How Fastlane Works
Fastlane is PayPal’s quick guest checkout solution. It securely saves and retrieves payment and shipping information for Fastlane members. Fastlane members enter their email and receive pre-filled checkout forms.
Consumer Benefits:
- Members can enter their email address and receive autofilled checkout forms.
- Members can securely check out with their email address at any site that integrates Fastlane.
- No password required. Members get a one-time confirmation code after entering their email address.
Fastlane is a separate profile from a PayPal account and is meant to augment your existing PayPal integration and allow guests to enjoy faster checkouts in a lightweight manner.
1
The script tag fetches the PayPal JS SDK to render the checkout page. You create a client token for the session.
2
The buyer enters the email address on the client side.
3
PayPal checks if the email is associated with a Fastlane profile and triggers the guest or member flow.
Guest Flow:
1
The email is not associated with a Fastlane profile. The customer enters their payment information and shipping address.
2
The payment information is tokenized and sent to PayPal along with other information entered.
3
The information is passed in an Orders API capture request and the response is sent to the merchant.
Member Flow:
1
The email is associated with a Fastlane profile. PayPal retrieves payment and shipping information.
2
The buyer confirms information and pays. The payment is tokenized and sent to PayPal with the info.
3
The information is passed in an Orders API capture request and a response is sent to the merchant.
Set up your development environment
1
Set up npm
This sample integration uses Node.js version 18 or higher. Install npm to run the sample application. For more info, visit npm's documentation.
2
Install third-party libraries
Install the following third-party libraries to set up your integration. This sample npm command installs all libraries at the same time.
npm install dotenv express mustache consolidate
You need to install 4 third-party environments.
-
dotenv separates your configuration and code by loading environment variables from a .env file into process.env.
-
express is a Node.js web application framework supports web and mobile applications.
-
mustache (with consolidate) is a lightweight way to generate static HTML pages from templates.
3
Verify package.json
The following code sample shows a package.json file for a PayPal Fastlane integration.
{
"name": "fastlane-sample-application",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "Sample Node.js web app using PayPal's REST APIs to integrate Fastlane for online payments",
"main": "src/index.js",
"type": "module",
"scripts": {
"start": "node src/index.js",
},
"dependencies": {
"consolidate": "^1.0.3",
"dotenv": "^16.4.5",
"express": "^4.19.2",
"mustache": "^4.2.0"
}
}
If you're having trouble with your app, reinstall your local library and package files using npm install.
If you're getting the following node error, include "type": "module" in your package.json file. This line isn't automatically added when package.json is created.
Warning: To load an ES module, set "type": "module" in the package.json or use the .mjs extension (Use `node --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
4
Set up .env
Use a .env file to set your local working environment variables and securely pass the client ID and client secret for your app.
The following code shows an example .env file. Replace the PAYPAL-CLIENT-ID and PAYPAL-CLIENT-SECRET with values from your app. Replace DOMAINS with a comma-separated list of the domain name(s) where Fastlane will be presented.
PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID=YOUR_CLIENT_ID_GOES_HERE
PAYPAL_CLIENT_SECRET=YOUR_SECRET_GOES_HERE
DOMAINS=YOUR_DOMAINS_HERE
View your client ID and client secret in the PayPal Developer Dashboard under Apps & Credentials.
Know before you code
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