📝 PayPal Plugin for Medusa

The Alphabite PayPal Plugin integrates PayPal payment processing into your Medusa store. It handles various payment flows, including capturing payments, managing refunds, and ensuring robust error handling.

🔢 Version Compatibility

Pick the plugin version that matches your Medusa backend version:

| Medusa Version | Plugin Version | Install Command | | ------------------ | -------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | >= 2.13.* | latest | npm install @alphabite/medusa-paypal | | < 2.13.* | 0.2.5 | npm install @alphabite/[email protected] |

Instructions

• Medusa 2.13.* and above: Install the latest version of the plugin. This is the actively maintained release and is required for compatibility with the latest Medusa APIs.
• Medusa below 2.13.*: Pin the plugin to version 0.2.5. Later plugin versions rely on APIs introduced in Medusa 2.13 and will not work on older backends.

Before installing, verify your Medusa version:

npm list @medusajs/medusa

Then install the matching plugin version:

# Medusa >= 2.13.* (latest)
npm install @alphabite/medusa-paypal

# Medusa < 2.13.* (pinned)
npm install @alphabite/[email protected]

⚠️ Use the same plugin version across local, staging, and production to avoid runtime errors.

📝 PayPal Plugin for Medusa

The Alphabite PayPal Plugin integrates PayPal payment processing into your Medusa store. It handles various payment flows, including capturing payments, managing refunds, and ensuring robust error handling.

📚 Table of Contents

• 🎯 Core Features
• 🧱 Compatibility
• 🛠 Common Use Cases
• 📦 Installation
• ⚙️ Plugin Options
• 📖 Documentation

🎯 Core Features

• ✅ Seamless PayPal payment integration
• 🔄 Handles various PayPal error states
• 💰 Supports refunds directly from Medusa Admin
• 🛒 Creates new order IDs for each payment attempt within the same payment intent
• 📦 Optional inclusion of shipping and customer data in PayPal orders

🧱 Compatibility

• Backend: Medusa v2+
• Frontend: Framework-agnostic (integrates with PayPal's SDK)
• Admin: Refund functionality integrated into Medusa Admin

🛠 Common Use Cases

• Accepting PayPal payments for products and services
• Managing payment captures and refunds efficiently
• Ensuring robust payment processing with comprehensive error handling

📖 Documentation

For complete documentation, visit our PayPal Plugin Documentation.

📦 Installation

This guide walks you through installing and configuring the Alphabite PayPal Plugin in your Medusa backend.

1. Install the Plugin

Install the package via npm:

npm install @alphabite/medusa-paypal

2. Register the Plugin

Add the plugin to your medusa.config.ts or medusa-config.js:

{
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: "@alphabite/medusa-paypal",
      options: {
        clientId: process.env.PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID,
        clientSecret: process.env.PAYPAL_CLIENT_SECRET,
        isSandbox: process.env.PAYPAL_IS_SANDBOX === "true",
        webhookId: process.env.PAYPAL_WEBHOOK_ID,
        includeShippingData: false,
        includeCustomerData: false,
      },
    },
  ],
  modules:[
    {
      resolve: "@medusajs/medusa/payment",
      options: {
        providers: [
          {
            resolve: "./src/modules/paypal",
            id: "paypal",
            options: {
              clientId: process.env.PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID,
              clientSecret: process.env.PAYPAL_CLIENT_SECRET,
              isSandbox: process.env.PAYPAL_SANDBOX === "true",
              webhookId: process.env.PAYPAL_WEBHOOK_ID,
              includeShippingData: false,
              includeCustomerData: false,
            },
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  ]
};

⚙️ Plugin Options

The following options can be passed to the PayPal plugin in your medusa-config.js or medusa.config.ts file:

| Option | Type | Default | Description | | --------------------- | --------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | clientId | string | | Required. Your PayPal API client ID. | | clientSecret | string | | Required. Your PayPal API client secret. | | isSandbox | boolean | true | Whether to use the PayPal Sandbox environment for testing. | | webhookId | string | | Optional. Your PayPal webhook ID. If provided, enables confirmation of payment captures. | | includeShippingData | boolean | false | Optional. If true, shipping data from the storefront order will be added to the PayPal order. | | includeCustomerData | boolean | false | Optional. If true, customer data from the storefront order will be added to the PayPal order. |

✅ Compatibility

• Requires Medusa v2
• Compatible with both JS and TypeScript projects

🚀 Next Steps

👉 Configuration Guide 👉 Join our Discord Community for faster support

💻 Front End Integration

This guide explains how to integrate the PayPal payment flow into your Next.js storefront using @paypal/react-paypal-js.

1. Install Dependencies

Install the official PayPal React SDK:

npm install @paypal/react-paypal-js

2. Environment Variables

Ensure your public PayPal Client ID is available in your environment variables:

NEXT_PUBLIC_PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID=your_paypal_client_id

3. Implementation Overview

The integration involves wrapping your payment form with PayPalScriptProvider and PayPalCardFieldsProvider.

Key Components:

• PayPalScriptProvider: Loads the PayPal SDK script.
• PayPalCardFieldsProvider: Manages the state and callbacks for the card fields.
• PayPalCardFieldsForm: Renders the secure input fields.

4. Code Example

Here is a simplified structure of how to implement the PayPal payment component, based on shose-storefront/src/collections/form/checkout/paypal.tsx:

import {
  PayPalCardFieldsForm,
  PayPalCardFieldsProvider,
  PayPalScriptProvider,
  usePayPalCardFields,
} from "@paypal/react-paypal-js";
import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
// Import your internal hooks/utilities (e.g., sdk, usePlaceOrder)

export const PayPalPayment = ({ cart, onPaymentCompleted }) => {
  const [clientToken, setClientToken] = useState(null);

  // 1. Fetch Client Token from your backend
  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchClientToken = async () => {
      const response = await sdk.client.fetch("/store/paypal/client-token", {
        method: "POST",
      });
      setClientToken(response.clientToken);
    };
    fetchClientToken();
  }, []);

  // 2. Define Callbacks
  const createOrder = async () => {
    // Logic to initiate payment session and return order_id
    // e.g., sdk.store.payment.initiatePaymentSession(cart, { provider_id: "pp_paypal_paypal" })
    return order_id;
  };

  const onApprove = async (data) => {
    // Logic to finalize order after PayPal approval
    await placeOrder();
    onPaymentCompleted();
  };

  if (!clientToken) return <div>Loading...</div>;

  return (
    <PayPalScriptProvider
      options={{
        clientId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID,
        components: "card-fields",
        currency: "EUR",
        intent: "capture",
        dataClientToken: clientToken,
      }}
    >
      <PayPalCardFieldsProvider
        createOrder={createOrder}
        onApprove={onApprove}
        style={{
          input: {
            "font-size": "14px",
            "font-family": "Inter, sans-serif",
            color: "#111827",
          },
        }}
      >
        <PayPalCardFieldsForm />
        <SubmitButton />
      </PayPalCardFieldsProvider>
    </PayPalScriptProvider>
  );
};

const SubmitButton = () => {
  const { cardFieldsForm } = usePayPalCardFields();

  const handleClick = async () => {
    if (cardFieldsForm) {
      await cardFieldsForm.submit();
    }
  };

  return <button onClick={handleClick}>Pay Now</button>;
};

5. Payment Flow Details

1. Client Token: You must fetch a client token from your Medusa backend (/store/paypal/client-token) and pass it to PayPalScriptProvider. This authorizes the client to perform actions on behalf of your account.
2. Create Order: The createOrder callback is triggered when the user attempts to pay. It should initialize a payment session in Medusa and return the PayPal Order ID.
3. On Approve: The onApprove callback runs after PayPal successfully authorizes the payment. Use this to complete the order in Medusa (e.g., placeOrder).