PHP IPN script works with IPN simulator but not with PayPal button

Question

I have set PayPal sandbox account and created a button and put it in HTML. When I test everything out with IPN simulator it works just fine, but when purchase is made through PayPal button (sandbox mode) nothing happens. Here is the button code

<form action="https://sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="NC4M3RU83QEDG">
<input type="image" src="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

And here is the ipn script (works fine with ipn simulator)

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://ipnpb.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "cmd=_notify-validate&" . http_build_query($_POST));
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

if ($response == "VERIFIED") {
    $to = '[email protected]';
    $subject = 'Something';
    $headers = 'From:[email protected]' . "\r\n";
    $message = 'bla bla bla';
    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
}

I have enabled IPN in my acc and I have set notify url correctly Regards

Preston PHX Preston PHX · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-06T17:06:59

Elaborate on 'nothing happens'. Check your sandbox account's IPN history: https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-ipns-history

Add logging to your IPN script. Is it receiving messages from PayPal? Log each message received. Is it able to attempt to verify them? What is the response when attempting to verify them?

PHP IPN script works with IPN simulator but not with PayPal button

1 Answers