In this documentation, you will find the information needed to locate your PayPal Live and Sandbox Client IDs and Secret Keys. These API credentials are required to run PayPal transactions with the PayPal Buy Now Buttons (New API) and PayPal Subscription Buttons (New API).
In the following documentation, complete the two sets of instructions to get your Live Client ID and Secret Key followed by locating your Sandbox (Test) Client ID and Secret Key.
Retrieving Your PayPal Live and Sandbox (Test) Client IDs and Secret Keys
Your live and sandbox API credentials are all located within your PayPal Developer Account. You will use your main PayPal account to log into the PayPal Developer Account. Make sure you have your PayPal account login details handy to complete the following tutorial.
Getting the Live Client ID and Secret Key
Step 1)
Log into your PayPal Developer Account and click on the Apps and Credentials menu.
Note: After you are logged into your account, you may need to click on the Developer Dashboard option if you do not see the sandbox/live toggle at the top right hand corner of the site. Once you are on the dashboard page, you should see the Apps and Credentials menu.
Step 2)
Locate the toggle button (right-hand corner) and click this to make sure that you are in ‘Live‘ mode to obtain your Live Client ID and Live Secret Key in this section.
Step 3)
Click the Create App button, and enter an App Name followed by clicking the Create App button again.
The App Name you enter should be meaningful so that you know what you will be using these keys for. You will now be directed to a page that displays your Live Client ID and you can click the Show button to reveal your Live Secret Key. You will need to copy each of these separately and paste them into the corresponding fields of the Simple Membership plugin’s settings menu.
Getting the Sandbox (Test) Client ID and Secret Key
If you want to do sandbox or test mode transactions via PayPal, then you need to create an app for sandbox/test mode also. Do the following to get your sandbox API credentials.
Step 1)
Log into your PayPal Developer Account and click on the Apps and Credentials menu.
Step 2)
Make sure that you have toggled the Sandbox option to create Sandbox API credentials.
When you are in sandbox mode, the header of the page will contain a message saying: You’re in sandbox mode.
Step 3)
Click on the Create App button and give your app a meaningful name (so that you remember what it will be used for) followed by clicking the Create App button again.
Step 4)
You will now be shown your sandbox API credentials. You will see your Client ID that you can simply copy and paste into the correct field within the plugin’s settings menu.
From this same PayPal page, click the Show button under Secret to reveal your PayPal Sandbox Secret Key. Copy and Paste the secret key into the plugin’s settings menu.
Save the API Credentials in the Plugin’s Payment Settings Menu
Once you have located your Live Client ID/Secret Key and Sandbox Client ID/Secret Key and you have pasted these four pieces of information from your PayPal Developer account directly into the corresponding fields in your Simple Membership plugin’s payment settings menu, hit the ‘Save Changes‘ button to save the settings.
Note: For users of older Simple Membership plugin versions, the API Credentials can be found in the plugin’s settings menu.
If you have copied and pasted the four pieces of the API credential details correctly, you should be able to run both live and sandbox (test) PayPal transactions from your Simple Membership plugin. You are ready to create the payment buttons next and start accepting membership payments.