'Finding PayPal Buy Now Button redirection link

I am trying to make a program that can scrape a site and search for PayPal buy now button redirection links.

I can scrape the site but I realize that when you hit the button, it does not contain the URL that you will be redirected to make purchase. How would I go about finding the button redirection link, or even how would I have the site scrape and click on the button to at least have the redirect site appear? Would I somehow have to make the scraper hit the form and submit?

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"><input name="cmd" type="hidden" value="_s-xclick" /><br />
<input name="hosted_button_id" type="hidden" value="PUEGWVJXLH4FQ" /><br />
<input alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" name="submit" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" type="image" /><br />
<img loading="lazy" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></form>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">_______________________________________________________</p>
</form>
paypal


Solution 1:[1]

Go to https://www.paypal.co/buttons, log in, and (after logging in) create a new simple Buy Now button with no dropdown options nor text fields (which require HTML) -- and once the button is created and you are viewing the generated code, switch over to the "E-mail" tab above it.

The link in that E-mail tab will have a hosted button ID, which you can swap out / use to dynamically generate the Buy Now "redirection link" you're asking for. When loaded in a browser, that link will initiate a checkout, same as clicking the button.

There are several other types of PayPal payment buttons, including:

  • Unhosted Buy Now buttons (which are not saved at PayPal, and do not have a hosted_button_id). These buttons use a redirection link or form post that will include HTML variables to set up the payment.
  • Newer smart buttons, generated via https://www.paypal.com/buttons/smart or similar -- these do not have redirection URL, and instead use JS to open a mini window for payment approval.

Another way to construct a working URL is to begin with the form's action parameter https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr, add ? to begin a GET string, and add all the inputs from the form that have a name, in with the syntax name=value, separated by '&' .... so for example:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?hosted_button_id=PUEGWVJXLH4FQ&anothername=anothervalue&...

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1

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