What do the button types: hosted, clear text, and encrypted mean? (WPS)
There are three 3 options when using the PayPal Online Button Creator.
- Hosted (Save on PayPal Servers)
- Encrypted (Protected code)
- Clear text (Unprotected code)
By default, the generated code is "hosted" unless you uncheck the "Save button at Paypal" option in Step 2 (Inventory Tracking).
Hosted means that important variables of the code, like the Amount variable are stored on PayPal's Servers. Because of this you can not change the amount or other settings, unless you go back and "edited" the button code in the Button Creator.
To get an encrypted button, uncheck the "Save button at PayPal" option in Step 2, the default is then changed to "encrypted" code. Encrypted code is not stored on the PayPal Server's, so again you can to change any settings. You would have to recreate the code to change any settings.
To create clear text button, which can then be customized with additional code, uncheck the "Save button at PayPal. After you generate the code you will see "Remove code protection" link just above your code, click that link and the code will be converted to "clear text". The main reason for doing this would be if you plan to use some of the more advance code settings, javascript validations, pre-populate the PayPal Screens, or create a lot of similar buttons using copy and paste.