Direct web URL to PayPal transaction
paypal
Solution
I found a link that seems to work:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_view-a-trans&id=XXXXXX
For sandbox:
https://sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_view-a-trans&id=XXXXXX
In the link, replace XXXXXX with the transaction ID.
Got this from an email confirmation of payment. Of course, no way to know how long that will work for, it's not exactly a documented feature. PayPal could change it at any point. But it should work at least today.
Problem
Having implemented PayPal's Website Payments Standard, I'd like to link to the details view of a transaction from my site's back end - just a simple direct web URL to the PayPal side. I don't know why this is tricky but when I try to get it from being logged in to the PayPal system it seems very obfuscated, in this form: history.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_history-details&info=[looks like some kind of GUID]&ptype=4&history_cache=[huge encoded string] I'm guessing it's by design but it's not very helpful if you want a quick way to jump to a transaction's details. I've tried the `https://www.paypal.com/vst/id=1234` form (also with co.uk as I am UK-based) recommended on a few sites I saw in my search, but I am told that: The transaction ID in your link is invalid. This happens even when copying the transaction ID directly from PayPal's back-end order listing. Is there a reliable way to directly link to an order / transaction details page in PayPal?