paypal recurring payments form

Question

I have a website with a payment form, I want to add recurring payments. how would i do that? what ID's do I need to use in the form fields?

I saw a WordPress plugin that uses a3 t3 and p3 like so:

    <input type="hidden" name="a3" id="a3" value="" />
<p class="donate_recur"><label for="recur">Repeat Donation</label>
<select name="t3" id="t3">
                <option value="0"> Do not repeat </option> 
                 <option value="D"> Daily </option> 
                 <option value="W"> Weekly </option> 
                 <option value="M"> Monthly </option> 
                 <option value="Y"> Yearly </option> 
 </select> x 
<input name="p3" id="p3" value="'.$dplus['duration'].'" type="text" style="width:10px;" />

I'm not sure what a3 is but t3 is ever how long the transaction will happen, and p3 is how many times it will happen.

I looked a little on the web and i found how to make a PayPal button for some kind of product with recurring payments. but I need it to be dynamically inputted.

thank you.

Answer 1

a3 - amount to billed each recurrence
p3 - number of time periods between each recurrence
t3 - time period (D=days, W=weeks, M=months, Y=years)


<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick-subscriptions">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="[e-mail]">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<input type="image" src="http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_subscribe_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
<input type="hidden" name="a3" value="5.00">
<input type="hidden" name="p3" value="1"> 
<input type="hidden" name="t3" value="M">
<input type="hidden" name="src" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="sra" value="1">
</form>

Answer 2

Mandatory fields are:

a3: Regular rate. This is the price of the subscription

p3: Regular billing cycle. This is the length of the billing cycle. The number is modified by the regular billing cycle units (t3, below)

t3: Regular billing cycle units. This is the units of the regular billing cycle (p3, above) Acceptable values are: D (days), W (weeks), M (months), Y (years)

no_note: This field makes sure your subscriber is not prompted to include a note with the subscription, a function which PayPal Subscriptions does not support. This field must be included, and the value must be set to 1.

Source: Subscriptions and recurring Payments Guide from PayPal.

It's important to note that without the optional field src (also described in the doc above) the subscription expires just after the first transaction and threfore it's not recurrent:

src: Recurring payments. If set to “1,” the payment will recur unless your customer cancels the subscription before the end of the billing cycle. If omitted, the subscription payment will not recur at the end of the billing cycle.