PayPal Developer Days 2009 Perth Notes

This is a breakdown of notes collected from PayPal Developer Days 2009 hosted at the The Sheraton, Perth. Thanks PayPal!

PayPal Australia are entering the general/online merchant gateway arena going up against established Australian providers like eWay, CamTech and SecurePay
PayPal now supports two-factor authentication by mobile SMS validation and members Security Key (unique 6-character security code)
PayPal Australia does not suport Virtual Terminal or Website Payment Pro
Website Payments Standard is targetted at “Mums and Dads” whereas Website Payments Pro (or the Australian equivalient) will be for large online merchants (e.g. DSE, Flight Center, etc.)
PayPal Partners program is coming to Australia soon… definitely in the works
Australian-based PayPal developers working for U.S. clients are encouraged to sign-up for the U.S. PayPal Partner program in conjunction to the Australian PayPal Partner program
Australian currency support for recurring/subscription-based payments is live, ideal for NFP (Not For Profit), charities, monthly-subscription services or scheduled billing
PayPal Express Checkout has proven greater conversion success, so says PayPal
General advice is to take care with accepting eCheques, block future eCheques under Account Settings

PayPal are pushing their Express Checkout as an alternative for regular PayPal customers to filling shipping/billing details for each online merchant
PayPal has wizard-based widgets for low-budget clients requiring PayPal integration
PayPal has an API for mobile devices, the major requirement being the browser supports SSL (and yes, API support is for more than the iPhone… WinMo, Crackberry, Android, etc.)
Easier to use Name-Value Pair (NVP) for API transactions than SOAP
PayPal recommends setting up server certificate over use of signatures in API transactions

Currently over 200 Certified Developers worldwide, 5 PayPal Certified Australains at time of publish
PayPal Certified developers can proudly display the PayPal Certified logo in emails and website
Forum to exchange ideas, respond to merchant queries, interact with other developers
Marketing materials to assist developers in selling PayPal integration packages to clients
PayPal Developer Community is very much U.S. focused, Australian content/forum section in the works

PayPal Certified developers are listed in the PayPal Certified Developer Directory
Online merchants can use the directory to find local PayPal Certified developers
The listing page needs basic filtering, it’s currently just a ‘list’. Filtering based on local region (Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, etc.), expertise (e.g. PHP, ASP, .NET, WordPress, DotNetNuke, etc.) and hourly rate (e.g. fixed rate of $150 AUD per hour, quote available, etc.) would improve the directory’s value to online merchants
The directory gives a direct link back the Online Merchant Network (www.onlinemerchantnetwork.com) which has an unknown PR, yet the domain is 3 years old.
Australia is grouped under the Asia Pacific group catering for a very large region, Austalia should be on it’s own as developers are typically only familiar with their own local region

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