AFG – Afghanistan
ALB – Albania
DZA – Algeria
ASM – American Samoa
AND – Andorra
AGO – Angola
AIA – Anguilla
ATA – Antarctica
ATG – Antigua and Barbuda
ARG – Argentina
ARM – Armenia
ABW – Aruba
AUS – Australia
AUT – Austria
AZE – Azerbaijan
BHS – Bahamas
BHR – Bahrain
BGD – Bangladesh
BRB – Barbados
BLR – Belarus
BEL – Belgium
BLZ – Belize
BEN – Benin
BMU – Bermuda
BTN – Bhutan
BOL – Bolivia
BIH – Bosnia and Herzegovina
BWA – Botswana
BVT – Bouvet Island
BRA – Brazil
IOT – British Indian Ocean Territory
BRN – Brunei Darussalam
BGR – Bulgaria
BFA – Burkina Faso
BDI – Burundi
KHM – Cambodia
CMR – Cameroon
CAN – Canada
CPV – Cape Verde
CYM – Cayman Islands
CAF – Central African Republic
TCD – Chad
CHL – Chile
CHN – China
CXR – Christmas Island
CCK – Cocos (Keeling) Islands
COL – Colombia
COM – Comoros
COG – Congo
COD – Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
COK – Cook Islands
CRI – Costa Rica
CIV – Cote D’ivoire
HRV – Croatia (Hrvatska)
CYP – Cyprus
CZE – Czech Republic
DNK – Denmark
DJI – Djibouti
DMA – Dominica
DOM – Dominican Republic
ECU – Ecuador
EGY – Egypt
SLV – El Salvador
GNQ – Equatorial Guinea
ERI – Eritrea
EST – Estonia
ETH – Ethiopia
FLK – Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
FRO – Faroe Islands
FJI – Fiji
FIN – Finland
FRA – France
FXX – France, Metropolitan
GUF – French Guiana
PYF – French Polynesia
ATF – French Southern Territories
GAB – Gabon
GMB – Gambia
GEO – Georgia
DEU – Germany
GHA – Ghana
GIB – Gibraltar
GRC – Greece
GRL – Greenland
GRD – Grenada
GLP – Guadeloupe
GUM – Guam
GTM – Guatemala
GIN – Guinea
GNB – Guinea-Bissau
GUY – Guyana
HTI – Haiti
HMD – Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands
HND – Honduras
HKG – Hong Kong
HUN – Hungary
ISL – Iceland
IND – India
IDN – Indonesia
IRQ – Iraq
IRL – Ireland
ISR – Israel
ITA – Italy
JAM – Jamaica
JPN – Japan
JOR – Jordan
KAZ – Kazakhstan
KEN – Kenya
KIR – Kiribati
KOR – Korea, Republic of
KWT – Kuwait
KGZ – Kyrgyzstan
LAO – Lao People’s Democratic Republic
LVA – Latvia
LBN – Lebanon
LSO – Lesotho
LBR – Liberia
LBY – Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIE – Liechtenstein
LTU – Lithuania
LUX – Luxembourg
MAC – Macao
MKD – Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
MDG – Madagascar
MWI – Malawi
MYS – Malaysia
MDV – Maldives
MLI – Mali
MLT – Malta
MHL – Marshall Islands
MTQ – Martinique
MRT – Mauritania
MUS – Mauritius
MYT – Mayotte
MEX – Mexico
FSM – Micronesia, Federated States of
MDA – Moldova, Republic of
MCO – Monaco
MNG – Mongolia
MNE – Montenegro
MSR – Montserrat
MAR – Morocco
MOZ – Mozambique
NAM – Namibia
NRU – Nauru
NPL – Nepal
NLD – Netherlands
ANT – Netherlands Antilles
NCL – New Caledonia
NZL – New Zealand
NIC – Nicaragua
NER – Niger
NGA – Nigeria
NIU – Niue
NFK – Norfolk Island
MNP – Northern Mariana Islands
NOR – Norway
OMN – Oman
PAK – Pakistan
PLW – Palau
PSE – Palestinian Territory, Occupied
PAN – Panama
PNG – Papua New Guinea
PRY – Paraguay
PER – Peru
PHL – Philippines
PCN – Pitcairn
POL – Poland
PRT – Portugal
PRI – Puerto Rico
QAT – Qatar
REU – Reunion
ROU – Romania
RUS – Russian Federation
RWA – Rwanda
SHN – Saint Helena
KNA – Saint Kitts and Nevis
LCA – Saint Lucia
SPM – Saint Pierre and Miquelon
VCT – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
WSM – Samoa
SMR – San Marino
STP – Sao Tome and Principe
SAU – Saudi Arabia
SEN – Senegal
SRB – Serbia
SCG – Serbia and Montenegro
SYC – Seychelles
SLE – Sierra Leone
SGP – Singapore
SVK – Slovakia
SVN – Slovenia
SLB – Solomon Islands
SOM – Somalia
ZAF – South Africa
SGS – South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
ESP – Spain
LKA – Sri Lanka
SUR – Suriname
SJM – Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
SWZ – Swaziland
SWE – Sweden
CHE – Switzerland
TWN – Taiwan
TJK – Tajikistan
TZA – Tanzania, United Republic of
THA – Thailand
TLS – Timor-Leste
TGO – Togo
TKL – Tokelau
TON – Tonga
TTO – Trinidad and Tobago
TUN – Tunisia
TUR – Turkey
TKM – Turkmenistan
TCA – Turks and Caicos Islands
TUV – Tuvalu
UGA – Uganda
UKR – Ukraine
ARE – United Arab Emirates
GBR – United Kingdom
USA – United States
UMI – United States Minor Outlying Islands
URY – Uruguay
UZB – Uzbekistan
VUT – Vanuatu
VAT – Vatican City State (Holy See)
VEN – Venezuela
VNM – Viet Nam
VGB – Virgin Islands, British
VIR – Virgin Islands, U.S.
WLF – Wallis and Futuna Islands
ESH – Western Sahara
YEM – Yemen
YUG – Yugoslavia
ZAR – Zaire
ZMB – Zambia
ZWE – Zimbabwe

Although this process can be extremely useful and powerful, it can also be misunderstood by someone who does not have all of the available information. This article contains detailed information about the Direct Return process, and is moderate to very technical in design. The target audience of this article is most likely web developers and suppliers who are developing their own custom scripts or configuring a third party solution. Also, throughout this article the phrase “return URL” is used to collectively refer to the approved URL, configurable within your 2Checkout account.

Choosing the Return URLs

To start off, keep in mind that ALL of the methods outlined in this section are optional. If return URLs are not configured for a particular method, Direct Return will skip it and move to the next. If NO return URLs are specified anywhere, the customer will end their purchasing experience on 2Checkout’s Order Processed page (basically, a sales receipt). There are three methods that can be used to specify a return URL (where customers will be directed after a sale has been made):

The first method that will be processed is the “x_receipt_link_url” parameter. This parameter can be used to specify an approved URL on-the-fly, but is limited to the same domain that is used for your 2Checkout account, otherwise it will fail. If the parameter method fails for this or any other reason, the next successful method will be used to determine the return URL instead. This parameter is special in the sense that the general warnings you may have seen that advise not to mix parameter sets do not apply. Click here for more information on using the “x_receipt_link_url” parameter.

The second method is done by setting the return URL on the product level. This URL can be set per-product during creation or by editing an existing product. If multiple products using this method are ordered at the same time, the customer will be taken to our Order Processed page with “Click Here” links next to each item. These links will open a new browser window/tab so that the customer can return to the order processed page and follow the links for each product ordered. This method is most common for non-dynamic sites that offer downloadable products as a way to take the customer directly to the item ordered. It’s important to note that, if multiple products are ordered, parameters will be converted from POST to GET for this method. So, if the return URL used here is a script it should be able to handle both methods without breaking.

The third method is the general return URL specified in the Site Management page of your 2Checkout account. This URL will be used for all orders that do not utilize one of the previous mentioned methods, and is typically the choice of suppliers and web developers familiar with scripting. The reason for this is that it allows all of the information for every order to be received at one location, which reduces the time and effort needed to develop individual pages for each product or relying on individual product-level return URLs and “Click Here” links. At the least, it can be used to avoid entering the same URL for each product.

Automatic or Manual

After Direct Return selects the best return URL from the logic above, it will then direct the customer to your site in one of two ways:

With Direct Return disabled (set to “Given links back to my website” on your account’s Site Management page), the customer will then be taken to our Order Processed page after completing a successful purchase. This page will now feature a button at the top with the text “Click Here to Finalize Your Order”. When this button is clicked the customer, and the collected sale parameters, will be directed to the appropriate return URL. No domain masking will be used for this method.

Keep in mind, having Direct Return disabled relies heavily on user input as no parameters will be posted to the return URL if the customer does not click this button. For this reason, many suppliers that make use of third party order tracking (such as their own shopping cart) prefer to set Direct Return to “Immediately returned to my website”. If a supplier is using the 2Checkout Plug-n-Play cart, or records necessary parameters at the beginning of a sale before sending the customer to 2Checkout’s purchase page and does not require that the customer return to their page after a sale has completed, this can be a viable option.

With Direct Return enabled (set to “Immediately returned to my website” on your account’s Site Management page), the page to be used for the return URL will have the sale parameters posted to it automatically while fetched by our server and displayed to the customer.

Keep in mind, enabling Direct Return has the effect of masking the URL used so that the customer appears to still be on the 2Checkout domain. This method can be used with redirects as long as each page outputs content (specifically, more then 255 characters) to the browser. If Direct Return encounters a page that redirects without outputting content–usually a header redirect or content less then 255 characters–then the process will fail and the customer will be sent to our standard Order Processed page. This is a common issue as many developers will set their return URLs to a script that processes the returned sale parameters, then silently forward the customer to another page (usually a “thank you for purchasing” page or a page featuring download links in the case that an intangible product has been ordered). The best solution to this is to handle all post-order processing on the page set as your return URL, including the “thank you” message.

It is also important to note that if no redirects are used, meaning the URL will be masked by our servers, then relative links will no longer point to the correct location. This can be corrected by using absolute links on the page used for the return URL or by simply using a “base” tag in the head of the document to provide a reference for the relative paths. Click here for more detailed information on using the HTML base tag.

To fix this, you will need to specify a base URI for your Approved URL. This can be accomplished by inserting the following line between the <HEAD> tag of your page:

<base href=”http://www.example.com/pathto/approved.html”/>

The URL specified after ‘href=’ should be changed to your Approved URL.

The order process works in the following manner when direct return is set to “Yes“.

1. If no approved URL has been specified in your vendor account, the customers order will end at the 2checkout order confirmation screen. The vendor is then responsible for supplying the customer with the product.
2. If a single product is ordered, the direct return feature will return the customer to your specified return URL. This is only true if you have specified a return URL at the product section or the look and feel section of your account. The assigned URL’s at the product level will always override the URL’s set up at the look and feel section of your account. 2A. If multiple products are ordered, the direct return feature will work exactly the same as if a customer orders a single product. This is only true if you have specified a return URL in the look and feel section of your account.
3. If the customer orders a single product and you have specified the return URL at the product level, the customer will be returned to the URL indicated at the product level. 3A. If multiple products are ordered and you have set up approved URLs at the product level, the order process ends at the 2checkout confirmation order page. At this page, there will be a “click here” link that is created for each product ordered on that page. The “click here” link will direct the customer to the approved URL for that product.

   Since the customer ordered multiple products, this page will not close until it is manually closed by the customer. This way the customer will receive all the downloads or will be forwarded to all the correct URLs to receive their downloads.

**Useful Info

To add an approved URL to the look and feel section of your account, you can click on “settings” under the “helpful links” section of your account homepage.

To add a approved URL to each of your products, you will need to click on option 4 (set up products) of your account homepage. You will then need to click on the “edit” link for the product you need to add the approved URL to. There will be a field to input your approved URL. Simply add your approved URL and click on the save changes button.

Below are examples of how the return_url parameter may be implemented.

Form:
<form action="https://www.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="sid" value="XXXXXX">
<input type="hidden" name="quantity" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="product_id" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="return_url" value="http://www.example.com/mypage.html">
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="Buy from 2CO">
</form>

Hyperlink:
<a href="https://www.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=XXXXXX&quantity=1&product_id=1&return_url=http://www.example.com/mypage.html>Buy from 2CO</a>

You can use the Purchase Machine section of our developers.2Checkout area to see how you can pass custom parameters through the purchase routine.