The PayPal subscription extension utilizes the PayPal Instant Payment Notification (IPN) system to notify your site that a user has paid and to extend their subscription expiration date accordingly.
The registration flow when using the extension is as follows:
- User registers on your site, a new user account is created and login credentials are emailed to the user
- Upon successful registration, the user is presented a PayPal button to take them to PayPal to complete payment
- Upon successful payment, the user is returned to your site
It is important to note that while a user account is created for the user, they are unable to view any restricted content until their payment is processed by PayPal and the IPN is successfully passed. The user is able to log in and view their profile which will indicate that they have not completed payment.
If the user leaves the registration process without completing payment, they can return to complete payment later. Until they actually complete payment, they will not be able to view any restricted content. Instead, they will be presented with a PayPal payment button along with a message indicating they need to complete payment before being able to access restricted content.