Paypal add to cart button html for handling_cart options - html

Question

I am OK at html but new to PayPal.
I want to be able to use a Paypal button directly from my site without having to use a third party shopping cart.
The only problem I have is that I am in the UK and Paypal do not offer postage/shipping options here dependent on where you are shipping to. So for instance PayPal's standard buttons would not allow me to charge different postage whether I was sending the product to the US or just a nearby town.
They allow you to add postage/shipping dependent on the value of the cart only.
So I have been looking at the html variables available for the buttons here https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/Appx_websitestandard_htmlvariables/#id08A6HH0D0TA and at posts on Stackoverflow
I wondered if there was any way of combining the option value.. and ="handling_cart" to do this – please see my working below.
So you would click the add to cart button and from the drop down select the shipping area e.g. UK, Europe, Rest of World. The handling charge on the cart would then reflect the option you chose. Instead of the handling cart value being NNNN it would be the value specified for the option, so for Europe £5.00.
<form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="DLNKFJWJGHZFW">
<table>
<tr><td><input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Shipping Options">Shipping Options</td></tr><tr><td><select name="os0">
<option value="UK Second Class + £2.85">UK Second Class + £2.85 £2.85 GBP</option>
<option value="UK First Class + £3.85">UK First Class + £3.85 £3.85 GBP</option>
<option value="Europe + £5.00">Europe + £5.00 £5.00 GBP</option>
<option value="Rest of World + £7.00">Rest of World + £7.00 £7.00 GBP</option>
</select> </td></tr>
<tr><td><input type="hidden" name="on1" value="or call us on [phone]">or call us on [phone]</td></tr><tr><td><input type="text" name="os1" maxlength="200"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP">
<input type="hidden" name="handling_cart" value="NNNN">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_cart_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online.">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>
Secondary question: this html gets a straight error from PayPal, probably – among other things - because I am still calling it a hosted button (I think I might need to remove this and somehow link it to the Merchant ID???).
Note I have altered the hosted button id here as I was concerned about security - I might not need to be.
Many Thanks
Allyson

Answer 1

Your hosted button is not formatted correctly to handle the shipping drop down. Also you cannot modify a hosted button it will not work. I have created some sample non-hosted button code as an example of what will work if the shipping calculator is not available in your region.
You will have to update the business value to reflect your merchant id or your email address to test the button code.
<form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" >
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="youremail#email.com">
<input type="hidden" name="lc" value="GB">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Shipping Options">
<input type="hidden" name="button_subtype" value="products">
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="cn" value="Add special instructions to the seller:">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="2">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP">
<input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-ShopCartBF:btn_cart_LG.gif:NonHosted">
<table>
<tr><td><input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Shipping Options">Shipping Options</td></tr><tr><td><select name="os0">
<option value="UK Second Class">UK Second Class £2.85 GBP</option>
<option value="UK First Class">UK First Class £3.85 GBP</option>
<option value="Europe">Europe £5.00 GBP</option>
<option value="Rest of World">Rest of World £7.00 GBP</option>
</select> </td></tr>
<tr><td><input type="hidden" name="on1" value="or call us on [phone]">or call us on [phone]</td></tr><tr><td><input type="text" name="os1" maxlength="200"></td></tr>
</table>
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP">
<input type="hidden" name="option_select0" value="UK Second Class">
<input type="hidden" name="option_amount0" value="2.85">
<input type="hidden" name="option_select1" value="UK First Class">
<input type="hidden" name="option_amount1" value="3.85">
<input type="hidden" name="option_select2" value="Europe">
<input type="hidden" name="option_amount2" value="5.00">
<input type="hidden" name="option_select3" value="Rest of World">
<input type="hidden" name="option_amount3" value="7.00">
<input type="hidden" name="option_index" value="0">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_cart_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>