http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=636530

hacker has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Lately, I've been writing various web applications which drive content delivery for some of my mobile content projects.

Some of the loyal users of these applications have suggested that I think about selling some of my custom content creations; that there'd be an audience for them, and that it could be a source of revenue for us (and especially me, since I'm out of work at the moment, doh!)

I've installed Business::PayPal::IPN and the other various modules related to it.. in an attempt to try to understand how to get my content saleable using PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Flexible Payments Services, etc.

I'm trying to keep the system as transparent to the end user, so they don't jump off of my pages to PayPal or Amazon or whatever, and then back to me when they're done.

Has anyone used these services through Perl to sell content or products? Is there another (easier?) alternative?

Any implementation theories, alternative services or approaches that work better or worse? Any major gotchas I should look out for?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Using PayPal, Google Checout, Amazon FPS to sell products, driven by perl
by ww (Archbishop) on Sep 01, 2007 at 20:07 UTC
    This is probably so obvious you've already considered it, but how about using a third party payment service that allows your buyers to pay directly with their credit cards.

    PPI (cited only because one of my clients uses them) and numerous other bank (or bank subsidiaries) can provide that capability (by setting up an encrypted message exchange between the payment page on your site and the payment processor).

      "...but how about using a third party payment service that allows your buyers to pay directly with their credit cards.

      My understanding is that Amazon FPS, Google Checking and PayPal provide exactly that exchange.

      I'll check out PPI as well to see what they provide that differs from the others. Thanks.

Re: Using PayPal, Google Checout, Amazon FPS to sell products, driven by perl
by hangon (Deacon) on Sep 02, 2007 at 09:10 UTC

    You might want to download the documentation from the Payal web site, merchant services so you understand how their system and API works. Look for *Website Payments Standard Integration Guide* in the left column. There are also some Perl code examples buried somewhere in the site.

    The advantage of using Paypal (or similar services) is that you do not need to have your own merchant account and processing gateway and the associated monthly fees. You also do not need to have ssl. However, the payment transaction is done on the Paypal site. You can customize your account so it's fairly seamless, but it will not be completely transparent to your customers.

    If you do use Paypal, I recommend that you also sign up for a developers account so you can test using their sandbox without processing real transactions. I've handrolled a few basic payment apps using LWP and their API. Basically it just exchanges text data via name-value pairs over http/https posts. Hope this helps.

Re: Using PayPal, Google Checout, Amazon FPS to sell products, driven by perl
by dsheroh (Monsignor) on Sep 02, 2007 at 05:24 UTC
    Another option for a service would be authorize.net, but I've never used any of them, so I can't give details beyond throwing another name out. This is something I'm about to do for the first time, too, and probably would have asked within the next day or two if you hadn't beaten me to it...

      It would appear that authorize.net's signup form is broken at the moment, so I can't sign up to get more information about how to use their Merchant Services.

      Sigh.