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For my website, people can submit an application to rent an apartment, and there is a $10 dollar submission fee for submitting an application. I made the form on my website using PHP and HTML (http://www.southernstovelofts.com/applyonline.php). I plan on accepting this $10 submission fee with a PayPal payment option.
My question is: how do I ensure that everyone who submits the form has already paid the $10 submission fee at PayPal? I suppose I could manually look at my PayPal transaction history and see if the person named "John Smith" has paid me at PayPal after I receive the application with the name "John Smith," but I think it would be better if you could only submit the form if you had already paid the $10 fee at PayPal. Additionally, what if "John Smith" has paid with his mother's credit card-- I would not be able to confirm he has paid in my PayPal transaction history because the only name I will see is "Jane Doe" (if she went by her maiden name, of course). How would I go about making this happen?
So, my basic goal is:
1) Applicant fills out application here: http://www.southernstovelofts.com/applyonline.php
2) Applicant clicks button at the end of the form that directs them to the PayPal website where they pay the $10 fee
3) After paying at PayPal, applicant is directed back to my website to a page saying "w00t I got your money and your application!"
If the user does not finish paying me at PayPal, then their application should not be sent to me.
With my current (and bad) setup, skills, and knowledge, applicants are able to send their application to me even if they have not paid, which I do not find ideal.
PS: if you were wondering, my website does not yet have SSL encryption, but I will be getting that soon, by the time that I am ready to accept applications of course.
My question is: how do I ensure that everyone who submits the form has already paid the $10 submission fee at PayPal? I suppose I could manually look at my PayPal transaction history and see if the person named "John Smith" has paid me at PayPal after I receive the application with the name "John Smith," but I think it would be better if you could only submit the form if you had already paid the $10 fee at PayPal. Additionally, what if "John Smith" has paid with his mother's credit card-- I would not be able to confirm he has paid in my PayPal transaction history because the only name I will see is "Jane Doe" (if she went by her maiden name, of course). How would I go about making this happen?
So, my basic goal is:
1) Applicant fills out application here: http://www.southernstovelofts.com/applyonline.php
2) Applicant clicks button at the end of the form that directs them to the PayPal website where they pay the $10 fee
3) After paying at PayPal, applicant is directed back to my website to a page saying "w00t I got your money and your application!"
If the user does not finish paying me at PayPal, then their application should not be sent to me.
With my current (and bad) setup, skills, and knowledge, applicants are able to send their application to me even if they have not paid, which I do not find ideal.
PS: if you were wondering, my website does not yet have SSL encryption, but I will be getting that soon, by the time that I am ready to accept applications of course.
