Free Photoshop Tutorials

We have tutorials explaining the basics of Photoshop and more complex tutorials for the Photoshop experts. Whatever type of Photoshop tutorial you want we’ve got it.

Including some great tutorials on logo design such as our famous sky logo tutorial.

We have recently expanded out of photoshop and into PHP tutorials. Our most successful is a practical paypal ipn tutorial. Vital if you are struggling to work out how to sell online using paypal.

It has bold yellow and green with the usual RVCA symbols. This is built over a background of repeated RVCA logos.

To follow the tutorial you will need to download a suitable font. I chose Eurostile which has also been used in the past for the famous fcuk branding.

Pre-Step: Logos and Fonts

Before we begin we’re going to need to download the logo/fonts and take a look at what we’re making. I took a picture of the shirt I was wearing.

As you can see, we’re going to need the rvca logo to use as a pattern, for the yellow parts. I was able to find this rather easily online. You can save the image below.

Last but not least, we are going to need a font similar to the one used in the shirt (the rvca part). When I looked at the shirt it immediately reminded me of a font I have on my computer called “Eurostile”. It’s a little different, but we can fix that with font settings. I think this font came pre-installed on my mac, so be sure to check. If not you can download it here(downloaded the bold extended #2 version).

Step 1: Creating The Patterns

Looking at the shirt you can see two patterns. The “RVCA” one and the actual logo. Each one looks like its tilted around 20 degrees. Open up the logo I had you download in photoshop. Use the quick selection tool to delete all the white from it. Also delete the “RVCA” text on it (you can use the rectangular marquee tool for that).

Create a new 150×150 pixel document, with a transparent background, and copy the logo to it.

Open up free transform on the logo layer (edit>free transform). Hold shift and rotate the logo one notch counter-clockwise. Place the logo in the bottom right corner. It should look like the image below. after you do that define it as a pattern (edit>define pattern).

Now we have to create a pattern for the text. Delete the logo from the 150×150 document, and grab the text tool. Type out “RVCA” (in all caps, 28pt). Remember to use the “Eurostile” font I had you download.

Use the the same font settings as me. They’re shown in the picture.

Open up free transform (ctrl+t) and rotate the text 1 notch counter-clockwise. Place it in the bottom right corner, and crop out the top 60% of the document. When done, define it as a pattern.

Step 2: Creating the Shirt

Now that we have all our patters set up, we can actually make the shirt logo! Open up a fresh document, 600×300 pixels in size.

Grab the rectangular marquee tool. On the top bar change the style to fixed size and enter the dimensions 300×300 (half the document). Fill the left half of the screen bright yellow (#f5de4e).

Create a new layer, on this one fill the right side green (#1ab440).

Now it’s time to create the two V’s. Grab the text tool and type on V using the green color. Also use all the same text settings as before, just up the size to 300pt. Place it centered on the left half.

Duplicate the V text layer (ctrl+j). Open up free transform and rotate the layer 180 degrees (hold shift). Change its color to the bright yellow we used earlier, and place it on the right side. Here’s what you should have so far.

Step 3: Applying the patterns

Open up blending options (layer>layer style>blending options) on the two yellow layers (background and text, do one at a time), and apply pattern overlay with the following settings.

Now do the same thing for the green layers, except use the text pattern and these settings.

Thats it, you’re done! I think it looks pretty close to close to the original. Here’s how it should turn out:

The Paypal website itself is obviously one of the best but we have dug down to find the most useful of their vast collection for those of us wanting to just concentrate on Paypal IPN.

We also have a good collection of articles, tutorials and code snippets by some of the top IPN sites around.

Have a look at @merseyinternet/paypalipn for a list of Paypal IPN experts

1. Paypal Integration Center

Paypal Integration Center IPN Overview. There is no better place to go for information about IPN.
Comprehensive information, good guides often with diagrams and code snippets in a variety of programming languages.

2. IPN Discussion Forum

IPN Discussion Forum. Good place to hang out with other people who are at the end of their tether. You will find the usual mix of experts and newbies. You can learn a lot here. Unfortunately they have had a bit of a reorganisation and deleted all the old discussions.

3. Testing Forum

Testing Forum. Mostly the sandbox. I love the sandbox. All that pretend money. If you use the Paypal Sandbox you should come here at the first sign of trouble. Paypal staff post here. Reading what they say can save you a lot of time and effort.

Disaster. All the old posts have gone. Hope they fix it.

4. Example IPN Script

Paypal’s example IPN script. Every beginner needs to look at this. But it’s just the starting point.

5. Designer Tuts IPN Guide

A great guide to IPN with example PHP code and some good links to other sites. The comments section is worth reading also.

6. Stackflow IPN Questions and Answers

IPN Questions and Answers. Stack Overflow is a programming Q & A site. This page is just IPN but you can search for other related tags. It’s like the Paypal forum but looks nicer.

7. A PHP Template for IPN

I can’t find this anymore. Anyone know where it went.

“PHP Template for IPN” by Drew Angell. He calls it a good starting point. I call it amazing. This page is on the Paypal Discussion Forum mentioned above. But I think it deserves its own spot in the top 12.

8. Tutsplus guide to IPN

A well set out tutorial that covers all the main steps but make sure you read the comments as well as some are critical.

9. Payment Gateway Library

An Abstract Payment Gateway library for Paypal, Authorize.net and 2Checkout. Good quality coding with friendly licensing conditions.

10. Olaf’s IPN Tutorial

Another tutorial with example code. But its by Olaf Lederer which makes it a bit special in my opinion. He also runs a useful Forum.

11. Linklok Video Tutorial

A video tutorial on how to use Vibralogix’s Linklok product to sell digital files. Shows everything from setting up your Paypal account to the user downloading a test e-book.

12. Micah Carrick Paypal Class

A PHP Paypal IPN Integration Class. Originally written over 5 years ago I think. So the blog comments will take another year to read through as there are a lot of them.

There is a note about a new version. I haven’t had time to take a look yet.

ADVERT Affiliate link: If you use Paypal’s add to cart buttons on your site then get rid of that cumbersome cart page that opens in a new window on each button click and replace it with Vibracart Paypal. Vibracart can hover above or be embedded in your page keeping your clients on your site until they are ready to checkout Vibracart Paypal

How to Sell Downloadable Products with Paypal IPN

Note: Paypal has redesigned its layout recently so my videos are now not quite right. Sorry!

I’ve been experimenting with Paypal IPN for some time now and I’ve had in the back of my mind that I wanted to put all the different Paypal tutorials I’d written together into one big explanation of what you need to do to sell downloadable products. When I tried this I realised there is just too much information for one tutorial.
So I’ve created a series. And despite my frog like voice I have decided to give video tutorials a go.

I’m not going to explain how to write your own IPN code from scratch. It’s just too difficult. Commercially available scripts have mostly been around long enough to iron out the bugs, to add on new features and create spin off scripts that do other related tasks. They also have established support systems to help with any problems you might encounter.

The one I recommend is Linklok from Vibralogix. (This is an affiliate link so I gain financially if you purchase after following this link)

Vibralogix provide an excellent user guide and there is plenty of help available on their support site but despite this I found it all a bit overwhelming so hopefully you will find my Linklok video tutorials helpful. They cover all the other things you need to do as well such as setting up your Paypal account, creating Paypal Buy Now buttons and so on.

This first tutorial covers the basics. The next ones will be more advanced. e.g. using a database to store products and log orders, high security, generating serial numbers, invoices, product specific emails, complex products and so on.

The next 3 tutorials will be free to use but you will need to register to receive them.

====================CLICK HERE TO REGISTER====================

Tutorial #2: How to Customise the Download Page

Tutorial #3: Using a Database or External Product File

Coming Soon: Many more Linklok Tutorials.

You can also go deeper into finding out what the competition is doing right which hopefully will give you some ideas on what you should be doing with your website. Market Samurai will do a PR analysis of all the links to each of the top 10 sites together with a an anchor text analysis of these links. A vital feature a good Keyword Competition Tool.

An option I find really useful is the ability to specify that you want to concentrate on a specific part of the world e.g. UK when you start a new keyword research project, an option lacking in some keyword competition tools I have looked at.

The best thing I can recommend is that you download the Free Trial from the Market Samurai site and have a look for yourself.

Just to let you know this page contains affiliate links (I gain financially from my recommendation if you subsequently purchase)

In this Flame Tutorial, I will explain the use of basic Photoshop shapes to create a life like flame. It is a single flame rather than a raging fire. You will start with a custom shape and after a few simple steps finish off with repeated use of warp transform to give that typical random like flame effect.

We start out with a flower shape which you can find in the Custom Shapes dropdown box. Set the background to black, and use red to fill the shape with:

Go for an outer glow of 25px, and an inner glow of 51px and 75% opacity as shown here:

Then, group the layer as a smart object and rasterize so you can, Filter > Distort > Ripple (With size Medium and Amount 617%)

Finally use Edit > Transform > Warp to alter the shape. I try warping like this to start with:

After a few times warping, apply the warp and do it again. You end up with a flame like this:

And that’s it completed. Hope you enjoyed this Flame Tutorial.

HTML variables

Buy Now buttons

Website Payments Standard uses a normal HTML Form to get information from your website. When you use their Create a Button wizard the HTML created is basically an HTML Form containing hidden HTML input variables that contain all the relevant details of the purchase.

1. Saved Buttons

Buttons created and saved on the Paypal website will have much of the information associated with them stored on the Paypal site. Consequently the HTML form on your website will be much simpler than one that is not stored on Paypal’s site. A saved button will have a variable with button id such as

<input type=”hidden” name=”hosted_button_id” value=”10954267″>

You should not edit this or try to generate your own hosted button ids but you can enhance the HTML form by adding extra value as custom variables. These should be added to a Paypal hosted button in Step 3 (Customise Advanced Features)

If you try to mix a hosted button with a manually created button you can get unexpected results. Paypal may ignore your manual additions. So I would recommend you go for one or the other.

2. The Form tag

The form tag will look like this. You should leave this alone.

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

3. Input variables

The input variables don’t need to be seen by the purchaser so they are marked as hidden. They will take the following format.

<input type=”hidden” name=”variableName” value=”variableValue”>

4. cmd variable

The “cmd” variable is always required in the Form. It always takes the value “_s-xclick” or “_xclick” for a “Buy Now” button. Don’t alter this.

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_s-xclick”>

5. Passthru variables.

Paypal lets you set variables and it will pass them on unaltered. Their use is optional and will depend on your situation. The following are passthru variables.

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_number” value=”test1″> (up to 127 chars)
<input type=”hidden” name=”custom” value=”anythingyouwant”> (up to 256 chars)
<input type=”hidden” name=”invoice” value=”123456″> (up to 127 chars. Intended for use as invoice number)

6. Character Set and Currency code

You can specify which character set you wish to use. e.g. to use UTF-8

<input type=”hidden” name=”charset” value=”utf-8″>

and currency code (USD is assumed if not present) Codes accepted can be found here Currency Codes

<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”CurrencyCode”>

7. Return URL for specific transactions.

There is the option to set a global return URL in your Paypal account which will apply in all cases for Paypal buttons you create. You may however want to override this for specific buttons or you may want to include session related information in the return url. How to use session information is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

<input type=”hidden” name=”return” value=”URLspecificToThisTransaction”>

“cancel_ return” is a URL to which the payer’s browser is redirected if payment is cancelled; for example, a URL on your website that displays a “Payment Canceled” page.

“rm” specifies the Return method. The FORM METHOD used to send data to the URL specified by the return variable after payment completion. Allowable values:

0 – all shopping cart transactions use the GET method
1 – the payer’s browser is redirected to the return URL by the GET method, and no transaction variables are sent
2 – the payer’s browser is redirected to the return URL by the POST method, and all transaction variables are also posted

The default is 0.
Note: The rm variable takes effect only if the return variable is also set.

“cbt” sets the text for the Return to Merchant button on the PayPal Payment Complete page. For Business accounts, the return button displays your business name in place of the word “Merchant” by default. For Donate buttons, the text reads “Return to donations coordinator” by default.
Note: The return variable must also be set.

8. Pre filling the form to make things easier for your customer.

If you already know the answer to some of the questions Paypal will need to know such as the Buyers Billings Address you can pre populate the form. This feature is not available in all countries. It is available in the US and UK.

Keep in mind that regardless of the address you fill in, when address_override=1 is passed a member’s confirmed address on file will be used as the shipping address and will be uneditable. When a non-PayPal account holder pays, their billing address and shipping address will need to match.

<input type=”hidden” name=”first_name” value=”John”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”last_name” value=”Doe”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”address1″ value=”9 Elm Street”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”address2″ value=”Apt 5″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”city” value=”Berwyn”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”state” value=”PA”> (or as appropriate for non US)
<input type=”hidden” name=”country” value=”US”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”zip” value=”19312″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”night_phone_a” value=”610″> (Buyers home phone. Area code for US. Country code for non US. 3 digit max)
<input type=”hidden” name=”night_phone_b” value=”555″> (Buyers home phone. 3 digit prefix for US. Entire phone number for non US. 16 char max)
<input type=”hidden” name=”night_phone_c” value=”1234″> (Buyers home phone. 4 digit phone number for US.)
<input type=”hidden” name=”email” value=”jdoe@zyzzyu.com”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”lc” value=”US”> (payers language for the billing info/log in page only. Default is US. Use UK for United Kingdom)
<input type=”hidden” name=”charset” value=”utf-8″>

9. Product Options

Specify product options such as size on a dropdown box or text box. You can specify up to 7 options on a single button (Up to 5 dropdown and 2 text)
You can either use the create button wizrd to do this or specify the code manually.

for example

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”business” value=”herschelgomez@xyzzyu.com”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_xclick”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_name” value=”Hot Sauce-12 oz. Bottle”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”amount” value=”5.95″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”USD”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”on0″ value=”Type”>Type of sauce

<select name=”os0″>
<option value=”Select a type”>– Select a type –

<option value=”Red”>Red sauce

<option value=”Green”>Green sauce

</select>

<input type=”image” name=”submit” border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” >

</form>

10. Product Quantity.

The default is 1 item but you can use the button wizard to change this. Or use this example code.

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”business” value=”herschelgomez@xyzzyu.com”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_xclick”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_name” value=”Hot Sauce-12 oz. Bottle”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”amount” value=”5.95″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”USD”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”undefined_quantity” value=”1″>

<input type=”image” name=”submit” border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” >

</form>

11. Offering a discount.

Paypal allows you to offer a discount.
- “Discount_amount” must be less than “amount”.
- If you don’t specify “discount_amount2″ then “discount_amount” will apply to all items not just the first.
- To use “discount_amount2″ you must specify “discount” as greater than or equal to 0.

You can specify “discount_rate” and “discount_rate2″ as an alternative to “discount_amount” and “discount_amount2″. This applies a percentage from 0 to 100.
Unlike “discount_amount” if you don’t specify “discount_rate2″ then “discount_rate” only applies to the first item.

Use “discount_num” to specify an upper limit on the number of items to which “discount_amount2″ or “discount_rate2″ applies.

Use the button creation tool wizard or this example code that provides a $0.15 discount on the first item ordered and a $0.20 discount on the next four items.
<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”business” value=”herschelgomez@xyzzyu.com”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_xclick”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_name” value=”Hot Sauce-12 oz. Bottle”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”amount” value=”5.95″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”USD”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”discount_amount” value=”0.15″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”discount_amount2″ value=”0.20″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”discount_num” value=”4″>

<input type=”hidden” name=”undefined_quantity” value=”1″>

<input type=”image” name=”submit” border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” >

</form>

12. Shipping and Handling charges

“shipping” and “shipping2″ specify the cost of shipping an item and subsequent items.
“handling” applies regardless of number of items.

13. Tax

Use “tax” and “tax_rate” to apply a transaction based tax amount or tax rate irrespective of customers location.
“tax_rate” can be 0.001 to 100

14. Weight

“weight” and “weight_unit” (lbs or kgs)

15. How the Paypal Checkout Looks

“page_style” can be set to “paypal” to use the Paypal page style
“page_style” can be set to “primary” to use page style you defined as primary in your account
“page_style” can also be set to any custon style you created in your account profile.

“image_url” specifies where the 150×50 pixel image is that will be used as your logo. If you don’t specifiy this then your business name will be used if you have a business acccount otheriwise your email address.

“cpp_header_image” specifies the image at the top left of the checkout page. maximum size is 750×90 pixels. PayPal recommends that you provide an image that is stored only on a secure (https) server.

“cpp_headerback_color” specifies the background color for the header of the checkout page. Valid value is case-insensitive six-character HTML hexadecimal color code in ASCII.

“cpp_headerborder_color”specifies the border color around the header of the checkout page. The border is a 2-pixel perimeter around the header space, which has a maximum size of 750 pixels wide by 90 pixels high. Valid value is case-insensitive six-character HTML hexadecimal color code in ASCII.

“cpp_payflow_color” specifies the background color for the checkout page below the header. Valid value is case-insensitive six-character HTML hexadecimal color code in ASCII. Note: Background colors that conflict with PayPal’s error messages are not allowed; in these cases, the default color is white.

“cs” specifies the background color of the checkout page. Allowable values:

0 – background color is white
1 – background color is black

The default is 0.

“lc” specifies the language of the login or sign-up page that subscribers see when they click the Subscribe button. If unspecified, the language is determined by a PayPal cookie in the subscriber’s browser. If there is no PayPal cookie, the default language is U.S. English.

“no_note” specifies to not prompt payers to include a note with their payments. Allowable values:
0 – provide a text box and prompt for the note
1 – hide the text box and the prompt

The default is 0.

“cn” is a label that appears above the note field. This value is not saved and will not appear in any of your notifications. If omitted, the default label above the note field is “Add special instructions to merchant.” The cn variable is not valid with Subscribe buttons or if you include no_note=”1″.

“no_shipping” specifies to not prompt payers for shipping address. Allowable values:

0 – prompt for an address, but do not require one
1 – do not prompt for an address
2 – prompt for an address, and require one

The default is 0.

A Basic Non hosted Buy Now button sample code

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”business” value=”herschelgomez@xyzzyu.com”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_xclick”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_name” value=”Hot Sauce-12 oz. Bottle”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”amount” value=”5.95″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”USD”>

<input type=”image” name=”submit” border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynow_LG.gif” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ width=”1″ height=”1″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” >

</form>

A Basic hosted Buy Now button sample code

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_s-xclick”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”hosted_button_id” value=”10954267″>
<input type=”image” src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif” border=”0″ name=”submit” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online.”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif” width=”1″ height=”1″>
</form>

Have you seen the other Paypal tutorials on DesignerTuts?

Adding a More Complex Buy Now Button
Adding a Really Simple Buy Now Button
Paypal IPN
Paypal IPN Receiving Instant Payments

Instant Payment Notification is better known as Paypal IPN and is Paypal’s interface for handling real time confirmation of purchases.

A typical use for IPN is where you want a customer to pay for a software download but there can be more to it than that and the IPN interface provides a wealth of options some of which I will go through in this article.

See my new Video Tutorial for Linklok. Videos make things much easier to understand.

Paypal have a simple demo of the basics of a Paypal IPN purchase, plus a good explanation called Introducing IPN and I have a more in depth Paypal IPN Tutorial available on this site which includes example php code. You should view these explanations before reading on but a very simple summary goes as follows:

1. Customer clicks the buy button and makes the payment through Paypal
2. Paypal posts a notification to your server with all the payment details
3. Your server echoes back the details
4. Paypal authenticates the transaction and sends VERIFIED or INVALID response
5. When your server sees VERIFIED it makes some checks and processes the order

The best place to search for information is the Paypal Integration centre. which has guides, code and links for everything to do with integrating your website with Paypal. It covers much more than just IPN. This article will assume you have decided that IPN is right for you.

The one place you MUST visit is the Paypal IPN Forum on the developer website. As well as a constantly changing list of discussion topics about IPN, there are some good sticky posts about troubleshooting tips, IPN variables, template code etc.

Paypal Sandbox

When you are developing your website you really don’t want to be trying to get it working by experimenting on a real money system. Any early bugs in the system could leave security holes but even if you write perfect code it is best not to do your testing using real money.

Paypal provides what they call a sandbox, almost identical to the live Paypal system. You can setup fake customers with fake money and make as many test purchases as you want. The perfect system to fully test your web application.

The Sandbox sets the variable test_ipn with a value of 1 in the HTTP response back to your IPN page. You may want to check for this so you know you are dealing with the real or the sandbox system.

There is a Testing Forum on the developer network. It’s a great place for advice.

Paypal Account

Paypal provide 3 different types of account. Personal, Premier and Business. You will need Premier or Business to use IPN.

Paypal IPN Events

IPN messages are normally generated to indicate a payment has occurred but this is not the only situation and you should be prepared to handle all of the following situations.

• Instant payments, including Express Checkout and direct credit card payments
• eCheck payments and associated status, such as pending, completed, or denied
• Payments that may be pending for other reasons, such as those being reviewed for potential fraud
• Events related to recurring payments and subscriptions
• Authorizations, which indicate a sale whose payment has not yet been collected
• Chargebacks, which are initiated by a credit card processor; for example, when a customer disputes a charge
• Disputes, which are initiated by a buyer using the PayPal resolution process
• Reversals, which occur when you win a dispute or a chargeback is canceled
• Refunds, which you may choose to give

Listener

Paypal IPN messages are not synchronized with actions on your website. You detect IPN messages from Paypal with a piece of code known as a listener. Paypal provides example code and there is also an example IPN code snippet in the IPN tutorial.

You specify the URL of your listener in your Paypal account’s profile (Profile, Selling Preferences, Instant Payment Notification Preferences) but you can override this for specific transactions when you setup a button or API operation (Set the notify_url HTML form variable). You can also temporarily turn off the sending of IPN messages, useful if your site is down for maintenance. They are still generated and stored until you switch sending back on again.

Paypal expects an acknowledgement from you (within 30secs) to show you have received the IPN message ok. If you don’t send an acknowledgement Paypal will resend the IPN message at intervals for up to 4 days after the first message. So even if you don’t intend to process the message you must acknowledge it or Paypal will send it again. If you receive a re transmission from Paypal even though you sent an acknowledgement you should send another acknowledgement. There may be a timing problem or the first acknowledgement may have been lost. Your listener code must be able to cope with this retry situation without processing the transaction twice.

Paypal recommends that your checkout flow should NOT wait for an IPN message before it is allowed to complete.

Listener Processing

You must perform a number of checks on the IPN message received from Paypal.

• Check the email address to make sure it is yours
• Check that you have not already processed the transaction identified by the transaction ID
• Make sure that the transaction’s payment status is “completed”
• Verify that the payment amount actually matches what you intend to charge

Example IPN Message

A typical IPN message:

mc_gross=19.95&protection_eligibility=Eligible&address_status=confirmed&payer_id=LPLWNMTBWMFAY&tax=0.00&address_street=1+Main+St&payment_date=20%3A12%3A59+Jan+13%2C+2009+PST&payment_status=Completed&charset=windows-1252&address_zip=95131&first_name=Test&mc_fee=0.88&address_country_code=US&address_name=Test+User&notify_version=2.6&custom=&payer_status=verified&address_country=United+States&address_city=San+Jose&quantity=1&verify_sign=AtkOfCXbDm2hu0ZELryHFjY-Vb7PAUvS6nMXgysbElEn9v-1XcmSoGtf&payer_email=gpmac_1231902590_per%40paypal.com&txn_id=61E67681CH3238416&payment_type=instant&last_name=User&address_state=CA&receiver_email=gpmac_1231902686_biz%40paypal.com&payment_fee=0.88&receiver_id=S8XGHLYDW9T3S&txn_type=express_checkout&item_name=&mc_currency=USD&item_number=&residence_country=US&test_ipn=1&handling_amount=0.00&transaction_subject=&payment_gross=19.95&shipping=0.00

Testing your Listener

The Sandbox has an excellent IPN Simulator (under Test Tools) which lets you choose the transaction type, fill in all the parameter values and send a test IPN to a specified address.

Some advice on the forum about using curl/fsockopen/local testing.

When things go wrong…

If you receive nothing at all.

• check that you have specified not only the correct file name for your IPN listener but also the correct path to the file.
• Check your firewall isn’t blocking HTTP POST messages from PayPal.
• Check the webserver logs for any errors

If you receive some messages but not all.

• Make sure the listener is processing ALL messages
• Make sure account is valid and confirmed

If you receive INVALID message.

• Check you are sending your responses to the correct paypal address
• Verify that your response contains exactly the same IPN variables and values in the same order, preceded with cmd=_notify-validate.
• Ensure that you are encoding your response string and are using the same character encoding as the original message.

IPN History

Paypal provides an IPN history page under the My Account tab. Click on History to see it. It includes everything you want to know about each IPN message including the following Status values.

• Sent: indicates that PayPal sent the message to your IPN listener
• Failed: indicates that PayPal did not receive an acknowledgement to the message
• Queued: indicates that PayPal is ready to send the message
• Retrying: indicates that message was resent between 1 and 15 times and PayPal continues to be resend the message
• Disabled: indicates that the message will not be resent because the merchant’s account has been disabled

IPN Resending

Use the History page to resend an IPN.

Conclusion

Paypal IPN is a difficult subject but the combination of an excellent testing environment in the form of the sandbox and the good quality advice provided through the forums should make it possible for you to get your website application up and running.

Interesting External Blogs

• Process Paypal IPN Requests Through WordPress « James Van Dyne – Process Paypal IPN Requests Through WordPress. Introduction. Paypal is perhaps the easiest way to send/receive money online and WordPress is perhaps the most popular blogging platform out there. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way …

• PayPal IPN Python Code | Django Aware – PayPal has Instant Payment Notification (IPN) libraries with examples for Perl, Java, and even Ruby, but look as hard as I may none for Python. Then again I.

There are many schemes out there to stop people changing your links but in my opinion there is only one worth considering – the “htaccess technique”. It does require a certain level of technical expertise to set up but its not that difficult and this tutorial will take you through the steps needed.

A popular way to make money is by use of affiliate links. This is where you advertise a product on your website and the product owner pays you a percentage of the purchase price when the person who follows the link subsequently buys the product or service.

For example a (fictitious) company Brilliant Books sells books at www.brillbooks.com and has an affiliate scheme where they pay 10% to you for every person you send to them who buys one of their books. They do this by getting you to register as an affiliate and give you a unique affiliate id code of 1234.

They know it’s you who sent the potential buyer to them because you link to www.brillbooks.com?affid=1234 instead of to www.brillbooks.com

Some people write malicious programs that they install on computers without the owners knowledge that will for example alter your link to brillbooks so that it says www.brillbooks.com?affid=6666 Now when the potential buyer clicks on the link the 10% affiliate fee goes to someone else.

So how do you stop this?

1. Find out if your web host is suitable.

This method only works for web servers that use Apache (as far as I know). Go to www.netcraft.com/whats and type in your website address into the “whats that site running” box. Then look under the “server” column and look for the word “Apache”. If its there then this method will work.

2. What is htaccess. Where is it located.

htaccess is a configuration file that contains instructions for the web server. You may already have one ( or more than one as they can work on a per directory basis). To find out fire up your ftp program or file browser or whatever you normally use to upload your website to your webserver and have a look.

htaccess is stored as a hidden file on the webserver which means its filename will be .htaccess
Your ftp program may by default not show you hidden files so you may need to enable viewing hidden files to be able to see .htaccess
Look for .htaccess in the same folder as your website’s index file. (index.html, index.htm, index.php or similar)

If you find one then you can edit it using any editor that is suitable for text files. Watch out on Windows systems that it doesn’t try to change the name to something more Windows friendly. This is because a file named .htaccess is alien to Windows. Usually putting quotes round the name when you do Save As will solve any problems i.e. save as “.htaccess”

If you don’t find an existing one then create a new one.

3. What changes do I need to make to .htaccess

Here is an example of the changes you need to make. Just add all the following at the top of your .htaccess file. Don’t touch anything that’s there already.

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule anyfilename.htm http://myaffid.blueberryc.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=LOGO1 [R=301,L]

</ifmodule>

4. Now change example code to real code

Where I have anyfilename.htm you should put a filename appropriate to your situation. e.g. if you were linking to a book website and a book about rare birds you might put rarebirds.htm This filename can be anything you want as long as it DOESN’T already exist.

Where I have put http://myaffid.blueberryc.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=BIRDS1 you should put your real affiliate id link as provided by your affiliate website.

Leave the [R=301,L] alone. It tells the webserver to redirect any requests for rarebirds.htm to http://myaffid.blueberryc.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=BIRDS1

5. And finally

Edit your webpage and put your new cloaked website affilate link in place of the existing link.

For example you might have the following html:

<p>The people at Brill Books have some good books about <a href="http://myaffid.blueberryc.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=BIRDS1">Rare Birds</a>.</p>

You should change it to

<p>The people at Brill Books have some good books about <a href="rarebirds.htm">Rare Birds</a>.</p>

It no longer looks like an affiliate link but it is. Make sure you check it is working properly of course.

Art is one of the best methods of self expression. It is a means by which individuals and groups can communicate their feelings to others.

Many resources online look at Emo and Goth art and offer useful tips on capturing Goth and Emo effects. Interesting artistic designs reflecting these subcultures can also be achieved through the use of Photoshop. Some common features that can be easily done in Photoshop include the following.

Emo and Goth Eye Effects

The most recognized feature of these groups is the use of makeup, especially around the eyes. Want to see how you would look as an Emo or Goth? Open one of your pictures in Photoshop, and get to work. The first step is to duplicate the background layer. Right-click the background in the Layers panel and select “duplicate layer.” Then, in the Tools palette, choose the Burn tool. It is beside the Blur tool. (If you are not familiar with Photoshop, moving your cursor over the various tools will show you the names.)

In the Tool options, choose a small brush. Around 30 to 40 will do. Set the range to midtones and the exposure to anywhere between 30 to 50. Apply the Burn tool around the edge of the iris. Then increase the brush size and use the Burn tool on the pupil. Try to get it as dark as possible.

Next use the Burn tool on the edges of the eyelids, and you can keep going until you are happy with the end result. The Dodge tool should be used to lighten the area just outside the pupil if you want to create an eerie look.

The unsharp mask filter in Photoshop can also be used to create interesting effects. Just select Filter from the menu bar, go down to Sharpen, and from there select Unsharp Mask.

It is clear why a program like Photoshop would be popular with Emos and Goths. This software program has a lot of features that can bring to life themes of importance to Emo and Goth teens.

Jewelry

Photoshop can also be used to create drawings reflecting Goth and Emo concepts in jewelry designs. Goth jewelry relies heavily on imagery such as pentagrams, crucifixes, daggers and other symbols. You can either start with your own drawing scanned into Photoshop or download an image from the Internet. Many websites offer a wide array of Goth-inspired jewelry.

Whether you consider yourself a Goth or Emo, or just find the image appealing, you are sure to find something you like. If you have only basic Photoshop skills, download a non-copyrighted image, and use the program to modify the image to make it more into your own style. With Photoshop this is easy to achieve, and the result could be converted into a unique pendant or even earrings.

T-shirts

Great line drawings can be used in producing eye-catching screen printed t-shirts. If screen printing is your thing, take advantage of Photoshop’s drawing features to produce unique designs symbolic of Emo and Goth cultures.

You can take also create Goth or Emo-style artwork for heat transfer to t-shirts if you don’t want to be limited to just basic lines. Heat transfer is perfect for elaborate designs, especially if you are not into screen printing. You can find great samples and tutorials online with a quick search.

See another (funny) Goth tutorial here