Tiny PayPal

The missing PayPal tool for Node

PayPal has literally A TON of documentation, but little to none is targeted for NodeJS users.

This is a simple tool to create payments using the modern and elegant version of PayPal, solving hours of research, trial and error.

Install the module

yarn add tiny-paypal
# npm install tiny-paypal

Initialize it

const PayPal = require('tiny-paypal');

const CLIENT_ID = "your-client-id-here";
const CLIENT_SECRET = "your-client-secret-here";
const SUCCESS_CALLBACK_URL = "https://www.your-store.com/success";
const CANCEL_CALLBACK_URL = "https://www.your-store.com/checkout";

const defaults = {
	sandbox: true, 		// leave blank for production (default)
	currency: "EUR",	// by default "USD"
	successCallbackUrl: SUCCESS_CALLBACK_URL,
	cancelCallbackUrl: CANCEL_CALLBACK_URL
};

const paypal = new PayPal(CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET, defaults);

Create a simple payment

If you just want to charge an amount of money, you can invoke this method:

try {
	const payment = await paypal.createPayment({
		amount: 10,
		description: "My Shop Inc.",

		// optional fields

		shipping: 5,    // 0 by default
		discount: 4,    // 0 by default
		discountText: "Welcome discount", // "Discount" by default
		currency: "EUR",    // overrides the value by default
		successCallbackUrl: "https://www.your-store.com/payment-success",    // overrides the value set before
		cancelCallbackUrl: "https://www.your-store.com/payment-canceled"    // overrides the value set before
	});

	// Handle the result here
	console.log("Payment ID:", payment.id);
	console.log("Redirect URL", payment.redirect);  // Redirect your client's browser to this URL
	console.log("Info URL", payment.get);  // Get the payment info from this URL
	console.log("Execute URL", payment.execute);  // Execute the payment through this URL (payment approval is needed)
}
catch (error) {
	// Handle the error
	console.error(error.message);
}

Create a payment based on your cart

To display a list of the items on the PayPal screen, you can use TinyPaypal like this:

try {
	const payment = await paypal.createCartPayment({
		cart: [{
			name: "Product 1",
			description: "Product 1 description here", // optional
			price: 3,
			quantity: 10, // optional
			sku: '#1234'  // optional
		}, {
			name: "Product 2",
			description: "Product 2 description here", // optional
			price: 4,
			quantity: 5, // optional
			sku: '#1235' // optional
		}],
		description: "My Shop Inc.",

		// optional fields

		shipping: 5,
		discount: 4,
		discountText: "Welcome discount", // "Discount" by default
		currency: "EUR",    // overrides the value by default
		successCallbackUrl: "https://www.your-store.com/payment-success",    // overrides the value set before
		cancelCallbackUrl: "https://www.your-store.com/payment-canceled"    // overrides the value set before
	});

	// Handle the result here
	console.log("Payment ID:", payment.id);
	console.log("Redirect URL", payment.redirect);  // Redirect your client's browser to this URL
	console.log("Info URL", payment.get);  // Get the payment info from this URL
	console.log("Execute URL", payment.execute);  // Execute the payment through this URL (payment approval is needed)
}
catch (error) {
	// Handle the error
	console.error(error.message);
}

Redirect

Next, you need to redirect your client to result.redirect. When the client confirms the payment, PayPal will redirect the browser to the SUCCESS_CALLBACK_URL with three query string parameters: paymentId, token and PayerID.

Get these parameters and execute the payment

try {
	const result = await paypal.executePayment("payment-id", "token", "payer-id");
	console.log("Payment result:", result);
}
catch (error) {
	// Handle the error
	console.error(error.message);
}

This will log to the console something like:

Response: { id: 'PAY-1NA38651KW861730HK6HVNHQ',
	intent: 'sale',
	state: 'approved',
	cart: '9H784395YC168205K',
	payer: 
	{ payment_method: 'paypal',
		status: 'VERIFIED',
		payer_info: 
			{
				email: '[email protected]',
				first_name: 'Test',
				last_name: 'Buyer',
				payer_id: 'MEFWRPEQDM(2J',
				shipping_address: [Object],
				country_code: 'ES',
				billing_address: [Object] } },
	transactions: 
	[ { amount: [Object],
			payee: [Object],
			description: 'ACME Corporation Store',
			item_list: [Object],
			related_resources: [Object] } ],
	create_time: '2016-07-20T11:45:47Z',
	links: 
	[ { href: 'https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/payments/payment/PAY-1NA38651KW861730HK6HVNHQ',
			rel: 'self',
			method: 'GET' 
		}
	]
}

Useful Documentation and tools

• https://developer.paypal.com/docs/integration/web/accept-paypal-payment/
• https://devblog.paypal.com/building-a-web-app-with-node-js-the-paypal-sdk-part-2/
• https://devtools-paypal.com/guide/pay_paypal/curl?interactive=ON&env=sandbox