PayPal Website Payments Pro / PayPal Express Checkout for CRE Loaded Version 1.0

Copyright (c) 2007 Chain Reaction Ecommerce Inc.
All rights reserved.

Module Requirements
     Please verify that your server meets the following requirements before attempting to install our module:

  • CRE Loaded v6.2.SP1 or higher
  • PHP v4.1 or higher
  • Apache v1.3.31 or higher (Unix/Linux servers)
  • libcurl v7.10.4 or higher
  • OpenSSL v0.9.6b
  • zlib v1.1.4

Installation Instructions

Table of Contents:

  1. Setting up API Access
  2. Creating API Credentials
  3. Identifying your API Credentials
  4. Logging into CRE Loaded
  5. Installing the PayPal Pro modules
  6. Configuring the PayPal Pro modules


Step 1: Setting up API Access

Log onto your PayPal account and pull up your API Set-up page by clicking "Profile" and then "API Access". Here you will click "Request API Credentials" to create the API information needed for this module (See figure 1). If you previously created API credentials, you will need to remove them before you can create new ones.


Step 2: Creating API Credentials

CRE Loaded Modules require the use of PayPal's 128-bit API Signatures. After selecting "API Signature" and agreeing to the PayPal License Program terms of service, click "Submit" to continue (See figure 2).


Step 3: Identifying your API Credentials

You will need the following API Information in order for the CRE Loaded module to work. You should print this page out, or save it for your records.
(See figure 3).


Step 4: Logging into CRE Loaded

Log into CRE Loaded and access the Payment Modules configuration menu (See figure 4).


Step 5: Installing the PayPal Pro modules

Select the appropriate PayPal Pro module and click "Install". The Direct Credit Card module allows transparent credit card transactions to take place directly on your site. Express Checkout allows your customers to pay via their PayPal account (See figure 5).


Step 6: Configuring the PayPal Pro modules

You will need to configure both modules before they will work in a live environment. The default installation settings are for 'demo mode', and are suitable for performing quick test-transactions to make sure your server is set up correctly. Some of the module options are common CRE Loaded settings and explainations of their use can be found in the CRE Loaded documentation.

Gateway Server
There are three settings for this option: 'Live', 'Sandbox', and 'Demo'. Selecting 'Live' will instruct the module to use PayPal's live gateway server. Transactions processed through this gateway are real, and will be processed as such. The Sandbox gateway is PayPal's test server. Transactions processed through this gateway are simulated, and no money is ever changed hands. To create a PayPal Sandbox account, you will need to go to
http://developer.paypal.com and create a developer account first. Once you have a developer account, you will need to create two seperate sandbox accounts to test a transaction, as PayPal will not allow transactions (simulated or otherwise) to involving the same source and destination accounts.

API Signature/Username/Password
These are the credentials you printed out in Step 4.

CURL Proxy
Some hosting companies (Such as GoDaddy) require proxy servers to be used for CURL applications such as CRE Loaded's PayPal Pro modules. If you do not have a CURL proxy, or do not know if you do or not, leave this field blank. During test transactions, if you notice the page 'hanging' for a long time and then timing out, it is likely that your hosting company is using a CURL proxy. In this situation, contact your hosting company and ask if this is the case. They will provide you with a proxy URL that will look similar to this: http://64.202.165.130:3128

Payment Action
Authorization & Capture is a PayPal feature that allows merchants to authorize a payment amount at the time of checkout and capture the payment at a later time. To capture either a partial amount or the full authorization amount, this option should be set to "Sale". You can authorize a higher amount (up to 115% of the originaly authorized amount, not exceeding $75 USD) by setting this option to "Authorize". If you are not sure what to do, leave this setting at the default "Sale" setting.

Debug Output
This option should be left "False" unless you are requested to set it to "True" by CRE Loaded technical support. When enabled, this option will output vital transaction data during critical points of the checkout flow. It will also halt the transaction at key points to allow a technician to see what is going on behind the scenes.

Copyright (c) 2007 Chain Reaction Ecommerce Inc. All rights reserved.