PayPal Promo Code Plugin
The PayPal PromoCode plugin allows you to create custom promotion or promo codes for your PayPal Buttons and also to create the PayPal buttons you need, to add Buy Now or Pay Now items to your posts or pages. Note: to use the promo code feature, the buttons must be created using plugin in order for PromoCodes to work with them.
PayPal PromoCode allows you to easily add your buttons to a Post or a Page by using a place-holder code ( for example [pppromo=1] ). Just place the code in the post or page where you want it to display and you are good to go. You can add as many buttons to a page/post as you want, including adding the same button multiple times (like at the top and bottom of a long page).
PromoCodes can be used two ways, either by telling the customer to use PromoCode YourCodeName (this would be whatever name you give it) or by adding the & or ? and pppcode=YourCodeName to the end of the url you give customers linking to a specific item or your home page. For example: http://donfischer.com/?pppcode=YourCodeName would take them to the home page of the site and set the PromoCode session. Now when they visit any page that has a PayPal PromoCode button on it, the promo code will be automatically applied – no need for the customer to type it in (this works great for hyperlinks and links in emails).
PromoCodes are not case sensitive. You can add as many promo codes as you want for each button / item or make a global promo code that affects all items (i.e., 10% off, or $3 off each item)
This plugin also has PayPal Instant Payment Notification integrated into it and will save all transactions to a database after completion for later retrieval (NOTE: NO reporting is included at this time – but the data is there for later updates/upgrades).
Tested: WordPress v2.5 – v2.8.4
Current Plugin Version: 1.4.3
Version Control:
1.4.3: Fix to database update function (functionality).
1.4.2: Added Shipping Amount box (enhancement).
1.4.1: Fixed a few minor bugs for use in PHP4 (functionality).
1.4: Fixed Version Check (cosmetic).
1.3: Fixed Content Filter function – was printing out button prematurely and was not compatible with other themes or plugins that used content filter (functionality).
1.2: Fixed Add Promo bug where button list not correct. Added UI Text for Add Promocode page. Updated text on Add Button Page (functionality).
1.1: Added instant payment notification for PayPal. Fixed DB Data Type for Amount in Button DB Table.
1.0: Initial plugin Release
Screenshots:
Hi, your plugin looks great! yet when I downloaded it I received only two .php files, when I open them in a browser I get all the code, when I open them through windows explorer they open in my default for php which is dreamweaver and is, of course, still the code. What environment am I supposed to open them in to see the interface? Or is there a glitch in the download?
Thanks, I am really looking forward to trying it.
Terese
Terese,
The plugin is only for the WordPress platform. You need to have a website running WordPress, then you can place it in the plugin directory and activate it – getting access to all of the functionality. It will not work any other way.
Regards – Don
thank you for your swift response!
okay, well that was next on my list anyway! Can you then use the promo code on any page within your site? Like special pages that are linked elswhere etc
I am assuming you are speaking of a self hosted wordpress platform, is that correct?
Therese,
Yes, a WordPress stand alone site.
You can use it on any page that has access to the WP core files, so if you create a page or a post from within the WordPress site itself, you will have access to the Plugin functionality. Hope that makes sense.
Regards – Don
what if I already have a site built and want to integrate wordpress, does that work? or does it need to begin as a wordpress site? Plus I have a database for products, that would pose no problem right? though I believe some promos will require pages made specifically for them…
Terese,
Let me clarify a few things for you:
1. The plugin will only work for pages or posts created in WordPress, or converted to WordPress. If you have a site already built, it would have to be ‘ported’ to WP in order to make it work.
2. In order for the promo codes to actually work, the products (or buttons) need to be created from within the WordPress admin area – otherwise you can’t associate then with a promo code or discount.
3. If you already have a database of products, this may not be the plugin for you. As I stated, the product buttons would need to be created from the admin area of WP to make them work – meaning you would need to re-create everything you have.
Probably the best thing for you to do, is set up a WordPress install, add the plugin, and then play around with it to see if it is something that would be beneficial to you or not.
The way the plugin is designed, you can’t use existing buttons or hosted PayPal buttons, as the code needs to calculate the appropriate discount based on the code. At the time the plugin was written several years ago, PayPal did not allow API access to the buttons, so the scripting was limited. Today, however, that allow greater access to all areas of your account, including hosted buttons, so it may be possible in the future, to tie into that API and eliminate the need to have the button created in the plugin alone. With that said, in order to do that, the plugin would have to be totally re-written – and that is not something I have the time or resources to do anytime soon.
Since I am getting many requests for features that could now be added because the API allows, I am planning a new release sometime in the summer of 2010.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
Many regards – Don
Thank you Don! You’re terrific and very kind to take such time with me. Good luck in all your endeavors, I will be playing with wordpress and the plug in this week.
Thanks again, T.
I am currently using a simple paypal shopping cart to sell 1 product. However, I’d like to add the capability to offer promotional pricing for multiple purchases. For instance, 20% off your total purchase when you buy 2 or more books.
Will your plugin allow for this? If so, where will the customer be able to enter their purchase quantity? Thanks in advance for your help!
Tamika –
Unfortunately, there is no capability to do tiered discounts. I do have plans to add them sometime in the future, but that will be a bit further down the road, as there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to complete all the projects I currently have ongoing. Check back every once in a while to see if there is an upgrade. Eventually, I will be releasing it into the WordPress repository to make it easier to upgrade as well.
Regards – Don
Hi Don,
Did my question get deleted?
Brent
Brent – no, it just needed to be moderated.
Thank you for the comment. Right now, there is no functionality to do a tiered discount structure. It is basically a simple promo code structure, like X% off a specific product or Y% off all products, etc.
I created the plugin several years ago, and the PayPal API has come a long way since then, so there is the ability to do a lot more than what was previously allowed. I have plans to re-design the plugin with new features and a cleaner interface, but I am not quite sure when that will happen. Maybe a few months from now.
Regards,
Don
Hi Don,
Ok …… and Thanks for getting back to me I really appreciate it!
Have a great weekend
Brent
Hi Don,
This very well could be one of the best plugins out there!
I’m wondering will it do the following:
10% OFF 2 items
15% OFF 3 OR MORE items
Thank you!
Brent
hi
can u help? been on phone w/reps outside of country & are getting no where fast….
i am trying to add disc code to our live site. we have customers (eek!) waiting & want to give them a discount. the majority are college students
thanks
j
Great talking with you. Please let me know if you need anything else.
- Don
I love to read articles that are informative, Thanks again for a nice site
Thanks Larry!
Hi – I am trying to use this for a subscription (vs a buy it now)
Is there any way to make this work? Thanks
Jocelyn –
It is not really set up for subscriptions at this point, but I suppose if you are moderately good at editing in PHP, you could change it slightly to allow that. I think you mainly would just need to change the ‘cmd’ input tag value from ‘_xclick’ to ‘_xclick-subscriptions’ and then change the button image to get it to work that way. If you need help, let me know.
Best regards – Don
Don,
Thank you so much for helping me out….your response was super fast! Your plugin is great….very easy to use. I literally spent all day playing around with code (I’m not a programmer), trying to figure out how to add coupon codes to my site until I finally stumbled onto your pluggin….Thanks so much for everything.
Sandra
You are very welcome. Glad I could help.
Best -Don.
Has anyone tried this plugin with WP version 2.8.5?….I’m having problems….Help!
Sandra
I’ll contact you directly to try and help.
Don.
Don,
Thanks again….everything works like a charm! Can’t wait until your next major upgrade.
Don,
Thank you for the quick reply. Now I can hardly wait until the upgrade….lol. Sounds great!
I appreciate any tweeks that you can do until then since, if I am correct in my thinking, the issue is at the button level in the code generated, of course, when the promo code is applied and the plugin goes back to the original button to create the discount page and button with the discount applied. Much more clear in my head than in translation…lol.
What I did for my immediate customer that I was trying to use your plugin for, was to just lower the price in the plugin to the discounted amount so that she would not have to enter the promo code. I then created the post with the html data for your button instead of just using the [pppromo=1] so that I could add the shipping lines of paypal code. In effect just straight coded instead of using the plugin directly, although the promo option was still visible because I pulled the code from your plugin. ( I kind of liked that look, so I kept it in).
The trouble with this obviously being that anyone can get this discounted price without having to know the code so I will have to delete this post after she completes her purchase.
Damon,
I added a shipping amount box for the button creation/edit. It will add the shipping amount option that I think you need. Remember to have the Require Shipping Address box checked as well.
While waiting for your reply, I decided to play around a little with your plugin to see if I could just do a little more of the work to get it to do what I needed for my physical product that requires a shipping fee to be added to the total.
In order to get my shipping rate in your plugin, I viewed the source after adding your [pppromo=1] code so I could see your actual code for this.
This allowed me to use the raw code as I suggested in my preceding comment instead of your [pppromo=1] code by simply copying the paypal part from the source code and pasting that into my post.
I then added the shipping code lines that paypal needs to add my shipping rate to the total and it worked fine if the payment button was clicked with no promocode. My shipping rate was there on the final paypal purchase page.
However, if promocode was entered, the shipping amounts were omitted after the discount was applied when clicking the new discount payment button from the discount page. Paypal would complete the sale without charging shipping.
So obviously, by now viewing the source on the discount page, the payment button that is made for the discounted price and applied to the new page pulls its creation from the ppbtn”x” list from the plugin defeats what I am trying to do.
This is the problem that I am having with the plugin.
Damon –
Thanks for the comments on the plugin!
The easiest way to get the shipping applied to all buttons is it set up general shipping rules in PayPal itself. If you are looking for various shipping rates that are not consistent across the board, that would not work, however.
the plugin was written several years ago and is in need of a dire upgrade. I have plans to do a major upgrade to the plugin later this year – hopefully next month to make the Christmas shopping season. Future upgrades plans include a wider range of buttons, a subscription feature, a donation feature and some enhancements to the promo code features – like limited number of use (first 50 people to use it, for example). But until that point there are many limitations.
Let me see what I can do for you individually to make the shipping work the way you need it.
Don
Also, is it possible to have the plugin provide the html as an alternative for insertion instead of just the [pppromo=1] etc.?
Wouldn’t this allow the insertion of additional paypal features by the user if necessary, such as the shipping code?
I love your plugin, but would like to request the ability to add a shipping amount to the product button. I see a check box for shipping required, but do no see what it does.
When tested, the promocode worked beautifully, but did not allow me to include appropriate shipping fees for a tangible product.
Thanks,
Damon
great! it’s all working now.. thanks a lot.
I updated a few things. Please let me know if you are still having problems. – DON
this is a very nice plugin.. but I have a problem.. i made my own sales page and i want to add this plugin to my sales page. How can i do that? pls help. tnx