Getting Transaction Details From PayPal SOAP API (hopefully custom fields as well)

Question

I'm trying to get transaction details from PayPal's SOAP API but I'm running into into error from PayPal. It returns the error:

The transaction id is not valid

I know it's a valid transaction ID since I'm I'm able to get transaction details using the PayPal NVP API but maybe I have the SOAP request formatted incorrectly. I followed the PayPal SOAP API examples I can find across the web to construct the SOAP XML but they are slim. I'm using mac's PAW program to send a SOAP request to PayPal's API but this problem should be reproducible using an HTTP client.

I tried to use PayPal's REST API but there's no method to get transaction details (e.g. name, email, amount paid, custom fields) . I also tried to use the NVP (Name-Value-Pair) API and I do get back the transaction details but it doesn't give me all of the stored custom fields for a transaction. When I log in to PayPal, and view a single transaction, I can see all of the custom fields for that transaction, so I know they're being stored.

The SOAP API is my last hope.

Here's the SOAP envelope request I'm using:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns="urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI" xmlns:ebl="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xmlns:cc="urn:ebay:apis:CoreComponentTypes" xmlns:ed="urn:ebay:apis:EnhancedDataTypes">
      <soapenv:Header>
           <ns:RequesterCredentials>
                <ebl:Credentials>
                     <ebl:Username>soap_api_username_here</ebl:Username>
                     <ebl:Password>soap_api_password_here</ebl:Password>
                     <ebl:Signature>soap_api_signature_here</ebl:Signature>
                </ebl:Credentials>
           </ns:RequesterCredentials>
      </soapenv:Header>
      <soapenv:Body>
           <ns:GetTransactionDetailsReq>
                <ns:GetTransactionDetailsRequest>
                     <ebl:Version>93.0</ebl:Version>
                     <ebl:TransactionID>8FX18476NR449891W</ebl:TransactionID>
                </ns:GetTransactionDetailsRequest>
           </ns:GetTransactionDetailsReq>
      </soapenv:Body>
 </soapenv:Envelope>

Here's the response I receive from the PayPal SOAP API:

    <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:cc="urn:ebay:apis:CoreComponentTypes" xmlns:wsu="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2002/07/utility" xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:assertion" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:wsse="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2002/12/secext" xmlns:ed="urn:ebay:apis:EnhancedDataTypes" xmlns:ebl="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xmlns:ns="urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI">
      <SOAP-ENV:Header>
        <Security xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2002/12/secext" xsi:type="wsse:SecurityType"/>
        <RequesterCredentials xmlns="urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI" xsi:type="ebl:CustomSecurityHeaderType">
          <Credentials xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xsi:type="ebl:UserIdPasswordType">
            <Username xsi:type="xs:string"/>
            <Password xsi:type="xs:string"/>
            <Signature xsi:type="xs:string"/>
            <Subject xsi:type="xs:string"/>
          </Credentials>
        </RequesterCredentials>
      </SOAP-ENV:Header>
      <SOAP-ENV:Body id="_0">
        <GetTransactionDetailsResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI">
          <Timestamp xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">2016-08-02T16:43:02Z</Timestamp>
          <Ack xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">Failure</Ack>
          <CorrelationID xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">a464c181339f4</CorrelationID>
          <Errors xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xsi:type="ebl:ErrorType">
            <ShortMessage xsi:type="xs:string">Transaction refused because of an invalid argument. See additional error messages for details.</ShortMessage>
            <LongMessage xsi:type="xs:string">The transaction id is not valid</LongMessage>
            <ErrorCode xsi:type="xs:token">10004</ErrorCode>
            <SeverityCode xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">Error</SeverityCode>
          </Errors>
          <Version xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">93.0</Version>
          <Build xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">000000</Build>
          <PaymentTransactionDetails xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xsi:type="ebl:PaymentTransactionType">
            <ReceiverInfo xsi:type="ebl:ReceiverInfoType"/>
            <PayerInfo xsi:type="ebl:PayerInfoType">
              <PayerStatus xsi:type="ebl:PayPalUserStatusCodeType">verified</PayerStatus>
              <PayerName xsi:type="ebl:PersonNameType"/>
              <Address xsi:type="ebl:AddressType">
                <AddressOwner xsi:type="ebl:AddressOwnerCodeType">PayPal</AddressOwner>
                <AddressStatus xsi:type="ebl:AddressStatusCodeType">None</AddressStatus>
              </Address>
            </PayerInfo>
            <PaymentInfo xsi:type="ebl:PaymentInfoType">
              <TransactionType xsi:type="ebl:PaymentTransactionCodeType">none</TransactionType>
              <PaymentType xsi:type="ebl:PaymentCodeType">none</PaymentType>
              <PaymentStatus xsi:type="ebl:PaymentStatusCodeType">None</PaymentStatus>
              <PendingReason xsi:type="ebl:PendingStatusCodeType">none</PendingReason>
              <ReasonCode xsi:type="ebl:ReversalReasonCodeType">none</ReasonCode>
            </PaymentInfo>
            <PaymentItemInfo xsi:type="ebl:PaymentItemInfoType">
              <Subscription xsi:type="ebl:SubscriptionInfoType"/>
              <Auction xsi:type="ebl:AuctionInfoType"/>
            </PaymentItemInfo>
          </PaymentTransactionDetails>
        </GetTransactionDetailsResponse>
      </SOAP-ENV:Body>
    </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but maybe someone with more experience can spot the error easier than I can. I responded to another user's question about the PayPal REST API and getting transaction details from that but as far as I know, there's no way to do that Get customer details after transaction . If you have found a way to accomplish this with the REST API, let me know cause I would much rather use REST than SOAP.

Thanks.

Answer 1

The error message is a red herring. PayPal can't find any TransactionId, reporting the empty TransactionId as invalid.

The TransactionId element belongs to the urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI namespace. Your XML attaches it to the urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents namespace. All you need to do is change the ebl:TransactionId to ns:TransactionId.

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns="urn:ebay:api:PayPalAPI" xmlns:ebl="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents" xmlns:cc="urn:ebay:apis:CoreComponentTypes" xmlns:ed="urn:ebay:apis:EnhancedDataTypes">
  <soapenv:Header>
       <ns:RequesterCredentials>
            <ebl:Credentials>
                 <ebl:Username>soap_api_username_here</ebl:Username>
                 <ebl:Password>soap_api_password_here</ebl:Password>
                 <ebl:Signature>soap_api_signature_here</ebl:Signature>
            </ebl:Credentials>
       </ns:RequesterCredentials>
  </soapenv:Header>
  <soapenv:Body>
      <ns:GetTransactionDetailsReq>
           <ns:GetTransactionDetailsRequest>
                <ebl:Version>204.0</ebl:Version>
                <ns:TransactionID>8FX18476NR449891W</ns:TransactionID>
           </ns:GetTransactionDetailsRequest>
      </ns:GetTransactionDetailsReq>
 </soapenv:Body>

Check this example at the PayPal KB.