i need some clarification please:
the process is essentially as follow: client fills out form, hits 'continue' button and series of PDFs get generated based on data from form. i want to use PayPal right after the 'continue' button gets pressed. after payment, PDFs get generated. what is the best way to inject PayPal WHILE preserving form data BEFORE PDFs get cranked out? i wanted to use JSON to send it to the $_SESSION array, but i don't think it will survive the interruption. this is the method i'd prefer to use, unless there's a good reason not to.
OR
would it be best to just go ahead and crank out the PDFs but just NOT send the PDFs until after PayPal does its thing? regardless, how do i preserve variables while PayPal does its thing?
and, yes, i'm a relative PayPal noob, so if there's something i'm missing that would seem 'obvious', don't be a noughthead and try to get some mileage by trying to make me look stupid. i'm looking for answers, not ridicule. i can get PayPal 'working' but that's not the point. i want to keep the site working with PayPal working in the middle.
and if this isn't the kind of question that gets' answered here, please point me in the right direction before you delete this.
WR!
If I have understood your question correctly, this is not how payment processors work.
After filling out the form, you can save the information in a DB and return an ID, this ID can be sent to PayPal (using the "custom" field).
Then use PayPal's IPN service which will send a ping to your server once the process is complete.
You can refer to a guide like:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/using-paypals-instant-payment-notification-with-php/
Once you receive the IPN post, your script needs to read the "custom" variable, and read the DB details, generate the PDFs and email them to your user.