Is there a PayPal IPN code sample for Ruby on Rails?

IPN gem

DWilke's Paypal IPN gem can be found here:

https://github.com/dwilkie/paypal

Check out the IPN module. It's nice code:

https://github.com/dwilkie/paypal/blob/master/lib/paypal/ipn/ipn.rb

Testing against the simulator

You can test it out against the IPN simulator here:

https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/applications/ipn_simulator

I use ngrok to expose localhost:3000 on a public URL, then point the simulator at it.


PayPal's Ruby Merchant SDK provides an ipn_valid? boolean method to make this super easy on you.

def notify
  @api = PayPal::SDK::Merchant.new
  if @api.ipn_valid?(request.raw_post)  # return true or false
    # params contains the data
  end
end

https://github.com/paypal/merchant-sdk-ruby/blob/master/samples/IPN-README.md


I post here my working code sample for a Rails controller. It does verification. I hope it will be useful.

class PaymentNotificationsController < ApplicationController
  protect_from_forgery :except => [:create] #Otherwise the request from PayPal wouldn't make it to the controller
  def create
    response = validate_IPN_notification(request.raw_post)
    case response
    when "VERIFIED"
      # check that paymentStatus=Completed
      # check that txnId has not been previously processed
      # check that receiverEmail is your Primary PayPal email
      # check that paymentAmount/paymentCurrency are correct
      # process payment
    when "INVALID"
      # log for investigation
    else
      # error
    end
    render :nothing => true
  end 
  protected 
  def validate_IPN_notification(raw)
    live = 'https://ipnpb.paypal.com/cgi-bin'
    sandbox = 'https://ipnpb.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin'
    uri = URI.parse(sandbox + '/webscr?cmd=_notify-validate')
    http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
    http.open_timeout = 60
    http.read_timeout = 60
    http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_PEER
    http.use_ssl = true
    response = http.post(uri.request_uri, raw,
                         'Content-Length' => "#{raw.size}",
                         'User-Agent' => "My custom user agent"
                       ).body
  end
end

Code is inspired by Railscast 142 and this post by Tanel Suurhans