Is using IPN (Instant Payment Notification) recommended for handling PayPal responses in PHP?

Using IPN (Instant Payment Notification) is recommended for handling PayPal responses in PHP as it allows you to receive real-time notifications about payment transactions. This ensures that your system can update order statuses, send confirmation emails, and perform other necessary actions immediately after a payment is made. 

// Sample PHP code for handling PayPal IPN

// Step 1: Verify IPN response
$req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
    $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
    $req .= "&$key=$value";
}

$ch = curl_init('https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $req);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Connection: Close'));

if( !($res = curl_exec($ch)) ) {
    curl_close($ch);
    exit;
}
curl_close($ch);

// Step 2: Process IPN response
if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {
    // IPN response is verified, process the payment
    $payment_status = $_POST['payment_status'];
    $txn_id = $_POST['txn_id'];
    // Perform necessary actions based on payment status and transaction ID
} else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
    // IPN response is invalid
    // Log the error or take appropriate action
}

Keywords

IPN Instant Payment Notification PayPal PHP handling

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