Question : PayPal Donation button and IPN

I’m trying to pass some variables through my donation button to be used with my db after the transaction is processed. Here’s the situation:

1. User hits the form page below. They can select to make a cash or non-cash type of donation.

First name: Last name:

Street address:

City: State:
Zip Code:

Phone: E-mail:

Select the type of donation you would like to make:


Money
Equipment
Volunteer my time or services







2. After hitting the “Continue” button in the form above, they go to donor.php. If they chose a non-cash/volunteer type of donation, I insert the user info I collected on the form into my db. If they chose a cash donation, then they get the PayPal donation button below.

I need the user info from the form to pass through PayPal so that upon successful payment, the users info can then be inserted into my db. How/where would I pass the form variables through the button below?

if ($type == "equipment"|| $type == "services")
{
***Code that handles non-cash donations**
}
else {

echo ("

Thank you for your support! Please click the button below to complete your secure donation via PayPal.

");
echo ("

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr\" method=\"post\">
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif\" border=\"0\" name=\"submit\" alt=\"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!\">

\">

http://www.myorg.org/support/thanks.php\" />

http://www.myorg.org\" />


http://www.myorg.org/support/ipn_validate.php\" />

");

}

?>

3. My ipn_validate.php was adopted from the code examples:


// read the post from PayPal system and add 'cmd'
$req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
$value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
$req .= "&$key=$value";
}

// post back to PayPal system to validate
$header .= "POST /cgi-bin/webscr HTTP/1.0\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Length: " . strlen($req) . "\r\n\r\n";
$fp = fsockopen ('www.sandbox.paypal.com', 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);

// assign posted variables to local variables
$payment_status = $_POST['payment_status'];
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
$last_name = $_POST['last_name'];
$address = $_POST['address_street'];
$city = $_POST['address_city'];
$state = $_POST['address_state'];
$zip = $_POST['address_zip'];
$email = $_POST['payer_email'];
$payment_amount = $_POST['mc_gross'];
$txn_id = $_POST['txn_id'];
$date = $_POST['payment_date'];
/* I want to be able to pass through my user_id, phone, and type variables here too */
if (!$fp) {
// HTTP ERROR
} else {
fputs ($fp, $header . $req);
while (!feof($fp)) {
$res = fgets ($fp, 1024);
if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {
// check the payment_status is Completed
// check that txn_id has not been previously processed
// check that receiver_email is your Primary PayPal email
// check that payment_amount/payment_currency are correct
// process payment
}
else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
// log for manual investigation
}
}
fclose ($fp);
}
?>

4. The user gets directed to a thanks.php after completing transaction where I would like to echo back the variables passed through (for now, just to be sure they're getting through...later they'll go into my db).

I’m fairly new to php and to PayPal….I’m trying to learn a lot at once! Any help is greatly appreciated! I’ve tried other forums, but have received some vague suggestions that don’t really clarify anything for me. Thanks!
Kjersti

Answer : PayPal Donation button and IPN

I'll take care of it.  I will refund your points and then just close the question out since some information can be found in here.

-Corey