fee Transaction fee associated with the payment. mc_gross minus mc_fee

equals the amount deposited into the receiver_email account.
Equivalent to payment_fee for USD payments. If this amount is
negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and eit h er of those payment
statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction fee.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 45

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Var iables

Variable Name Description

mc_gross Full amount of the customer's payment, before transaction fee is

subtracted. Equivalent to payment_gross for USD payments. If this
amount is negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and either of those
payment statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original
transaction.

mc_gross_

x The amount is in the currency of mc_currency, where x is the shopping

cart detail item number. The sum of mc_gross_

x should total

mc_gross.
mc_handling Total handling amount associated with the transaction.
mc_shipping Total shipping amount associated with the transaction.

mc_shipping

x This is the combined total of shipping1 and shipping2 Website

Payments Standard variables, where

number. The shipping

x variable is only shown when the merchant

x is the shopping cart detail item

applies a shipping amount for a specific item. Because profile shipping

might apply, the sum of shipping

x might not be equal to shipping.

memo Memo as entered by your customer in PayPal Website Payments note

field.

Length: 255 characters

num_cart_items If this is a PayPal Shopping Cart transaction, number of items in cart.
option_name1 Option 1 name as requested by you. PayPal appends the number of the

item where

x represents the number of the shopping cart detail item (e.g.,

option_name1, option_name2).

Length: 64 characters
option_name2 Option 2 name as requested by you. PayPal appends the number of the

item where

x represents the number of the shopping cart detail item (e.g.,

option_name2, option_name2).

Length: 64 characters
option_selection1 Option 1 choice as entered by your customer.

PayPal appends the number of the item where

x represents the number of

the shopping cart detail item (e.g., option_selection1,

option_selection2).

Length: 200 characters
option_selection2 Option 2 choice as entered by your customer.

PayPal appends the number of the item where

x represents the number of

the shopping cart detail item (e.g., option_selection1,

option_selection2).

Length: 200 characters
payer_status Whether the customer has a verified PayPal account.

 verified – Customer has a verified PayPal account.
 unverified – Customer has an unverified PayPal account.

46 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Variables

Variable Name Description

payment_date Time/Date stamp generated by PayPal, in the following format:

HH:MM:SS Mmm DD, YYYY PDT

Length: 28 characters
payment_fee USD transaction fee associated with the payment. payment_gross

minus payment_fee equals the amount deposited into the receiver

email account. Is empty for non-USD payments. If this amount is

negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and eit h er of those payment

statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction fee.

NOTE: This is a deprecated field. Use mc_fee instead.

payment_fee_

x If the payment is USD, then the value is the same as that for mc_fee_x,

where

x is the record number; if the currency is not USD, then this is an

empty string.

NOTE: This is a deprecated field. Use mc_fee_x instead.

payment_gross Full USD amount of the customer’s payment, before transaction fee is

subtracted. Will be empty for non-USD payments. This is a legacy field

replaced by mc_gross. If this amount is negative, it signifies a refund or

reversal, and either of those payment statuses can be for the full or partial

amount of the original transaction.

payment_gross_

x If the payment is USD, then the value for thi s is the same as that for the

mc_gross_

x, where x is the record number the mass pay item. If the

currency is not USD, this is an empty string.

NOTE: This is a deprecated field. Use mc_gross_x instead.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 47

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Var iables

Variable Name Description

payment_status The status of the payment:

Canceled_Reversal: A reversal has been canceled. For example, you

won a dispute with the customer, and the funds for the transaction that was

reversed have been returned to you.

Completed: The payment has been completed, and the funds have been

added successfully to your account balance.

Created: A German ELV paym ent is made using Express Checkout.

Denied: You denied the payment. This happens on ly if the paym ent was

previously pending because of possible reasons described for the

pending_reason variable or the Fraud_Management_Filters_

variable.

Expired: This authorization has expired and cannot be captured.

Failed: The payment has failed. This happens only if the payment was

made from your customer’s bank account.

Pending: The payment is pending. See pending_reason for more

information.

Refunded: You refunded the payment.

Reversed: A payment was reversed due to a chargeback or other type of

reversal. The funds have been removed from your account balance and

returned to the buyer. The reason for the reversal is specified in the

ReasonCode element.

Processed: A payment has been accepted.

Voided: This authorization has been voided.

x

payment_type echeck: This payment was funded with an eCheck.

instant: This payment was funded with PayPal balance, credit card, or

Instant Transfer.

48 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Information Variables

Variable Name Description

pending_reason This variable is set only if payment_status = Pending.

address: The payment is pending because your customer did not include

a confirmed shipping address and your Payment Receiving Preferences is

set yo allow you to manually accept or deny each of these payments. To

change your preference, go to the Preferences section of your Profile.

authorization: You set the payment action to Authorization and have

not yet captured funds.

echeck: The payment is pending because it was made by an eCheck that

has not yet cleared.

intl: The payment is pending because you hold a non-U.S. account and

do not have a withdrawal mechanism. You must manually accept or deny

this payment from your Account Overview.

multi-currency: You do not have a balance in the currency sent, and

you do not have your Payment Receiving Preferences set to

automatically convert and accept this payment. You must manually accept

or deny this payment.

order: You set the payment action to Order and have not yet captured

funds.

paymentreview: The payment is pending while it is being reviewed by

PayPal for risk.

unilateral: The payment is pending because it was made to an email

address that is not yet registered or confirmed.

upgrade: The payment is pending because it was made via credit card

and you must upgrade your account to Business or Premier status in order

to receive the funds. upgrade can also mean that you have reached the

monthly limit for transactions on your account.

verify: The payment is pending because you are not yet verified. You

must verify your account before you can accept this payment.

other: The payment is pending for a reason other than those listed above.

For more information, contact PayPal Customer Service.
protection_eligibility ExpandedSellerProtection: Seller is protected by Expanded seller

protection

SellerProtection: Seller is protected by PayPal’s Seller Protection

Policy

None: Seller is not protected under Expanded seller protection nor the

Seller Protection Policy
quantity Quantity as entered by your customer or as passed by you, the merchant .

If this is a shopping cart transaction, PayPal appends the number of the

item (e.g. quantity1, quantity2).

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 49

IPN Variable Reference

Auction Variables

Variable Name Description

reason_code This variable is set if payment_status =Reversed, Refunded, or

Canceled_Reversal.

adjustment_reversal: Reversal of an adjustment

buyer-complaint: A reversal has occurred on this transaction due to a

complaint about the transaction from your customer.

chargeback: A reversal has occurred on this transaction due to a

chargeback by your customer.

chargeback_reimbursement: Reimbursement for a chargeback

chargeback_settlement: Settlement of a chargeback

guarantee: A reversal has occurred on this transaction due to your

customer triggering a money-back guarantee.

other: Non-specified reason.

refund: A reversal has occurred on this transaction because you have

given the customer a refund.

NOTE: Additional codes may be returned.

remaining_settle Remaining amount that can be captured with Authorization and Capture
settle_amount Amount that is deposited into the account’s primary balance after a

currency conversion from automatic conversion (through your Payment

Receiving Preferences) or manual conversion (through manually

accepting a payment).

settle_currency Currency of settle_amount.
shipping Shipping charges associated with this transaction.

Format: unsigned, no currency symbol, two decimal places.
shipping_method The name of a shipping method from the Shipping Calculations section of

the merchant's account profile. The buyer selected the named shipping

method for this transaction.
tax Amount of tax charged on payment. PayPal appends the number of the

item (e.g., item_name1, item_name2). The tax

only if there was a specific tax amount applied to a particular shopping

cart item. Because total tax may apply to other items in the cart, the sum

of tax

x might not total to tax.

transaction_entity Authorization and Capture transaction entity

x variable is included

Auction Variables

Auction information identifies the auction for which a payment is made and additional
information about the auction.

50 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Mass Pay Variables

Variable Name Description

auction_buyer_id The customer’s auction ID.

Length: 64 characters
auction_closing_date The auction’s close date, in the following format: HH:MM:SS DD Mmm

YY, YYYY PST

Length: 28 characters
auction_multi_item The number of items purchased in multi-item auction payments. It allows

you to count the mc_gross or payment_gross for the first IPN you

receive from a multi-item auction (auction_multi_item), since each

item from the auction will generate an Instant Payment Notification

showing the amount for the entire auction.
for_auction This is an auction payment—payments made using Pay for eBay Items or

Smart Logos—as well as Send Money/Money Request payments with the

type eBay items or Auction Goods (non-eBay).

Mass Pay Variables

Mass pay information identifies the amounts and status of transactions related to mass
payments, including fees.

Variable Name Description

masspay_txn_id_

mc_currency_

mc_fee_

mc_gross_

x For Mass Payments, the transaction fee associated with the payment,

x The gross amount for the amount, where x is the record number the mass

mc_handling

payment_date For Mass Payments, the first IPN is the date/time when the record set is

x For Mass Payments, a unique transaction ID generat ed by the PayPal

system, where

x is the record number of the mass pay item

Length: 19 characters

x For Mass Payments, the currency of the amount and fee, where x is the

record number the mass pay item

where

x is the record number the mass pay item

pay item

x The x is the shopping cart detail item number. The handling_cart cart-

wide Website Payments variable is also included in the mc_handling

variable; for this reason, the sum of mc_handling

x might not be equal to

mc_handling

processed. Format: HH:MM:SS DD Mmm YYYY PST

Length: 28 characters

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 51

IPN Variable Reference

Recurring Payments Variables

Variable Name Description

payment_status Completed: For Mass Payments, this means that all of your payments

have been claimed, or after a period of 30 days, unclaimed payments have

been returned to you.

Denied: For Mass Payments, this means that your funds were not sent

and the Mass Payment was not initiated. This may have been caused by

lack of funds.

Processed: Your Mass Payment has been processed and all payments

have been sent.

reason_code This variable is only set if status = Failed.

1001: Invalid UserID.

1003: Country of Residence check failure

1004: Country of Funding Source check failure

receiver_email_

status_

unique_id_

x For Mass Payments, the status of the payment, where x is the record

x For Mass Payments, the primary email address of the payment recipient,

where

x is the record number of the mass pay item.

Length: 127 characters

number

Completed: The payment has been processed, regardless of whether this

was originally a unilateral payment

Failed: The payment failed because of insufficient PayPal balance.

Returned: Payment has been returned after 30 days.

Reversed: This is for unilateral payments that were not claimed after 30

days and have been returned to the sender. Or the funds have been

returned because the Receiver’s account was locked.

Unclaimed: This is for unilateral payments that are unclaimed.

x For Mass Payments, the unique ID from input, where x is the record

number. This allows the merchant to cross-reference the payment

Length: 13 characters

Recurring Payments Variables

Recurring payments information identifies the amounts and status associated with recurring
payments transactions.

Variable Name Description

amount Amount of recurring payment
amount_per_cycle Amount of recurring payment per cycle
initial_payment_amount Initial payment amount for recurring payments
next_payment_date Next payment date for a recurring payment

52 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Recurring Payments Variables

Variable Name Description

outstanding_balance Outstanding balance for recurring payments
payment_cycle Payment cycle for recurring payments
period_type Kind of period for a recurring payment
product_name Product name associated with a recurring payment
product_type Product name associated with a recurring payment
profile_status Profile status for a recurring payment
recurring_payment_id Recurring payment ID
rp_invoice_id The merchant’s own unique reference or invoice number, which can be

used to uniquely identify a profile.

Length: 127 single-byte alphanumeric characters
time_created When a recurrng payment was created

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 53

IPN Variable Reference

Recurring Payments Variables

Summary of recurring payment variables

Variables Profile created message Recurring payment mes sage

Basic Information

business X
receiver_email XX
receiver_id X

Transaction Information

payment_status X
payment_type X
payment_date X
txn_id X
initial_payment_status X
initail_payment_txn_id X

txn_type recurring_payment_profile_

created

Currency and Exchange

mc_gross X
mc_fee X
mc_currency X
payment_gross X
currency_code XX
payment_fee X

Buyer Information

first_name XX
last_name XX
address_name X
address_street X
address_city X
address_state X

recurring_payment

address_zip X
address_country X
payer_email XX

54 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Subscription Variables

Variables Profile created message Recurring payment mes sage

payer_id XX
payer_status XX
residence_country XX
address_country_code X
address_status X

Recurring Payment

recurring_payment_id XX
rp_invoice_id XX
product_name XX
product_type XX
period_type XX
payment_cycle XX
outstanding_balance XX
amount_per_cycle XX
initial_payment_amount XX
profile_status XX
amount XX
time_created XX
next_payment_date XX

Other Information

notify_version XX
charset XX

Subscription Variables

Subscription information identifies the amounts and parameters associated with subscription
transactions.

Variable Name Description

amount1 Amount of payment for trial period 1 for USD payments; otherwise blank

(optional).

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 55

IPN Variable Reference

Subscription Variables

Variable Name Description

amount2 Amount of payment for trial period 2 for USD payments; otherwise blank

(optional).
amount3 Amount of payment for regular subscription period for USD payments;

otherwise blank.

mc_amount1 Amount of payment for trial period 1, regardless of currency (optional).
mc_amount2 Amount of payment for trial period 2, regardless of currency (optional).
mc_amount3 Amount of payment for regular subscription period, regardless of

currency.
password (optional) Password generated by PayPal and given to subscriber to access

the subscription (password will be encrypted).

Length: 24 characters
period1 (optional) Trial subscription interval in days, weeks, months, years

(example: a 4 day interval is “period1: 4 D”).

period2 (optional) Trial subscription interval in days, weeks, months, or years.
period3 Regular subscription interval in days, weeks, mo nths, or years.
reattempt Indicates whether reattempts should occur upon payment failures (1 is

yes, blank is no).

recur_times The number of payment installments that will occur at the regular rate.
recurring Indicates whether regular rate recurs (1 is yes, blank is no).
retry_at Date PayPal will retry a failed subscription payment.
subscr_date Start date or cancellation date depending on whether transactio n is

subscr_signup or subscr_cancel.

Time/Date stamp generated by PayPal, in the following format:

HH:MM:SS DD Mmm YY, YYYY PST

subscr_effective Date when the subscription modification will be effective (only for

txn_type = subscr_modify).

Time/Date stamp generated by PayPal, in the following format:

HH:MM:SS DD Mmm YY, YYYY PST
subscr_id ID generated by PayPal for the subscriber.

Length: 19 characters
username (optional) Username generated by PayPal and given to subscriber to

access the subscription.

Length: 64 characters

56 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Subscription Variables

Summary of subscription variables

Multi-

USD

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

Basic Information

business XXXX X XX
receiver_email XXXX X XX
receiver_id XX
item_name XXXX X XX
item_number XXXX X XX

Advanced and Custom Information

invoice XXXX X XX
custom XXXX X XX
option_name1 XXXX X XX

Payment

Currency
Payment

Re­fund Failed EOT

option_selecti
on1

option_name2 XXXX X XX

option_selecti
on2

Transaction Information

payment_status XX X
pending_reason XX
reason_code XX
payment_date XX
txn_id XX
parent_txn_id XX

txn_type subscr_

Currency and Exchange information

mc_gross XX
mc_fee XX

XXXX X XX

XXXX X XX

signup

subscr_
cancel

subscr_
modify

subscr_payment subscr_

failed

subsc
r_eot

mc_currency XXXX X XX
settle_amount XX
exchange_rate XX

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 57

IPN Variable Reference

Subscription Variables

Multi-

USD

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

payment_gross XXX
payment_fee X

Buyer Information

first_name XXXX X XX
last_name XXXX X XX

Payment

Currency
Payment

Re­fund Failed EOT

payer_business
_name

address_name XXXX X X
address_street XXXX X X
address_city XXXX X X
address_state XXXX X X
address_zip XXXX X X

address_
country

payer_email XXXX X XX
payer_id XXXX X XX
payer_status XXXX X XX
payment_type XX

Subscription Information

subscr_date XXX

subscr_
effective

XXXX X X

XXXX X X

X

period1 XXX
period2 XXX
period3 XXX
amount1 XXX
amount2 XXX
amount3 XXX
mc_amount1 XXX
mc_amount2 XXX
mc_amount3 XXX

58 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Dispute Resolution Variables

Multi-

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

USD
Payment

Currency
Payment

Re­fund Failed EOT

recurring XXX
reattempt XXX
retry_at X

recur_times XXX
username XXXX X XX
password XXXX X XX
subscr_id XXXX X XX

Dispute Resolution Variables

Dispute resolution information identifies the case ID and status associated with a dispute.

Variable Name Description

case_creation_date Date and time case was registered, in the following format: HH:MM:SS

DD Mmm YY, YYYY PST
case_id Case identification number.

Format: PP-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn where n is any numeric character.

case_type

 chargeback: A buyer has filed a chargeback with his credit card

company, which has notified PayPal of the reason for the chargeback.

 complaint: A buyer has logged a complaint through the PayPal

Resolution Center.

 dispute: A buyer and seller post communications to one another

through the Resolution Center to try to work out issues without
intervention by PayPal.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 59

IPN Variable Reference

Pay Message Variables

Variable Name Description

reason_code Reason for the case.

Values for case_type set to complaint:

 non_receipt: Buyer claims that he did not receive goods or service.
 not_as_described: Buyer claims that the goods or service received

differ from merchant’s description of the goods or service.

Values for case_type set to chargeback:

 unauthorized
 adjustment_reimburse: A case that has been resolved and close

requires a reimbursement.

 non_receipt: Buyer claims that he did not receive goods or service.
 duplicate: Buyer claims that a possible duplicate payment was

made to the merchant.

 merchandise: Buyer claims that the received merchandise is

unsatisfactory, defective, or damaged.

 special: Some other reason. Usually, special indicates a credit card

processing error for which the merchant is not responsible and for
which no debit to the merchant will result. PayPal must review the
documentation from the credit card company to determine the nature
of the dispute and possibly contact the merchant to resolve it.

Pay Message Variables

PayPal generates an IPN message that contains information about the pay request or payment
in response to the Adaptive Payments Pay and ExecutePayment API operations.

Variable Description

transaction_type The type of transaction. Possible values are:

 Adaptive Payment PAY

This notification occurs when is a payment is made due to a PayRequest.
The variables for the Adaptive Payment Pay notification are similar to
the PaymentDetailsResponse fields.

 Adjustment

This can be for a chargeback, reversal, or refund; check the reason_code
to see which it is.

60 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Pay Message Variables

Variable Description

status The status of the payment. Possible values are:

 CREATED – The payment request was received; funds will be transferred

once the payment is approved

 COMPLETED – The payment was successful
 INCOMPLETE – Some transfers succeeded and some failed for a parallel

payment or, for a delayed chained payment, secondary receivers have not
been paid

 ERROR – The payment failed and all attempted transfers failed or all

completed transfers were successfully reversed

 REVERSALERROR – One or more transfers failed when attempting to

reverse a payment

 PROCESSING – The payment is in progress
 PENDING – The payment is awaiting processing

sender_email Sender’s email address.
action_type Whether the Pay API is used with or without the SetPaymentOptions and

ExecutePayment API operations. Possible values are:

 PAY – If you are not using the SetPaymentOptions and

ExecutePayment API operations

 CREATE – If you are using the SetPaymentOptions and

ExecutePayment API operations

payment_request_date The date on which the payment request was initiated.

reverse_all_parallel_pay
ments_on_error

Whether the payment request specified to reverse parallel payments if an error
occurs. Possible values are:

 true – Each parallel payment is reversed if an error occurs
 false – Only incomplete payments are reversed (default)

transaction[n].id The transaction ID, where [n] is a number from 0 to 5. For simple, single

receiver payments, this number will be 0. Numbers larger than 0 indicate the
payment to a particular receiver in chained and parallel payments.

transaction[n].status The transaction status, where [n] is a number from 0 to 5. For simple single-

receiver payments, this number will be 0. Numbers larger than 0 indicate the
payment to a particular receiver in chained and parallel payments.

Possible values are:

 Completed
 Pending
 Refunded

transaction[n].id_for_se
nder

The transaction ID for the sender, where [n] is a number from 0 to 5. For
simple, single receiver payments, this number will be 0. Numbers larger than 0
indicate the payment to a particular receiver in chained and parallel payments.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 61

IPN Variable Reference

Pay Message Variables

Variable Description

transaction[n].status_fo
r _sender_txn

The transaction status, where [n] is a number from 0 to 5. For simple single­receiver payments, this number will be 0. Numbers larger than 0 indicate the
payment to a particular receiver in chained and parallel payments.

Possible values are:

 COMPLETED – The sender’s transaction has completed
 PENDING – The transaction is awaiting further processing
 CREATED – The payment request was received; funds will be transferred

once approval is received

 PARTIALLY_REFUNDED– Transaction was partially refunded
 DENIED – The transaction was rejected by the receiver
 PROCESSING – The transaction is in progress
 REVERSED – The payment was returned to the sender
 REFUNDED – The payment was refunded
 FAILED – The payment failed

transaction[n].refund_id The identification number for the refund

transaction[n].refund_am

The amount that was refunded.

ount

transaction[n].refund_ac

The email address of the debit account of the refund.

count_charged
transaction[n].receiver The receiver’s email address for the transaction
transaction[n].invoiceId The invoice number for this transaction
transaction[n].amount The payment amount of the transaction

transaction[n].is_primar
y_receiver

Whether there is a primary receiver for this transaction, which indicates
whether the transaction is a chained payment.

Possible values are:

 true – There is a primary receiver (chained payment)
 false – There is no primary receiver (simple or parallel payment)

return_url The URL to which the sender’s browser is redirected after approving a

payment on paypal.com. Use the pay key to identify the payment as follows:

payKey=${payKey}.

cancel_url The URL to which the sender’s browser is redirected if the sender cancels the

approval for a payment on paypal.com. Use the pay key to identify the
payment as follows: payKey=${payKey}.

ipn_notification_url The URL to which all IPN messages for this payment are sent.
pay_key The pay key that identifies this payment. This is a token that is assigned by the

Pay API after a PayRequest message is received and can be used in other
Adaptive Payments APIs as well as the cancelURL and returnURL to
identify this payment. The pay key is valid for 3 hours.

memo A note associated with the payment.

62 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Preapproval Message Variables

Variable Description

fees_payer The payer of PayPal fees. Possible values are:

 SENDER – Sender pays all fees (for personal, implicit simple/parallel

payments; do not use for chained or unilateral payments)

 PRIMARYRECEIVER – Primary receiver pays all fees (chained payments

only)

 EACHRECEIVER – Each receiver pays their own fee (default, personal and

unilateral payments)

 SECONDARYONLY – Secondary receivers pay all fees (use only for chained

payments with one secondary receiver)

trackingId The tracking ID that was specified for this payment in the

PaymentDetailsRequest message.

preapproval_key The preapproval key returned after a PreapprovalRequest, or the

preapproval key that identifies the preapproval key sent with a PayRequest.

reason_code Whether this transaction is a chargeback, partial, or reversal. Possible values

are:

 Chargeback Settlement – Transaction is a chargeback
 Admin reversal – Transaction was reversed by PayPal administrators
 Refund – Transaction was partially or fully refunded

Preapproval Message Variables

PayPal generates an IPN message that contains information about a preapproval in response to
the Adaptive Payments Preapproval API operation.

Variable Description

transaction_type The type of transaction. For a preapproval, this variable returns Adaptive

Payment Preapproval.

NOTE: If this variable is set to Adaptive Payment Pay or Adjustment,

refer to the Pay Message Variable section.

preapproval_key The preapproval key returned after a PreapprovalRequest.
approved Whether the preapproval request was approved. Possible values are:

 true – The preapproval was approved
 false – The preapproval was denied

cancel_url The URL to which the sender’s browser is redirected if the sender decides to

cancel the preapproval as requested. Use the preapproval key to identify the
payment as follows: preapprovalKey=${preapprovalKey}

current_number_of_paymen
ts

The current number of payments made for this preapproval.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 63

IPN Variable Reference

Preapproval Message Variables

Variable Description

current_total_amount_of_
all_payments

current_period_attempts The current number of attempts this period for this preapproval.

The current total of payments made for this preapproval.

64 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Variable Description

currencyCode The currency code. Possible values are:

 Australian Dollar – AUD
 Brazilian Real – BRL

NOTE: The Real is supported as a payment currency and currency balance

only for Brazilian PayPal accounts.

 Canadian Dollar – CAD
 Czech Koruna – CZK
 Danish Krone – DKK
 Euro – EUR
 Hong Kong Dollar – HKD
 Hungarian Forint – HUF
 Israeli New Sheqel – ILS
 Japanese Yen – JPY
 Malaysian Ringgit – MYR

NOTE: The Ringgit is supported as a payment currency and currency balance

only for Malaysian PayPal accounts.

 Mexican Peso – MXN
 Norwegian Krone – NOK
 Ne w Zealand Dollar – NZD
 Philippine Peso – PHP
 Polish Zloty – PLN
 Pound Sterling – GBP
 Singapore Dollar – SGD
 Swedish Krona – SEK
 Swiss Franc – CHF
 Taiwan New Dollar – TWD
 Thai Baht – THB
 Turkish Lira – TRY

IPN Variable Reference

Preapproval Message Variables

NOTE: The Turkish Lira is supported as a payment currency and currency

balance only for Turkish PayPal accounts.

 U.S. Dollar – USD
 Australian Dollar – AUD

 Brazilian Real – BRL

NOTE: The Real is supported as a payment currency and currency balance

only for Brazilian PayPal accounts.

 Canadian Dollar – CAD
 Czech Koruna – CZK
 Danish Krone – DKK
 Euro – EUR
 Hong Kong Dollar – HKD
 Hungarian Forint – HUF
 Israeli New Sheqel – ILS
 Japanese Yen – JPY
 Malaysian Ringgit – MYR

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 65

NOTE: The Ringgit is supported as a payment currency and currency balance

only for Malaysian PayPal accounts.

 Mexican Peso – MXN
 Norwegian Krone – NOK
 Ne w Zealand Dollar – NZD

IPN Variable Reference

Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages

Variable Description

date_of_month The day of the month on which a monthly payment is to be made. A number

between 1 and 31 indicates the day of the month. A value of 0 indicates that
the payment can be made on any day.

day_of_week The day of the week that a weekly payment is to be made. Possible values are:

 NO_DAY_SPECIFIED
 SUNDAY
 MONDAY
 TUESDAY
 WEDNESDAY
 THURSDAY
 FRIDAY
 SATURDAY

starting_date First date for which the preapproval is val id.
ending_date Last date for which the preapproval is valid. Time is currently not supported.

max_total_amount_of_all_

The preapproved maximum total amount of all payments.

payments
max_amount_per_payment The preapproved maximum amount of all paym ents.
max_number_of_payments The maximum number of payments that is preapproved.
payment_period The payment period.

Possible values are:

 NO_PERIOD_SPECIFIED
 DAILY
 WEEKLY
 BIWEEKLY
 SEMIMONTHLY
 MONTHLY
 ANNUALLY

pin_type Whether a personal identification number (PIN) is required. It is one of the

following values:

 NOT_REQUIRED – A PIN is not required
 REQUIRED – A PIN is required

sender_email The sender’s email address.

Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages

PayPal sends an IPN message whenever a PayPal account is created using the
CreateAccount API operation.

66 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

IPN Variable Reference

Adaptive Accounts IPN Messages

Field Description

notify_version Message’s version number
first_name Account holder’s first name
last_name Account holder’s last name
verify_sign Encrypted string used to validate the authenticity of the transaction
charset Character set
account_key Account key returned by the CreateAccount API operation
confirmation_code Confirmation code
event_type The kind of event:

 ACCOUNT_CONFIRMED indicates that the account holder has set a password

and the account has been created.

 LOGIN_CONFIRMED indicates that the account holder logged into the

account.

Example IPN message in response to CreateAccount request

notify_version=UNVERSIONED&first_name=Someone&verify_sign=AI.LzRiNYreJbZLZ8
BV5FbGKL8hSAupAtXf3haOHWI2NmcJ5C4VqdQrx&charset=windows­1252&last_name=Something&account_key=AA6N5043354R131103K&confirmation_code=
15531193754629193930

Example IPN message in response to account holder setting the password

first_name=Someone&account_key=AA­6N5043354R131103K¬ify_version=UNVERSIONED&charset=windows­1252&email_address=abawany-20110208­01%40paypal.com&event_type=%5BACCOUNT_CONFIRMED%5D&last_name=Something&veri
fy_sign=AcIPKnsgPsoX2ONJgU17uAl9h-ZIAKJMRvhEULLvD9mOzH3WjdRNfEte

NOTE: This message indicates that the account setup is complete.

Example IPN message in response to account login

first_name=Someone&account_key=AA­6N5043354R131103K¬ify_version=UNVERSIONED&charset=windows­1252&email_address=abawany-20110208­01%40paypal.com&event_type=%5BLOGIN_CONFIRMED%5D&last_name=Something&verify
_sign=ANqF6tuR41eB.S.2I9dCskJuSSvrAI8Monbec4U2PZCnoKYffnv156mN

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 67

IPN Variable Reference

Payment Review Using Notifications

Payment Review Using Notifications

If PayPal places a payment under review, PayPal sends messages containing the

payment_status and pending_reason variables. In addition, it sends a
protection_eligibility variable that identifies the kind of protection in force for the

transaction.
The initial IPN or PDT message indicates that the payment is under review:

 The payment_status variable is set to Pending.
 The pending_reason variable is set to PaymentReview.

A subsequent IPN message indicates the resolution of the payment review:

 If the transaction was successful and the payment was accepted, PayPal sends a notification

whose payment_status variable is set to Completed.

 If the transaction failed and the payment was rejected, PayPal sends a notification whose

payment_status variable is set to Reversed.

NOTE: PDTs are only available for the initial status.

68 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide

Revision History

Revision history for PayPal Instant Payment Notification Guide.

Date Published Description

07/10/12 Maintenance release.
05/22/12 Maintenance release.
05/02/12 Maintenance release.
04/03/12 Updated references to W ebsite Payments Standard and Website Payments Pro to

PayPal Payments Standard and PayPal Payments Pro, respectively.
02/14/12 Maintenance release.
07/26/11 Added additional IPN variables and transaction types; echeck_time_processed

is new for revision 78.0.
07/17/10 Updated information about IPN messages for Adaptive Payments and added

information for Adaptive Accounts.
04/01/10 Updated IPN history and resend information and added information about IPN

messages for Adaptive Payments.
06/26/09 Added information about IPN messages related to payment review. Updated the

section about setting up IPN notifications on PayPal and added a note about the

delivery of IPN messages to the notify URL.
06/10/09 Added IPN history and resend information and added information to the

troubleshooting section.
03/16/09 Made additions to sample code.
02/16/09 First draft.

IPN Guide July 10, 2012 69

70 July 10, 2012 IPN Guide