PayPal Payflow Link payment method

PayPal PayFlow Link is available for merchants in the United States and Canada only. Customers are not required to have a personal PayPal account. Instead, customers enter their credit card information in a form that is hosted by PayPal.

The Payflow gateway uses a secure token to send non-credit card transaction data to the Payflow server for storage in a way that cannot be intercepted and manipulated maliciously. This token secures the data for a one-time transaction and is valid for 30 minutes. When the PWA client runs the placeOrder mutation, the application requests a secure token. The Payflow server returns the token as a string of up to 32 alphanumeric characters.

Payflow Link workflow

The following diagram shows the workflow for placing an order when Payflow Link is the selected payment method.

1. The PWA client uses the setPaymentMethodOnCart mutation to set the payment method.

2. The mutation returns a Cart object.

3. The client runs the placeOrder mutation, which creates an order and begins the authorization process.

4. The application requests a secure token from the PayPal gateway.

5. The gateway response includes a secure token, a secure token ID, and the URL to use for requesting the form in step 9. This token secures the data for a one-time transaction and is valid for 30 minutes.

6. The placeOrder mutation returns an order ID. The application does not return secure token information. The order has the status payment pending.

7. The client runs the getPayflowLinkToken mutation to retrieve the secure token information.

8. The application returns the token information.

9. The client displays a payment form in an iframe rendered from the URL specified by the paypal_url from the getPayflowLinkToken mutation response. When the customer completes the form, the client sends the payment information directly to the PayPal gateway, bypassing the application server.

10. After PayPal processes the payment, the gateway runs a silent post request against the application server. As a result, the application sets the order status to processing, and the order is ready to be invoiced.

11. The PayPal gateway returns control of the customer's browser to the client.

Additional Payment information

When you set the payment method to Payflow Link in the setPaymentMethodOnCart mutation, the payment_method object must contain a payflow_link object, which defines the following objects:

Example usage

The following example shows the setPaymentMethodOnCart mutation constructed for the Payflow Link payment method.

Request:

Copy
mutation {
    setPaymentMethodOnCart(input: {
        payment_method: {
            code: "payflow_link"
            payflow_link: {
                return_url: "paypal/action/return.html"
                error_url: "paypal/action/error.html"
                cancel_url: "paypal/action/cancel.html"
            }
        }
        cart_id: "IeTUiU0oCXjm0uRqGCOuhQ2AuQatogjG"
    }) {
        cart {
            selected_payment_method {
                code
                title
            }
        }
    }
}
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mutation {
    setPaymentMethodOnCart(input: {
        payment_method: {
            code: "payflow_link"
            payflow_link: {
                return_url: "paypal/action/return.html"
                error_url: "paypal/action/error.html"
                cancel_url: "paypal/action/cancel.html"
            }
        }
        cart_id: "IeTUiU0oCXjm0uRqGCOuhQ2AuQatogjG"
    }) {
        cart {
            selected_payment_method {
                code
                title
            }
        }
    }
}

Response:

Copy
{
  "data": {
    "setPaymentMethodOnCart": {
      "cart": {
        "selected_payment_method": {
          "code": "payflow_link",
          "title": "PayPal Payflow Link"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
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{
  "data": {
    "setPaymentMethodOnCart": {
      "cart": {
        "selected_payment_method": {
          "code": "payflow_link",
          "title": "PayPal Payflow Link"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Last updated 11/25/2023

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