Integrating PayPal into Your JavaScript Applications

Create Order and Pay subsequently

In the past, it was common practice to create an order after receiving the transaction result from PayPal. However, this approach can lead to problems if PayPal fails to provide a transaction ID or if the order creation process fails. To prevent these potential issues, it's possible to utilize PayPal's features to ensure that missing transactions are accounted for.

One approach is to regularly check for missing transaction results, as Rex does in IBP, and create the corresponding orders afterwards. This method has generally been effective in ensuring that all transactions are accounted for.

However, it's also possible to prevent missing transactions from occurring in the first place by utilizing PayPal's features. For example, you can set up an automatic retry process to ensure that transactions are completed even if there are initial failures.

It's important to be cautious when implementing these changes, as there are many other actions involved in the checkout process, such as insurance services, revenue services, and omnisend. A mistake in the implementation of these features could lead to problems, such as sending emails offering cheap microwaves instead of the intended purchase.

To ensure that everything is working properly, it's important to thoroughly test any changes in a staging environment before deploying to production. It's also a good idea to follow the best practice of merging code to staging first, and then to production, to reduce the risk of issues.

Can data be shared between createOrder and onApprove?

import React from 'react';
import PayPalButton from '@paypal/react-paypal-js';

const PayPalCheckoutButton = ({ amount, onSuccess, onError, onCancel }) => {
  // create a closure to store the data
  let customData = null;

  return (
    <PayPalButton
      createOrder={(data, actions) => {
        // store the data in the closure
        customData = 'your_custom_data_here';

        return actions.order.create({
          purchase_units: [
            {
              amount: {
                value: amount,
              },
            },
          ],
        });
      }}
      onApprove={(data, actions) => {
        // access the data from the closure
        console.log(customData);

        actions.order.capture().then(details => {
          onSuccess(details);
        });
      }}
      onError={onError}
      onCancel={onCancel}
    />
  );
};

export default PayPalCheckoutButton;

In this example, the customData variable is defined outside of the createOrder and onApprove functions, so it is accessible to both functions. The createOrder function stores the data in the customData variable, and the onApprove function accesses the data from the customData variable.

Another way to share data between the createOrder and onApprove functions is to use a state management library like Redux or MobX. You can store the data in the global state, and both functions can access it via the state management library.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.