Easy PayPal

1. 

   Dashboard, showing the beautifully designed admin interface.

2. 

   Tour and Help, to quickly get started with EZ PayPal.

3. 

   Editable product listing on your admin page. The table is sortable and searchable.

4. 

   Managing your product categories, showing how to edit an attribute.

5. 

   Configuration screen. Note the help popover showing what the option means and does.

6. 

   Managing your account profile, password etc.

7. 

   Your automatically generated e-shop. Your products are listed in a neat, sortable, searchable table with a "Buy Now" button.

8. 

   The screen resulting from a "Buy Now" button click.

9. 

   The return screen after a successful purchase. This is the download page where your buyer is automatically forwarded to.

10. 

    The return screen if the IPN message hasn't been posted. If the PayPal information is not yet received by your server, your buyer sees this screen where he can retrieve his purchase link. (This feature reduced my support load by 90%).

11. 

    Advanced shop configuration.

12. 

    Your e-shop, using a dark theme and grid view.

13. 

    Sales charts in the Pro version.

14. 

    Sales summary and details.

15. 

    Subscription summary and details in the Pro version.

16. 

    Template editor in the Pro version.

17. 
18. 
19. 

Installation Instructions

To install it as a WordPress plugin, please use the plugin installation interface.

1. Search for the plugin EZ PayPal from your admin menu Plugins -> Add New.
2. Click on install.

It can also be installed from a downloaded zip archive.

1. Go to your admin menu Plugins -> Add New, and click on “Upload Plugin” near the top.
2. Browse for the zip file and click on upload.

Once uploaded and activated,

1. Visit the EZ PayPal plugin admin page to configure it.
2. Take a tour of the plugin features from the EZ PayPal admin menu Tour and Help.

If you would like to temporarily switch to the standalone mode of the plugin, click on the “Standalone Mode” button near the top right corner of EZ PayPal admin screens. You can install it permanently in standalone mode (using its own database and authentication) by uploading the zip archive to your server.

1. Upload the contents of the archive ezpaypal to your server.
2. Browse to the location where your uploaded the package (http://yourserver/ezpaypal, for instance) using your web browser, and click on the green “Launch Installer” button.
3. Follow wizard to visit the admin page, login, configure basic options and define products.

Before you upload products (in step 3), you may have to create a product storage directory for EZ PayPal. Again, the interface will prompt you with the command to execute.

This program is quite complex. Do you have more documentation?

You will find a help button on almost every admin screen of EZ PayPal near the top right side of every panel. Clicking on it will bring up a nice dialog box with context-sensitive help.

To get started, you might want to use the admin menu item “Tour and Help.” The tour will walk you through the features, and the help text on the page will give you everything you need to get started.

Can I use this plugin to ship physical goods?

Although EZ PayPal is designed to handle downloadable digital goods or virtual services, I have implemented basic support for physical goods in the Pro version. To use it, add meta-data to the product.
1. Click on the Products menu item.
2. Add a new product or edit an existing one.
3. Click on the Edit Meta Data button to bring up the meta-data editor.
4. Create a new key-value pair with key (entry in the fist column) as shipping and the value (entry in the second column) to be the shipping charges. Also, ensure that you have defined the product to require the buyers to give their shipping address.

I have trouble uploading my products. What do I do?

Your product files are uploaded into a directory with a random name (so that a potential hacker will have hard time guessing it). It is likely that your web server doesn’t have the privileges to create or modify this folder and files within. Click on the Show button on your Admin Control Panel to see what the directory name is. Then create the directory with that name, and apply chmod 777 to make it writeable.

How do I manage products?

To edit your products, use the menu item Products. It will list your products in an editable table. You can click on any value in the table and edit it in place. If you would like to see all the attributes of the product, click on the edit button in the last column.

In order to add a new product, click on the green “Add New Product” button and type in your values in the product creation screen.

Why do I get error message saying something about direct access to plugin files?

This plugin admin interface is designed with a loosely coupled architecture, which means it interacts with the WordPress core only for certain essential services (login check, plugin activation status, database access etc). Loosely coupled systems tend to be more robust and flexible than tightly integrated ones because they make fewer assumptions about each other. My plugin admin pages are fairly independent, and do not pollute the global scope or leak the style directives or JavaScript functions. In order to achieve this, they are loaded in iFrames within the WordPress admin interface.

Your web server needs direct access to the plugin files to load anything in an iFrame. Some aggressive security settings block this kind of access, usually through an .htaccess file in your wp-content or plugins folders, which is why this plugin gives a corresponding error message if it detects inability to access the files (checked through a file_get_contents call on a plugin file URL). But some systems implement further blocks specifically on file_get_contents or on iFrames with specific styles (using mod_securty rules, for instance), which is why the plugin provides a means to override this auto-detection and force the admin page.

Is the direct access to plugin files a security hole?

Note that it is only your own webserver that needs direct access to the PHP files. The reason for preventing such access is that a hacker might be able to upload a malicious PHP (or other executable script) to your web host, which your webserver will run if asked to. Such a concern is valid only on systems where you explicitly permit unchecked file uploads. For instance, if anyone can upload any file to your media folder, and your media folder is not protected against direct access and script execution, you have given the potential hacker an attack vector.

In this plugin, its media/banner upload folder has a multiple layers protection:
1. Only users logged in as admin can ever see the upload interface.
2. The upload script accepts only media file types.
3. The backend AJAX handler also checks for safe file types.
4. The media storage locations are protected against script execution.

So allowing your webserver to serve the plugin admin files in an iFrame is completely safe, in my judgement.

Future Plans

History

• V7.91: Compatibility with WP4.8. Sunset edition. [Aug 1, 2017]
• V7.90: Compatibility with WP4.6. Many accumulated fixes and changes. Releasing the sunset version. [Oct 12, 2016]
• V7.87: Fixing an error that may have prevented creation of a non-digital product in the Pro version. Recommit. [Aug 11, 2016]
• V7.84: Fixing an error in the tour module. More information specific to WP and standalone mode. Fixing some bugs. Adding more customizable strings. [Jul 30, 2016]
• V7.83: Allowing multi-currency pending status in IPN. Fixing a bug in file delivery. [Jul 16, 2016]
• V7.82: Fixing a bug that may affect product editing on certain systems with large number of products. [Jun 7, 2016]
• V7.81: Adding a product file name validator. Usability improvements in product file upload. Allowing empty logo in shop pages. [Jun 6, 2016]
• V7.80: Compatibility with WP4.5. [Apr 11, 2016]
• V7.71: Fixing a commit error. [Feb 27, 2016]
• V7.63: Improvements in the Google Translator interface. Compatibility with multisite installation of subdomain type. [Feb 27, 2016]
• V7.62: Minor interface and documentation changes. [Feb 25, 2016]
• V7.61: Adding tax support, globally and on a per-product basis. Adding a tool to test the email capabilities of your server by sending test messages. [Feb 19, 2016]
• V7.60: Changes in the DB interface to handle the case where native drivers are not installed. Restricting Google Translate not to translate user-editable strings. Optimizing screenshots. [Feb 7, 2016]
• V7.59: Improving multiple currency support. [Feb 1, 2016]
• V7.58: Stripping extra backslashes in template loading. [Jan 27, 2016]
• V7.57: Adding diagnostic information on the update page. Improving the server-side datatable processing, error handling and robustness agains non-utf8 characters. [Jan 20, 2016]
• V7.56: Changes to make the plugin compatible with multisite installations. Cookie-based long login option for standalone mode. Using APCu, if available. Other minor fixes. [Jan 14, 2016]
• V7.54: Minor fixes in standalone mode. [Jan 1, 2016]
• V7.53: Adding a dev-friendly include to introduce local settings, if any. Minor fixes in table rendering. [Dec 30, 2015]
• V7.52: Refactoring changes in admin footer rendering. [Dec 15, 2015]
• V7.51: Adding a Buy Now button in the product description popup on your E-shop. Fixing a bug in server-side datatable processing. [Dec 12, 2015]
• V7.50: Compatibility with WordPress 4.4. [Dec 5, 2015]
• V7.46: Fixing a bug that may have prevented shortcodes from working properly on some posts/pages. [Dec 1, 2015]
• V7.45: Adding e-shop display and pagination options. Making the admin menu dynamic (optionally) in standalone mode. New tool to move files from a staging location to the product storage in bulk.
• V7.44: Warning about PHP V5.4 requirement on the admin page. [Nov 8, 2015]
• V7.43: Adding more translations. [Oct 30, 2015]
• V7.42: Fixing a few miscellaneous issues. [Oct 24, 2015]
• V7.41: Enforcing PHP V5.4 requirement at activation time. [Oct 23, 2015]
• V7.40: Admin pages in your language using Google translation. [Oct 22, 2015]
• V7.32: Improving the speed of admin page loading. Fixing DB Tools. [Sep 30, 2015]
• V7.31: Killing the option to allow update checks. [Sep 26, 2015]
• V7.30: Changes to make the plugin work on nginx and Microsoft servers. [Sep 20, 2015]
• V7.63: Ensuring usability on touch-screen devices. Removing an unused class and file. [Sep 17, 2015]
• V7.22: Reinstating the option to force the admin page loading, moving to a less colorful default theme. [Sep 14, 2015]
• V7.21: Fixing some refactoring errors related to the plugin end points. [Sep 13, 2015]
• V7.20: Adding better error handling on invalid requests, adding a link to the plugin admin page on WP plugins page, adding the ability to rerun the installer. [Sep 12, 2015]
• V7.11: Correcting the source in the auto-generated shop page, and improving plugin activation and deactivation functions. [Sep 9, 2015]
• V7.10: Removing WP core file loading and refactoring header and menus. [Sep 4, 2015]
• V7.03: More refactoring and cleanup changes. [Aug 31, 2015]
• V7.02: Code clean up and fixing some W3 validation errors. [Aug 23, 2015]
• V7.01: Fixing a minor error. [Aug 21, 2015]
• V7.00: Major refactoring of options handling, common functions etc. Compatibility with WP4.3. [Aug 10, 2015]
• V6.92: Refactoring setup modules. [Aug 5, 2015]
• V6.91: Setting default values during template insertion. [Jul 26, 2015]
• V6.90: Implementing redirect to previous page upon login. Preparing for major refactoring. [Jul 25, 2015]
• V6.81: Tightening login security in standalone mode and hardening assets upload. [Jul 2, 2015]
• V6.80: Releasing an IPN poster and a server component. Fixing a potential date error in e-cheque handling. [June 25, 2015]
• V6.75: Modifications to allow time for image loading on shop forward page, and to fix html validation errors. [June 22, 2015]
• V6.74: Transaction verification modified to add trimming in product names and remove case sensitivity in email addresses. [Jun 20, 2015]
• V6.73: Bug fixes in Template Editor, Update handler etc. [Jun 5, 2015]
• V6.72: Minor bug fixes. [Jun 5, 2015]
• V6.71: Minor changes in the admin page. [Jun 4, 2015]
• V6.70: Enabling translations or modifications of strings in customer-facing pages. [May 27, 2015]
• V6.61: Admin page compatibility checks and improvements. [May 13, 2015]
• V6.60: Compatibility with WordPress 4.2. [April 25, 2015]
• V6.56: New option to display product image on the checkout page. [April 24, 2015]
• V6.55: Improvements in the admin dashboard. [April 15, 2015]
• V6.54: Improvements in the admin dashboard. [April 14, 2015]
• V6.53: Launching a demo site. [April 11, 2015]
• V6.52: Turning off caching of category list to avoid stale category names. [April 8, 2015]
• V6.51: Some more usability improvements. [April 6, 2015]
• V6.50: Implementing list/grid view for the e-shop (Pro feature). Displaying product description/image as a modal dialog on the e-shop. Option to display product description/image upon Buy Now button click. Numerous enhancements in metadata editor, sales table display etc. [April 6, 2014]
• V6.40: Fixing a style that may have caused the admin page not to appear on some blogs. [April 4, 2015]
• V6.39: More compatibility checks. [April 2, 2015]
• V6.38: Fixing a charting module for more accurate display, and other minor changes. [Mar 28, 2015]
• V6.37: Removing a spurious label in return.php that may have caused problems in older PHP installations. [Mar 27, 2015]
• V6.36: Making the shop and return pages skinnable, fixing an error in assets upload (Pro features). [Mar 23, 2015]
• V6.35: Compatibility check on the plugin admin page. [Mar 20, 2015]
• V6.34: Fixing a bug that prevented the proper display of the return page. [Mar 18, 2014]
• V6.33: Code to suppress some notices. New feature in the Pro version — alternate product. [Mar 16, 2015]
• V6.32: Improvements in the login check functions. Adding a Pro feature to popup the PayPal transaction window. [Mar 9, 2015]
• V6.31: Code cleanup. [Mar 7, 2015]
• V6.30: Fixes in the sales update module. [Mar 6, 2015]
• V6.29: Changes in the update module [Mar 5, 2015]
• V6.28: Adding better email error handling. [Feb 27, 2015]
• V6.27: Using wp_email as default. Adding AJAX return code in file uploads. [Feb 27, 2015]
• V6.26: Bug fix in download link generation. [Feb 26, 2015]
• V6.25: Improvements in shortcode handling. [Feb 25, 2015]
• V6.24: Fixes in database prefix handling and enhancements in subscription products. [Feb 24, 2015]
• V6.23: Minor bug fixes in the sales table and ezSupport modules. [Feb 23, 2015]
• V6.22: Fixing the public URLs generated by EZ PayPal for some blog installations. [Feb 14, 2015]
• V6.21: Fixing a name collision with a WP Jetpack plugin. Fixes to the update module and hardening the assets folder. [Feb 3, 2015]
• V6.20: Suppressing product ID in the public shop page. Fixing minor AJAX errors on some systems. Misc refactoring changes. [Jan 31, 2015]
• V6.17: Minor fixes in the setup scripts. [Jan 27, 2014]
• V6.16: Switching to the http_response_code function for status headers. [Jan 26, 2015]
• V6.15: Fixing W3 validation errors for clean HTML5. [Jan 23, 2015]
• V6.14: Fixing some obscure errors using CORS headers. [Jan 22, 2015]
• V6.13: Hardening the plugin folder by adding index.php to subfolders. Removing .htaccess that may create some issues. [Jan 21, 2015]
• V6.12: Fixing product updates section. [Jan 15, 2015]
• V6.11: Emergency bug fix in purchase handling. Please update. [Jan 15, 2015]
• V6.10: Fixes to the dispute and subscription handlers. Dev complete now. [Jan 14, 2015]
• V6.03: More post deployment fixes. [Jan 13, 2015]
• V6.02: More post deployment fixes. [Jan 11, 2015]
• V6.01: Post deployment fixes. [Jan 11, 2015]
• V6.00: Complete rewrite and redesign of the package. It now features a modern admin interface based on the twitter bootstrap framework. [Jan 2, 2015]
• V5.70: Adding a secondary PayPal email option for high-value transactions so as to minimize PayPal fees. [Oct 15, 2014]
• V5.62: Improvements in the graphics. [Sep 29, 2014]
• V5.60: Compatibility with WP4.0, documentation changes. [Sep 7, 2014]
• V5.50: Adding the ability to store and display addresses. [Aug 15, 2014]
• V5.40: New feature. Setup IPN forwarders. [Aug 12, 2014]
• V5.30: Basic support for physical goods. Improvements in product-meta data editor. [Aug 9, 2014]
• V5.24: Tighter checks on emails and transaction ids for security. [Jul 19, 2014]
• V5.22: Making product update price, update section, SMTP mail etc. user-configurable. [May 31, 2014]
• V5.00: Numerous refactoring changes. Internationalization. [Apr 25, 2014]
• V4.76: Porting the reporting engine to the plugin version. [Dec 30, 2013]
• V4.75: Suppressing notices/warnings from some PEAR email functions. [Dec 16, 2013]
• V4.73: Documentation changes. Modifying the validator for product_code to allow -/_ characters. [Nov 29, 2013]
• V4.72: Fixes to DB details confusion between stand-alone and WP versions. [Nov 26, 2013]
• V4.71: Security fixes on some Pro files. [Nov 20, 2013]
• V4.70: Buy Now button now takes only one click to go to PayPal. [Nov 19, 2013]
• V4.63: Bug fixes to persist storage location and product under modification. [Nov 19, 2013]
• V4.62: Minor fix to suppress a warning. [Nov 18, 2013]
• V4.61: Adding integration between Easy Text Links and stand-alone EzPayPal. [Nov 6, 2013]
• V4.60: Changing to MySQLi in preparation for PHP5.5+. [Oct 13, 2013]
• V4.51: Separating download page and email template editors. [Sep 26, 2013]
• V4.50: New template editor — grouping related templates (email/text/html) together. [Sep 2, 2013]
• V4.40: Including HTTP1.1 headers as specified by PayPal. [Aug 23, 2013]
• V4.27: Handling product link expiry. [Mar 23, 2013]
• V4.26: Exposing product link expiry. [Mar 12, 2013]
• V4.23: Using form submit (instead of JavaScript) in product delivery module. Sanitizing tooltips. [Feb 21, 2013]
• V4.22: A few more bug fixes. [Feb 18, 2013]
• V4.21: A couple of bug fixes. [Feb 18, 2013]
• V4.20: Proper use of SESSION variables. [Feb 18, 2013]
• V4.19: Serious bug fix. [Feb 15, 2013]
• V4.18: Bug fix in short code handling and toning down aggressive security checks. [Feb 13, 2013]
• V4.17: Adding a Quick Start help page. [Feb 4, 2013]
• V4.16: Refactoring to auto-deactivate the lite version, if needed. [Dec 23, 2012]
• V4.15: Minor fixes, testing with WP3.5. [Dec 22, 2012]
• V4.14: Using business name in validating PayPal transactions. [Dec 5, 2012]
• V4.13: Minor fixes. [Nov 7, 2012]
• V4.12: Documentation changes. [Nov 6, 2012]
• V4.11: Bug fixes in setup and shop display. [Oct 29, 2012]
• V4.10: Adding the plugin version within the standalone package. [Oct 19, 2012]
• V4.00: Rolling out ezSupport module. [Oct 16, 2012]
• V3.91: Bug fix / maintenance release. [Oct 3, 2012]
• V3.90: Rolling out a new pro feature product meta data editor. And adding batch mail support. [Oct 2, 2012]
• V3.80: Adding in-app update check and install. [Sep 28, 2012]
• V3.71: In WP plugin version, the storage location is moved to wp_upload_dir. [Sep 19, 2012]
• V3.70: Rolling out the optional add-on module ezSupport – for paid support. [Sep 13, 2012]
• V3.60: Showing an error message if the product storage location cannot be created automatically. [Sep 8, 2012]
• V3.56: Tabbed interface for the Admin Page. [Sep 2, 2012]
• V3.55: Enhancements from user feedback: Partial currency-name support, auto-creation of storage folder etc. [Aug 29, 2012]
• V3.53: Allowing all-digit product codes. [Aug 27, 2012]
• V3.52: Refunding a transaction now marks the sale as Dead/Refunded. [Aug 26, 2012]
• V3.51: Minor fixes ported from the plugin version improvements. [Aug 18, 2012]
• V3.43: Documentation changes. Bug fix in HTML mail template selection. [July 18, 2012]
• V3.42: Changing the length of one DB field to support older versions of MySQL. [July 17, 2012]
• V3.32: Minor enhancement in ez-update.php and a bug fix in the pro feature emailTools.php. [July 14, 2012]
• V3.31: Bug fixes in the pro feature salesEditor.php. [July 5, 2012]
• V3.30: Adding editable select in the product definition screen. [July 5, 2012]
• V3.22: More documentation, coding improvements, priming the Pro version, links to online docs and manual in the readme.txt file. [July 4, 2012]
• V3.21: Adding more help files. [July 2, 2012]
• V3.20: Tests complete. Initial WP release. [June 30, 2012]
• V3.13: Implemented an auto-generated page ez-shop as IPN listener and delivery. [June 28, 2013]
• V3.12: Automated Initial installation. [June 27, 2012]
• V3.11: Initial testing complete. Forking WP version. [June 21, 2012]
• V3.10: The plugin version (Easy PayPal) is dev complete.
• V3.03: Adding some documentation. [June 17, 2012]
• V3.02: Bug fixes: empty file in product definition should not delete existing file definition in the DB. New file uploaded should trigger the deletion of the existing file. [May 24, 2012]
• V3.01: Adding validation of email address in delivery and update modules. [May 22, 2012]
• V3.00: Ready to cut over on buy.thulasidas.com, with affiliate support. [May 19, 2012]
• V2.80: Product update handler: Dev and local tests complete. [May 19, 2012]
• V2.70: New Pro feature: Product updates. [May 17, 2012]
• V2.60: New Pro feature: Email IPN logs to Webmaster. [May 10, 2012]
• V2.50: Test complete. Ready to cutover. RC1. [May 9, 2012]
• V2.40: Deployed on my server. Remote testing of ezPayPal (not ezAffiliates) complete. [May 5, 2012]
• V2.30: Local testing complete. About to deploy it on the server. [May 4, 2012]
• V2.20: EZ Affiliates fully integrated. [May 1, 2012]
• V2.13: Login session timeout implemented. [Apr 23, 2012]
• V2.12: Minor bug fixes in the new features. Ready to be deployed now. [Apr 22, 2012]
• V2.11: Completed the Migration Tools. [Apr 21, 2012]
• V2.10: Added Pro tools: emailTools, salesEditor. Pro features: dispute handler, extra templates, options on html templates, versioning. Integration with ezAffiliates package.
• V2.00: Numerous improvements. Prepping the Plugin version.
• V1.10: Numerous improvements. Prepping the Pro version.
• V1.00: Initial Release