Administration
Once you complete the initial setup, you can access the admin page,
where you specify your PayPal details, general options and define your digital
products.
Note: The screenshots below are from the Pro version of
. In the standard version, the Pro features and options
will not be presented.
Once you have set up your , you can enter the admin area
to configure it. You will need your admin credentials (that you set up
during installation setup), your PayPal email address (so that your
customers can pay you), and your database details (to save your potential
purchases -- you may need to contact your web server admin for this
information).
Entering the Admin Control Panel
WordPress Plugin Versions
To access the Admin Control Panel in your WordPress installation, log
on to your blog admin section (http://yourblog/wp-admin
) and
click on "Easy PayPal Lite" or "Easy PayPal Pro" under your "Settings"
menu.
Standalone Versions
You can enter the admin screen by clicking Admin button right after
installing .
You can also find a link to the Admin page in all the pages presented
by . Look for it in the right hand side top corner as shown
below.
Once you enter the admin page, the first thing you will be asked to do
is to authenticate yourself.
Warning: Please note down your Admin username and password. If you
have forgotten either, there is no way to recover it. You will have to
access your database and delete the table with a name like
ezpp_5e81f9859d223ea420aca993c647b839M
, where the part
before the underscore is the database prefix you chose during
installation, and the part after is a random string. After deleting this
table, please go to the installation script
(http://yoursite/setup.php
where yoursite is the location
where you installed.
Admin Sections
Regardless of whether you are using the standalone or the WordPress
plugin version of , you will get an Admin Control Panel as
the screenshots below. The Admin Control Panel has three
sections, and we will discuss them separately below.
In the Pro versions, these three sections are arranged as tabs, with
the Product Definition tab on top because we expect you to navigate to
it most often after your is set up. Please access the
sections described below by clicking on the corresponding tabs.
The screenshots shown are from the Pro version of . If you
have installed the Lite edition, you may see fewer option entries on this
screen. The easiest way to get information on a feature or option is to
hover over the
icon next to it.
PayPal Details
This section has the following fields.
- PayPal username: Enter your name (or your company name). This
is used for display purposes.
- PayPal email ID: Enter your PayPal email ID, which will
receive your payments.
- PayPal SandBox email ID: PayPal SandBox email ID, which you
can use for testing your setup. This entry is optional.
- Use SandBox [test] mode: If checked, PayPal SandBox will be
used.
- Email IPN Logs: If checked, the PayPal IPN details (logs of
the conversations between your server and PayPal) will be emailed to the
support email address even in live mode.
General Options
This section has the following fields.
- Support email ID: An email ID where your buyers can contact
you for support.
- Support Name: A friendly name to go with your support email
ID.
- Expire Time (in hours): The number of hours after which the
download links will expire. When a purchase is made, an auto-generated
email is sent to the buyer with a download link. The link expires after
the number of hours you specify here. (I use 72 hours).
- Random Storage Location: Randomize the storage location of
your digital goods so that potential hackers cannot easily guess it?
Recommended. Note that you will have to set the permission to the
storage directory so that files can be uploaded there.
- Random File Name: Randomize the file name of your digital
goods on the server as you upload it so that potential hackers cannot
easily guess it? Recommended.
- Location for Lite Versions: Optional. If you plan to provide
Lite versions of your products, here is where they will reside.
Give the full pathname on the server, or a relative pathname under the
ezPayPal
folder.
- Location for Pro Versions: If you plan to use non-random
location for the Pro versions of your products, here is where
they will reside. Note that non-random location is not recommended
because it can be easily guessed and hacked into.
Give the full pathname on the server, or a relative pathname under the
ezPayPal
folder.
- Send HTML emails: If checked, the emails sent your buyers
with their download links will be in HTML format. You can customize the
default HTML template with the Template editor, which you will find
under Pro Tools.
Product Definitions
Here is where you define your digital products. This section has the
following fields.
- Product Code: A short code for the digital product you want
to sell. e.g., ezPro. This key field needs to be unique. The
drop-down menu is editable. (To add a new product, just type in a new
Product Code. To edit an existing one, either select it from the
menu or type it in.)
- Product Name: A descriptive name of the digital product you
want to sell. e.g., Easy AdSense Pro - Premium AdSense Plugin for
WordPress bloggers
- Activate this Product?: Leave this option checked to list the
product in your shop. Unchecking it is equivalent to deleting the
product. It will not be listed, nor can it be bought.
- Product Category: An optional category for the product, which
you can use for grouping similar products together. You can have
categories like Apps, Plugins, eBooks, Photos, Songs etc. (The
drop-down menu is editable. To add a new category, just type in a
new name. To edit an existing one, either select it from the menu or
type it in.)
- Product Grouping: An optional grouping for your products,
this field can contain higher level groupins, like Software (for Apps,
Plugins, for instance), Creative (e.g. for eBooks, Photos) and so on.
This field can help you organize or autogenerate your e-shop pages as
your business grows. (The drop-down menu is editable. To add a new
grouping, just type in a new name. To edit an existing one, either
select it from the menu or type it in.)
- Product Price: Enter only numbers. e.g. 4.95
- Product Currency: Specify the currency in which the product
price is give. e.g. USD.
-
Shipping Address Needed: Specify whether PayPal will ask for a
shipping address for this product:
- Prompt for (but not require) an address
- Do not prompt for an address
- Prompt for an address, and require one
- Product File Name: When your customers buy your digital
product, this is the file they will download.
- Your Digital Product: This is the actual digital product that
you want to put up for sale using ezPayPal. It can be a zip archive,
photos, PDF files etc. If you have multiple files making up the product,
please make a zip archive of it first. Note that the file you upload
does not need to have the same name you specify as Product File
Name. The real file will be saved on your server under a random file
name in a random location so that it will not be easily discovered by
potential hackers.
- Product Version: Your sales will keep track of the product
versions so that you can, for example, send upgrade notifications to
your buyers. You would use the Email Tools (found under Pro Tools) for
this purpose. Use a numeric version with two decimals (like 3.12 to
indicate major version 3, minor version 1 and update 2, for instance).
String versions (like V3.1.2) are not supported.
Once you have defined at least one product, your e-shop is already up
(in the standalone versions) at http://yoursite/ez-shop.php
.
In WordPress plugin editions, you will use shortcodes to generate a shop
front or "Buy Now!" kind of links. See the chapter on
Your Shop for details.