How do I define my products in SoftSeller?

After logging into SoftSeller, click the "Your Products" link in the top menu bar. This will take you to a page that lists all of your items, and initially this list will be empty. Click the "Add Item" button, which will take you to a form page to define an item. Please see the Add Item help page for details about entering your products. After submitting an item to be added, the Add Item page will be displayed again so that you can add more items. (Click any of the menu bar links when you are finished adding items.)

How do I create my "Buy Now" or "Add to Cart" buttons?

For PayPal users: If you set the Instant Payment Notice (IPN) URL (and optionally the Return page URL) in your PayPal Profile as described below, then you can use standard PayPal buttons, which can be created using the "button factory" under PayPal's Merchant Tools menu link. Or you can use buttons generated by SoftSeller, which include both the IPN URL and the Return URL so you don't need to change your PayPal Profile. To generate SoftSeller buttons after entering your items, each item listed on the "Your Products" page will have a "Get Button" link, which will take you to a page similar to the PayPal button factory to enter additional details for the ordering button. Enter the information and click "Get Button." PayPal and SoftSeller both generate ordering button HTML in a text window, which you can copy and paste into your own Website HTML pages. Click and drag to highlight all of the HTML in the text window, then use either the Ctrl-C keys or the right-click mouse menu Copy function to copy the HTML. Open your Website HTML page in any editor, position the cursor where you want the button HTML, then use either Ctrl-V keys or the right-click mouse menu Paste function to insert the generated HTML. (Note that the button HTML begins with a <form> tag and ends with a a </form> tag, so be sure to copy those tags and everything in between.)

There is a third option: If you already have PayPal buttons for your items (or if you prefer to use PayPal's button factory) and you don't wish to change your PayPal Profile, you can modify those buttons to work with SoftSeller by inserting some additional HTML input lines into those buttons. These input lines are described in the IPN URL and Return Page URL sections below.

For Payza users: You must use the Payza "Buy Now" button generator and copy the HTML into your Web pages. The button generator can be accessed from the "Business Tools" menu button in Payza, and then clicking the "Generate a 'Buy Now' button" link under the "Advanced Integration" heading. You must also specify the SoftSeller IPN URL in your profile, as described in the next question.

What is the SoftSeller Instant Payment Notice (IPN) URL, and how do I set it?

If you use SoftSeller's button generator for PayPal, the IPN URL will be added automatically. If you are using PayPal- or Payza-generated buttons, however, then you can specify the following URL in your PayPal or Payza Profile:

  http://$server_name$/cgi-bin/odb.exe/SS/odb/SSNotify.odb

To set this URL in PayPal, log into your PayPal account and click the "Profile" tab on the top of any PayPal page, then under "Selling Preferences" click the "Instant Payment Notification Preferences" link. Click the "Edit" button and enter the above URL on the following page.

To set this URL in Payza, log into your Payza account and click the "Business Tools" button in the top menu. On the following page, under the "Instant Payment Notification" heading, click the "IPN setup" link. On the following "Manage IPN" page, enter the URL above as the "Alert URL" and set the "Enable IPN" checkbox. (Note that you can also set the "Test Mode" checkbox if you want to run some test transaction before "going live." Payza will process orders normally except that no actual payment transaction will be processed, and SoftSeller will receive the IPNs. Be sure to uncheck this box when you are ready to process real transactions.)

If you already have PayPal buttons and don't want to set the IPN URL in your PayPal account (for example, if not all your items are SoftSeller downloadable products), you can manually add the following line to your PayPal button HTML code:

  <input name="notify_url" type="hidden" value="http://$server_name$/cgi-bin/odb.exe/SS/odb/SSNotify.odb">

What is the "Return" page URL for immediate downloading, and how do I set it?

This feature applies only to PayPal users, since Payza does not currently support sending order details to the "return page." (You can set a return page in Payza, but it is an ordinary HTML link, so immediate downloading cannot be supported.) If you use SoftSeller's button generator, the return page URL will be added automatically. If you are using PayPal's buttons, then you can specify the following "Return URL" in your PayPal Profile:

  http://$server_name$/cgi-bin/odb.exe/SS/odb/SSReturn.odb

Click the "Profile" tab on the top of any PayPal page, then under "Selling Preferences" click the "Website Payment Preferences" link. Click the checkbox to set the "Auto Return" option to on, then enter the above URL in the box below that. (Note: the "Payment Data Transfer" option on the same page must be set to "off".)   But if you use the Auto Return option, please be aware that PayPal's user agreement requires that your auto-return page has text that will help the buyer understand that the payment has been made and that the transaction has been completed. Their suggested text is: "Thank you for your payment. Your transaction has been completed, and a receipt for your purchase has been emailed to you. You may log into your account at www.paypal.com/us to view details of this transaction."

If you already have PayPal buttons and don't want to set the Return URL in your PayPal account (for example, if not all your items are SoftSeller downloadable products), you can manually add the following TWO lines to your PayPal button HTML code:

  <input name="return" type="hidden" value="http://$server_name$/cgi-bin/odb.exe/SS/odb/SSReturn.odb">
  <input name="rm" type="hidden" value="2">

How do I create a customized download page?

SoftSeller provides a default download page that customers will see when they download, but you can create a customized page with your own logo and specialized product or contact information. Please see the Custom Page URL information on the Help page.

How can I test downloading without making a purchase through PayPal or Payza?

Click the "Your Products" link on the top menu bar. Each of your listed items will have a "Test Download" button. Clicking this button will take you through the same downloading procedure that your customers will see when they complete a transaction in PayPal (if you use the SoftSeller Return page) or when they link to SoftSeller from the e-mail notice. Whenever you enter new items, you should use this test to ensure that the file can be properly downloaded. You should also use this test whenever you set or change your Custom Page URL to make sure the page is displayed properly.

How can I have my download files on password-protected directories?

If you have files on a directory (folder) that's configured in your Web server to use "authentication" then normal browser requests for those files will cause the browser to pop up a small window requesting a user name and password. You can specify this user name and password directly in the "Download URL" in your SoftSeller item setup using the following format:

  http://userName:password@yourDomain.com/yourFile

That is, after the "http://" put the user name and password separated by a colon ":" and followed by an "@" character, and then the standard URL domain name and file path. With the user name and password specified this way, the file will be downloaded without popping up the authentication window.

How can I use SoftSeller with eBay auctions?

For PayPal users, SoftSeller can be used with eBay auction sales provided that:

1. You must set your auction to require PayPal payments only, because SoftSeller requires the PayPal IPN notification.

2. The PayPal account e-mail address that you use for eBay payments must match your SoftSeller login e-mail address, because the PayPal "payee" e-mail is the only way we have identify your SoftSeller account.

3. You must set the SoftSeller IPN (see above question) in your PayPal account profile, because there isn't any way to specify it in the eBay payment process.

4. The auction title that you use for your eBay listing must exactly match the "Item Name" (rather than the Item Number) for a product that you have entered in your SoftSeller setup. For eBay payments through PayPal, the auction title will be sent in the IPN message as the "item_name" value. The "item_number" will be the eBay auction ID, which SoftSeller won't know, but SoftSeller can find the item's download URL in our database using either the name or the number.

Can a customer continue to download a product multiple times?

You can set the maximum number of times that a download can be attempted and the time period following the sale that downloads will be allowed. For example, the default setting allows downloading a product for 24 hours following the sale and a maximum of 5 attempts. (You could specify only one attempt, but you should keep in mind that downloading may fail several times if the customer has a bad connection or if your site is overloaded or unavailable.)

What can I do if a customer was not able to successfully download within the set time period?

On the Sales Report page, the last column of the table is a "Retry" link for each order. Clicking this link will send a new notice to the customer, like the original notice, and it will re-enable downloading the products in that order for 24 hours. Using the "Retry" button to send another download message for an existing order is free; it does not decrease your order credits.

Can I send download links or registrations keys directly to customers?

Yes, using the "Send Links" page from the menu bar. In the form at the top of that page, enter the receiver's e-mail address and if desired, change the personalized message that will be included in the e-mail; click on one or more checkboxes in the "Include Item" column of the products table below the form; then click the "Send Links" button. The destination e-mail address will receive a message similar to an order message, with either a link back to SoftSeller to download the item or with the product registration keys shown. The messages sent this way will also appear in your Sales Report, but the transaction IDs will always begin with "Send:" and the amounts will be zero, and only the receiver's e-mail address will be available in the order details. Important Note: Sending this message costs one order credit: It will reduce your order credits by one, the same as an order processed through PayPal or Payza. Therefore, if a customer has a problem with an order that was processed through PayPal or Payza, it is better to use the "Retry" button on the Sales Report page rather than this "Send Links" function to send another download message, because "Retry" is always free.

How does the Event Ticketing feature work?

The Event Ticketing Feature is descibed on this page.

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