Joomla! and Paypal for RSForm!Pro
The Paypal plugin turns our Joomla! form builder, RSForm!Pro into a small shopping cart.
With the Joomla! Paypal plugin for RSForm!Pro you can add products to the form. The customer will be redirected to the Paypal page, and after he pays, the submission status will be changed to paid
Tutorial - Using RSForm!Pro with the Joomla! Paypal plugin
The RSForm!Pro Paypal Plugin is a Joomla! 1.5 plugin that once installed and enabled will add paypal functionality to your RSForm!Pro installation. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install the plugin, then we will add a Paypal Single Product component to an existing RSForm!Pro form, and will see how the submissions change once the payment is validated.
Technical requirements
In order to make the plugin work, you need the following configuration:
- Joomla! 1.5
- RSForm!Pro at least 1.2.0 Rev. 24
Getting the RSForm!Pro - Joomla! Paypal plugin
In order to download the RSForm!Pro - Joomla! Paypal plugin you must have at least one active code of RSForm!Pro. Simply go to the Customer Downloads section of our website(You must be logged-in in order to see the Customer Downloads section).
In the list of downloads go to the RSForm!Pro section, and download the file called rsfppaypal.zip
Installing the plugin
Once you have downloaded the RSForm!Pro Joomla! Paypal plugin, you can install it using the default Joomla! installer as shown in the image
The Paypal plugin should auto-publish itself, but if that doesn't happen, you can go to Extensions / Plugin Manager and enable it. The plugin is located in the System group and you can identify it by the name of "System - Rsfppaypal"
Configuring the Paypal Plugin
After installing and enabling the plugin, go to Administrator » RSForm!Pro » Configuration. You will notice that a new tab named Paypal appeared. That's where you must set up the plugin as follows:
- Paypal E-mail account: - This is the account where the money will be sent.
- Live mode: - Set this option to "No" in order to test the plugin with a dummy transaction. You must have a Paypal Sandbox account.
- Currency: - Type here the currency which the plugin will use to operate the form. Use values such as EUR, USD, AUD, GBP etc.
- Thousands Separator: - This is where you set the number formatting (thousands separator(if any)).
- Decimal Separator: - You can set it to "." or ",".
- Number of decimals: - How many decimals do your prices have.
Using the Paypal form components
Once you have enabled the plugin, go to RSForm!Pro » Manage Forms and edit the form where you want to use the Paypal functionality. You will notice on the left side of the screen, just under the common form components, the new Paypal plugin form components.
There are two usage scenarios. You can use the Single product or the Multiple Products options, but never both field types on the same form. The Single product can be used for fixed donations, attachment emailing and all sorts of scenarios.
The Multiple product field type can be added for as many times you like, transforming your form into a small shopping cart. By adding the "Total" paypal field type, it will automatically calculate the total of your selected items. The multiple product items can be set as follows:
price1|Description1
price2|Description2
price3|Description3
- Select: this can be used as an anthet for your product dropdown. It does not have any value, just for aestethics.
- price1: actual price of the product. No currency simbols are needed (the currency is picked from the plugin configuration area), just a numerical value.
- Description1: can be used a product name or label (optional, without "|Description1"). This will actually be concatenated upon displaying it in the frontend. A view option has also been added: Dropdown and Chekbox group.
- Example of using the form with a Single Product field:
3 ways to create a small Joomla! shopping cart with RSForm!Pro and PayPal - Example of using the form with the Multiple Products field:
3 ways to create a small Joomla! shopping cart with RSForm!Pro and PayPal - Part 2 - Custom PayPal example: automatically calculate the total amount of the selected products and their quantities and passe it further to the PayPal page.
3 ways to create a small Joomla! shopping cart with RSForm!Pro and PayPal - Part 3
The plugin will redirect the customer to the Paypal Pay page. At this time, the transaction status is set to "Pending". Once Paypal sends a notification to your script, the status will automatically change to "Accepted". If no notification is sent within 12 hours, the submission status is changed to "Denied".
Video tutorial
Additionally, we have made a video tutorial that explains how to install, configure and setup a small Joomla! shopping cart using the RSForm!Pro and the Paypal plugin.
The example uses the Multiple Products field and a Dropdown to list the products.
Ep. 25 - How to add Paypal functionality to your Joomla! forms using the RSForm!Pro Paypal Plugin
Examples and screenshots
