Adding Simple Payment Processing to Drupal Site

I had a need to add simple payment processing to a Drupal website; I did not want to use Ubercart or any other eCommerce modules, or CiviCRM. Here were my basic requirements:

• Users register for a course using a web form page
• After registration user is taken to a payment page
• Payment is then processed by Paypal
• After payment is processed, user is directed back to the site

In this simple payment processing example, I did not want any payment confirmation. For example, if a user registers and then does not complete payment then in this simple method, there would be no automated check or flag; the admin would have to manually check and match the registration and payment records. In order to accomplish this, I looked at two modules: Simple_Paypal and LM_Paypal. Simple_Paypal is till in test mode for Drupal 6, so it is not ready for deployment. LM_Paypal was used for this example. Following steps were used:

1. Install lm_paypal module in normal location (/sites/all/modules/)
2. Enable the module at admin/build/modules
3. Configure the module at admin/settings/lm_paypal/settings
4. The first field is LM PayPal Business/Premier Email:
   • Create an account with Paypal and use the email address registered with Paypal
5. Use default values for the next 2 fields. Use the sandbox address while testing
6. While testing check on the two checkboxes
7. Last step in configuration is to go to admin/settings/lm_paypal/donations_settings. Here enter a URL; this URL is used by Paypal after the payment processing is complete.
8. Next, we need to put a “Pay” link on a webpage.

This completes the setup of simple payment processing.