Hello! I’m trying to design a workflow to organize a lottery for my kids’ school, 100% online in this weird period. I’m having troubles with my workflow - maybe someone can help. It’s my first experiment with Zapier, so there are optimization potential I’m sure :-) Step 1: It start with a list of kids, each with a kid ID - and an Airtable form in which the kid ID is pre-populated from a “prefill” parameter in the URL. This URL is a personalized URL that each kid can send to their relatives asking them to buy tickets and help them win a “best ticker seller” contest. The form creates an entry in an Airtable Transactions table, that has a Transaction ID (the record ID for this row in the Transactions table), and stores the kids ID, the client’s (the one that buys the ticket) name and email address, and the number of tickets desired. Step 2: A first Zap watches this Transactions table. When a new record is created, an email is sent to the client, sending them to a dedicated wordpress page, with the transaction ID as a parameter. With the Airpress plugin, I can very easily pull the Airtable transaction data corresponding to this transaction ID and setup a Paypal donation form with this data (amount in particular but also client name and email). The client on the wordpress page clicks on a “pay now” image and gets redirected to Paypal, where they pay (it’s called “Donate” in paypal). As stated before, I can pass the correct amount retrieved from Airtable to Paypal in the amount field of the Paypal form. My plan is to pass the transaction ID in the custom field at this stage (Transaction ID which was created during step 1, i.e. when the Airtable form was submitting, creating an entry in the Transactions table) Step 3: A second Zap is triggered by a Paypal transaction, and updates the Transaction table with Paypal payment confirmation (amount paid, name and email to store them next to the transaction details collected in the initial Airtable form). In order to know which Airtable record to update in the Transactions table, my plan is to retrieve the previously passed transaction ID in Paypal’s custom field and match it to the Airtable transaction ID. The thing is that the default Paypal transaction used to test workflows in Zapier doesn’t have any “custom” parameter, so I can’t really check the workflow unless I actually pay something on Paypal… I’d like to be able to test end to end and probably will need to do that several times. Does this workflow make sense, or am I complicated something that could be way easier? Can we pass a “custom” field to Paypal from a form and then retrieve it in Zapier? Thanks a lot for your help. Best, Cédric

Paypal "custom" field | Zapier Community

Hello!

I’m trying to design a workflow to organize a lottery for my kids’ school, 100% online in this weird period. I’m having troubles with my workflow - maybe someone can help. It’s my first experiment with Zapier, so there are optimization potential I’m sure :-)

Step 1: It start with a list of kids, each with a kid ID - and an Airtable form in which the kid ID is pre-populated from a “prefill” parameter in the URL. This URL is a personalized URL that each kid can send to their relatives asking them to buy tickets and help them win a “best ticker seller” contest. The form creates an entry in an Airtable Transactions table, that has a Transaction ID (the record ID for this row in the Transactions table), and stores the kids ID, the client’s (the one that buys the ticket) name and email address, and the number of tickets desired.
Step 2: A first Zap watches this Transactions table. When a new record is created, an email is sent to the client, sending them to a dedicated wordpress page, with the transaction ID as a parameter. With the Airpress plugin, I can very easily pull the Airtable transaction data corresponding to this transaction ID and setup a Paypal donation form with this data (amount in particular but also client name and email). The client on the wordpress page clicks on a “pay now” image and gets redirected to Paypal, where they pay (it’s called “Donate” in paypal). As stated before, I can pass the correct amount retrieved from Airtable to Paypal in the amount field of the Paypal form. My plan is to pass the transaction ID in the custom field at this stage (Transaction ID which was created during step 1, i.e. when the Airtable form was submitting, creating an entry in the Transactions table)
Step 3: A second Zap is triggered by a Paypal transaction, and updates the Transaction table with Paypal payment confirmation (amount paid, name and email to store them next to the transaction details collected in the initial Airtable form). In order to know which Airtable record to update in the Transactions table, my plan is to retrieve the previously passed transaction ID in Paypal’s custom field and match it to the Airtable transaction ID.

The thing is that the default Paypal transaction used to test workflows in Zapier doesn’t have any “custom” parameter, so I can’t really check the workflow unless I actually pay something on Paypal… I’d like to be able to test end to end and probably will need to do that several times.

Does this workflow make sense, or am I complicated something that could be way easier?
Can we pass a “custom” field to Paypal from a form and then retrieve it in Zapier?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best,

Cédric

Page 1 / 1

Hi @djcedrapel - Thanks for writing into us!

Sounds like you definitely have a great system you’re looking to build out! So that we can get your questions answered, I’ve escalated this to support for some top notch advice.

Please standby!

Hi i have a similar problem :-)

I'm using mautic, paypal and zapier

I have a landing page where i sell a product via paypal button. I save user data into mautic and i have to intercept paypal ipn to update contact into mautic.

The problem is that if a user register with an email address and then buys with another one (because for example he uses his father’s paypal account or he has paypal account with another address) zapier sends me back the buyer’s email and don’t the user’s email.

i have set up paypal button to send an additional “email” field but i don’t see it into zapier and i don’t know if it sent via paypal ipn data but i’m sure that paypal sends custom field via ipn so it is possibile to read custom field into zapier?

Hi i have a similar problem :-)

I'm using mautic, paypal and zapier

I have a landing page where i sell a product via paypal button. I save user data into mautic and i have to intercept paypal ipn to update contact into mautic.

Hello, I’ve escalated your issue to support for further investigation. Thanks!

Hi steph.n, thanks! there is also another way: use extender variables.

I noted that it is also not possible to use them.

if we change the paypal form from this

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

to this

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_ext-enter">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_cmd" value="_xclick">

we can use other fields among which

email

in this way I could update the lead through the email field

Hi steph.n, thanks! there is also another way: use extender variables.

I noted that it is also not possible to use them.

if we change the paypal form from this

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

to this

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_ext-enter">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_cmd" value="_xclick">

we can use other fields among which

email

in this way I could update the lead through the email field

Hi there @cittanet - I just wanted to see if you were still having troubles with this. After escalating this issue, it seems that if you turn on the Zap and run it with real data (not the sample in the Zap editor), it should work. Can you confirm with us once you turn on your Zap and see if the end result is still the same? Thanks!

@djcedrapel - Glad to hear that your Zap worked as expected once you turned it on. Sometimes, the sample data in the editor doesn’t always show the Zap working even though you set it up correctly.

And congrats on finishing your app in a few day's time. Best of luck!

Hi steph.n, thanks! there is also another way: use extender variables.

I noted that it is also not possible to use them.

if we change the paypal form from this

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

to this

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_ext-enter">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_cmd" value="_xclick">

we can use other fields among which

email

in this way I could update the lead through the email field

Hi @steph.n in the previous days i had run that zap several times with real data but it didn’t work :-( Anyway on wednesday I wrote some email with your support (Clint). I explained him the problem and he wrote me this:

Thank you for the details on this! I did a bunch of digging, and it seems like we're simply not receiving those custom fields from Paypal at this point.

It’s strange because i found another service like yours and it works perfectly with custom field infact at the moment i’m using that service to run tasks

Hi @cittanet - Thanks for sharing your answer with us! Bummer that we couldn’t be the solution you were looking for, but the good news is that we’ve added you to our feature wish list. Once there’s an update when the feature arrives, you’ll be notified. Thanks for being patient with us and best wishes!.

Useful links

Code of conduct

Using the Community

Community expectations

Useful links

Code of conduct

Using the Community

Community expectations

Sign up

Use your Zapier credentials

Log in to the Community

Use your Zapier credentials

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded