PayPal API CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile Refuses to work

Question

I've been searching for information on this thing for the past 5 hours and have found a lot that doesn't work. I have successfully been able to use the setExpressCheckout API, get the details, and charge a normal order, but when I want to create a recurring payment profile, I always get an invalid token error. I know it's not an invalid token, but I don't know what to do.

I'm currently using PayPal's sample code for setExpressCheckout and createRecurringPaymentsProfile, without success.

Here's my ridiculously simplified code from PayPal.

<?

$environment = 'sandbox';   // or 'beta-sandbox' or 'live'
$ROOT_URL = 'http://example.com/paypal/';

/**
 * Send HTTP POST Request
 *
 * @param   string  The API method name
 * @param   string  The POST Message fields in &name=value pair format
 * @return  array   Parsed HTTP Response body
 */
function PPHttpPost($methodName_, $nvpStr_) {

    global $environment;

    $API_UserName = urlencode('email');
    $API_Password = urlencode('pass');
    $API_Signature = urlencode('sig');
    $API_Endpoint = "https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp";
    if("sandbox" === $environment || "beta-sandbox" === $environment) {
        $API_Endpoint = "https://api-3t.$environment.paypal.com/nvp";
    }
    $version = urlencode('51.0');

    // setting the curl parameters.
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $API_Endpoint);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);

    // turning off the server and peer verification(TrustManager Concept).
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

    // NVPRequest for submitting to server
    $nvpreq = "METHOD=$methodName_&VERSION=$version&PWD=$API_Password&USER=$API_UserName&SIGNATURE=$API_Signature$nvpStr_";

    // setting the nvpreq as POST FIELD to curl
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $nvpreq);

    // getting response from server
    $httpResponse = curl_exec($ch);

    if(!$httpResponse) {
        exit("$methodName_ failed: ".curl_error($ch).'('.curl_errno($ch).')');
    }

    // Extract the RefundTransaction response details
    $httpResponseAr = explode("&", $httpResponse);

    $httpParsedResponseAr = array();
    foreach ($httpResponseAr as $i => $value) {
        $tmpAr = explode("=", $value);
        if(sizeof($tmpAr) > 1) {
            $httpParsedResponseAr[$tmpAr[0]] = $tmpAr[1];
        }
    }

    if((0 == sizeof($httpParsedResponseAr)) || !array_key_exists('ACK', $httpParsedResponseAr)) {
        exit("Invalid HTTP Response for POST request($nvpreq) to $API_Endpoint.");
    }

    return $httpParsedResponseAr;
}


 $paymentAmount = urlencode(34.00);
if(!isset($_REQUEST['token'])){  
     // Set request-specific fields.

    $currencyID = urlencode('USD');                         // or other currency code ('GBP', 'EUR', 'JPY', 'CAD', 'AUD')
    $paymentType = urlencode('Authorization');              // or 'Sale' or 'Order'

    $returnURL = urlencode($ROOT_URL.'/buy.php?return=1');
    $cancelURL = urlencode($ROOT_URL.'/buy.php?cancel=1');

    // Add request-specific fields to the request string.
    $nvpStr = "&Amt=$paymentAmount&ReturnUrl=$returnURL&CANCELURL=$cancelURL&PAYMENTACTION=$paymentType&CURRENCYCODE=$currencyID";

    // Execute the API operation; see the PPHttpPost function above.
    $httpParsedResponseAr = PPHttpPost('SetExpressCheckout', $nvpStr);

    print_r($httpParsedResponseAr);

    if("SUCCESS" == strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"]) || "SUCCESSWITHWARNING" == strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"])) {
        // Redirect to paypal.com.
        $token = urldecode($httpParsedResponseAr["TOKEN"]);
        $payPalURL = "https://www.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=$token";
        if("sandbox" === $environment || "beta-sandbox" === $environment) {
            $payPalURL = "https://www.$environment.paypal.com/webscr&cmd=_express-checkout&token=$token";
        }

        //header("Location: $payPalURL");
        echo '<a href="'.$payPalURL.'">PayPal</a>';
        exit;
    } else  {
        exit('SetExpressCheckout failed: ' . print_r($httpParsedResponseAr, true));
    }
}else{
    $token = urlencode($_REQUEST['token']);
    //Now create recurring profile
    ?>
    <h1>Yes!</h1>
    <?


$currencyID = urlencode("USD");                     // or other currency code ('GBP', 'EUR', 'JPY', 'CAD', 'AUD')
$startDate = urlencode("2012-9-6T0:0:0");
$billingPeriod = urlencode("Month");                // or "Day", "Week", "SemiMonth", "Year"
$billingFreq = urlencode("4");                      // combination of this and billingPeriod must be at most a year

$nvpStr="&TOKEN=$token&AMT=$paymentAmount&CURRENCYCODE=$currencyID&PROFILESTARTDATE=$startDate";
$nvpStr .= "&BILLINGPERIOD=$billingPeriod&BILLINGFREQUENCY=$billingFreq";

$httpParsedResponseAr = PPHttpPost('CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile', $nvpStr);

if("SUCCESS" == strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"]) || "SUCCESSWITHWARNING" == strtoupper($httpParsedResponseAr["ACK"])) {
    exit('CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile Completed Successfully: '.print_r($httpParsedResponseAr, true));
} else  {
    exit('CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile failed: ' . print_r($httpParsedResponseAr, true));
}
}
?>

Obviously the email, pass, and sig are wrong here. The name of my script is example.com/paypal/buy.php In case that wasn't clear...

UPDATE: I finally found something that works. I haven't pretty code yet, but it did at least go through. https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/forums/nvp/createrecurringpaymentsprofile-invalid-token-0

Answer 1

Did you get this all figured out yet? The reason you'd get an invalid token error is if you don't include the billing agreement (recurring payments) information with your SetExpressCheckout request.

Here's a sample set that I always use to show people when this question comes up. Notice the BILLINGTYPE and BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION included in SEC.