Has anyone seen a primer, a tutorial, a quickstart guide, a whitepaper - something of an outline for hooking together PayPal using Instant Payment Notification (IPN) with DotNetNuke? PayPal offers some information about working with .NET, but it's not specific about how to make it work with DotNetNuke.

Maybe there is a 3rd party solution that can help establish this connection? We are looking to use DotNetNuke subscription features with PayPal "Website Payments Standard" using IPN.

That module almost does what I need, but leaves a lot out. I need to send out different emails based on type of product sent (PayPal provides the data in the IPN post) and I also have to display certain text based on type of item on the thank you page. This has to be done rather quickly and I am buried at the moment so I am shopping for a working solution.

Kent

I am compiling QuickStart notes on how to get DotNetNuke working with PayPal. For many of you, these notes will be too basic; but for some just starting out with DNN and/or PayPal, maybe this post will be useful. For now, here's what I have done to get started integrating DotNetNuke and PayPal for the purposes of doing e-commerce:

Activate a PayPal Premier or Business account, depending on your needs (www.paypal.com). This account you will link to a bank checking account. Later, when you've got real transactions working (below), money coming into this account from your customer's PayPal, credit card and/or bank card accounts can be moved into your checking account for your access.

Activate a PayPal Sandbox account (developer.paypal.com). PayPal Sandbox lets you test or practice e-commerce transactions without actually charging any real monetary amounts. Within this Sandbox account you will create simulated accounts for (1) your PayPal business account created above, (2) fake accounts representing customer's who will be buying your products or services. You only need one or two fake customer accounts to simulate transactions. PayPal Sandbox has a good 40 page or so QuickStart guide you should review before attempting to use Sandbox.

For those just starting out with DotNetNuke e-commerce, you might consider using Inventua PayPal (www.inventua.com). This DNN module is easy to configure, and it has a PayPal Sandbox operational mode that's perfect for learning about and simulating e-commerce transactions between DotNetNuke and PayPal. The great thing about Inventua is that they let you try their module before you buy. Inventua PayPal doesn't do everything just yet (like the PayPal Recurring Payments/Subscriptions we are looking to do), but it's a great module to help you establish a working DNN/PayPal transaction - quickly. I hope Inventua continues to extend their PayPal module, because it is a nice piece in the DotNetNuke/PayPal puzzle.

When you are done testing simulated transactions to PayPal's Sandbox, if you're using Inventua's PayPal, simply disable the Sandbox mode, enter your real PayPal Premier or Business account email address, and start taking real e-comm transactions using your DotNetNuke installation linked to your PayPal business account.

This overview is not complete, and with things always changing, it may not be accurate when you read it. It's simply an outline of things I've learned these past few days about doing e-commerce with DotNetNuke and PayPal (March 2007).