PayPal: How to inlcude the custom data field in transaction email?

  • DanBlum
    Asked on January 18, 2018 at 8:31 PM
    I have discovered that the Custom Data Field (CDF) value does not appear anywhere in the email that PayPal forwards to the account owner in response to a successful PayPal form payment!   I have learned the CDF value DOES appear in the dashboard of the account owner, but this is not sufficient for our current processes. 

    Background:I have several, very similar forms that use PP express  that support my overall process and application.  The forms are pretty much clones of each other.  I only have to change one (hidden) field value to customize each clone.    Therefore it would be nice if I could cause some indicator based on a field value to be included into the PP account owner email so that he can discern which form generated the email he received.   I was trying to use this PP Express CDF for this purpose. 

    There are possibly two enhancements that would give me the capability I am seeking.  (maybe you can suggest others.)

    1.    An enhancement that somehow gets this CDF value into the account owner email.

    2,  In lieu of #1, I discovered that the PP express SUBHEAD value DOES appear in PP owner email.  Manually changing the subhead is the workaround that I am currently using.   However, this subhead field is restricted to be constant text.  So...cloning my forms  as I do does not allow me to programatically  change the value of the subhead field.  SO, an  alternative enhancement would be for Jotform to allow the subhead of the PP express widget to be a field value.  

    Any chance of getting either of these two enhancements implemented?  Can you suggest an alternative?

    An alternative approach suggested by your great chat support person  was to use the Jotform email feature to send notification to my account owner instead of relying on the PP email.  Jotform emails clearly allow field values.  However, I need to condition sending the email on successful completion of the PP payment.  And....that capability doesn't exist.    (PP only sends the email for successful payments.)

    Thanks for your consideration.  I look forward to a reply.

  • Kevin Support Team Lead
    Replied on January 18, 2018 at 8:39 PM

    Please note that the email for the transaction is generated from PayPal so there should be a way from them to add the CDF value in the email that you receive from PayPal, JotForm currently does not have, and I think it would not be technically possible, the ability to customize the data that the PayPal transaction email contains, as far as I know through the integration it's only possible to send the data through the custom field. 

    I found a guide that may help you modifying your transaction email so you may add the desired value: https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/How-do-I-set-up-my-email-notification-preferences-FAQ424 

    You may also contact PayPal as well and ask if this is possible from their end: https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us 

     However, I need to condition sending the email on successful completion of the PP payment. 

    JotForm has the ability to conditionally send emails, but this will trigger the emails you add on the Jotform form builder (as explained above, Jotform does not have the ability to control things on PayPal), please check this guide that will help you to conditionally send emails: https://www.jotform.com/help/167-How-to-Send-Email-Based-on-User-s-Answer 

    I hope this helps.