'Tip Jar' Software
for a
Custom Paypal Donation Link
PayPal makes it relatively easy to create a donate button to put on your website.
To keep your email address hidden, the button must be encrypted. That method, however, requires you to use one of the styles PayPal provides.
I will show you how to hide your email address and use your own link style, be it a custom image link, a text link, a form button, or a combination thereof.
Make your very own tip jar.It takes 4 steps:
-
Create a non-encrypted donate button at PayPal.
-
Paste the generated email link URL into the Tip Jar software. (It's PHP software).
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Upload the Tip Jar software file to your server.
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Link to the Tip Jar software with your own donation link style.
Create A Non-Encrypted Donate Button At Paypal
Log into your PayPal account and make a donate button. (As of this writing, use the "Donate" link under the "Buttons" column of the "Merchant Services" tab.)
When you make the donate button:
-
Ignore the "Choose button style" section. The Tip Jar software will ignore whatever is checked. Let the default check be as it is.
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In the "Button encryption" section, check the "No" checkbox.
When the button is created, you'll see copy and paste code for a form and for an email link. The email link URL is what the Tip Jar software requires.
Paste The Generated Email Link URL Into The Tip Jar Software
Here is the PHP source code for the Tip Jar software. Save it on your hard drive as a plain file. The file name needs a .php extension, "tipjar.php" for example.
<?php // No space or other characters may be above this line.
/* Tip Jar
Version 1.0
August 16, 2008
Copyright 2008 Bontrager Connection, LLC
*/
// Between the quotation marks, paste the entire
// email link URL for the donate button obtained
// from PayPal. It is a long URL and it must be
// pasted between the quotes all one line.
$EmailLinkURL = "";
/* No other customizations are required. */
/*****************************************/
Header("Location: $EmailLinkURL");
?>
Copy the PayPal-created donation email link URL and paste it into the Tip Jar source code. The place is marked.
The email link URL is long. The URL must be all one line and pasted between the quotation marks where indicated.
Upload The Tip Jar Software File To Your Server
After the email link URL has been pasted into the source code of the Tip Jar software, the file is ready to upload to your server. The Tip Jar software file needs to be on your server where your regular web pages are at.
To upload the file, use FTP software or, if your hosting company provides it, the upload feature of a file management system.
After the Tip Jar software has been uploaded, make a note of its URL. You'll need the URL in the next step.
Before doing the next step, however, type the Tip Jar URL into your browser to verify it opens the PayPal donation page as it should.
Link To The Tip Jar Software With Your Own Donation Link Style
This section assumes the Tip Jar software was uploaded into the document root (the directory where your main/index page is, on your server) with file name tipjar.php. If that is not the case, change the example links accordingly.
If the Tip Jar software is on a domain different than the web page with the tip jar link, then the full http://... URL must be used as the link. Example: http://example.com/tipjar.php
You can now create our own custom tip jar/"donate" links. Here are a few examples.
Example tip jar custom text link:
<a href="/tipjar.php"> Send me a tip! </a>
Example tip jar custom image link:
<a href="/tipjar.php"> <img src="/images/tipjarimage.jpg"> </a>
Example tip jar link with both text and image:
<a href="/tipjar.php"> Send me a tip!<br /> <img src="/images/tipjarimage.jpg"> </a>
Example tip jar button:
<form action="/tipjar.php"> <input type="submit" value="Send me a tip!"> </form>
As you can deduce from those examples, it is possible to
create tip jar links with any design possible with HTML,
CSS, and images. Without revealing your email address.
Let your imagination roam.
Will Bontrager
