I'm new to the community and PHP, so my question may sound stupid to some, but let's get to the point.
I'm learning to use PHP at the moment, and part of it includes implementing an e-payment to an working site. I've read a lot on the net, but I can't figure out some things:
Is there a difference between Payment Gateway <-> Payment Processor, or they are used to describe a same thing?
When using a third party like Authorize, Paypal, Google Checkout, or something like this, do we really need some hard coding, or can you just stick to the information provided on their sites?
I looked through some of the (I think) major payment gateways and I haven't seen any mention of SOAP and WSDL. Are they really needed in a way that I can't find out, or are they are just used rarely and that's why I haven't found any mention of them?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if I sound like a noob. Hope to learn faster with your help, guys.
Generally speaking a Payment processor is a vendero that actually processes payments. Most Payment Processors offer gateways which is the interface you use to submit a payment for processing.
When using a payment processor how much code you have to write is goign to vary with the implementations of the gateway the processor offers and which one of those implementations you choose. Normally there are at least two - some kind of raw API which is the most flexible, and some kind of super simple link to the processor. PayPal Standard and Google Wallet are good examples of the latter, while typical usage of Authorize.net is a good example of the former. IF you use the API generally you need to implement your own order creation process/shopping cart and then you would jsut submit the payment and other details at the end. This allows you to keep everything on you site (not necessarily the data but the experience). The simple route usually involves sending user to the processors site one or more times during the shopping process usually resulting in limited customization and a clear break in user experience.
Some Gateways will use SOAP/WSDL some will use simple REST interfaces, and some will use other implementations. Its generally however they chose to implement in house, but most are going to offer a library to use it for the major scripting languges (PHP,Ruby, Python, C#.Net, VB.net) so odds are you wont have to manually make the calls you'll just utilize the library the provide and deal with the results returned.
well this a tricky business payment gateway differ from one site to another from different 3rd party implementation. u can find the easiest one for you to implement but be careful when u do this. and yes there is a difference between payment gateway and processor which is the processor is what make the payment go to the bank and transfer the money, the gateway make sure the credential that u have enter is correct
happy programing
Related
I am currently writing a PHP application. Unfortunately due to budget, we cannot be PCI compliant.
The application is basically just a marketplace where we take money from a user, take a small commission, and when the action is completed and confirmed, we give the money to the user who completed this action.
I have tried using Braintree, WePay, Stripe, etc. but nothing seems to fit what I am trying to do. The workflow is theoretically simple, however doesn't seem to be easy to implement.
With Braintree it seemed to be possible, but the main blocker was that the business models didn't match, so we weren't able to get a live license. With WePay, we require being PCI compliant, which is not feasible for us.
Was just looking for some guidance if possible.
Note: The language we are programming in is PHP, so the API of the payment gateway must be compatible with PHP.
WePay doesn't require you to be PCI compliant. If you use their embedded checkout you take on none of the PCI compliance, but you sacrifice access to any of the card details, but that's only problematic if you want to offer recurring transactions. For most situations, their iframe should work just fine.
WePay's tokenization solution also doesn't require a lot of PCI compliance. I believe they ask that their partners complete SAQ-A-EP. Which is a simple self-assessment questionnaire that you only have to do once a year.
I need to import all PayPal transactions (within a given time-period) into my own software. I know that I can download an account statement from the website but I need my software to do this automatically.
Since this is the first time I'm trying to integrate a PayPal API into my own software, I'm quite confused with all the information thrown at me.
As far as I understand, there are three PayPal APIs (NVP, SOAP and REST) - they all offer a lot of methods, but as of now, I'm not able to estimate which API and which method would be best for my rather simple task.
Are there any best practices for this I didn't manage to find on my own? Does someone have a hint for me?
I would recommend using the Classic API, specifically TransactionSearch and GetTransactionDetails.
This PayPal PHP SDK will make those API calls very quick and easy for you.
something open source, or inexpensive. Preferably in php, other languages will be considered.
I'm looking mostly for clean code, a nice place to build out from. I don't need any CMS features.
Unless you have the resources to be certified PCI compliant, I don't recommend hosting your own billing system, if it requires charging credit cards. You can find yourself liable for very large fees if any mischief takes place.
Instead, it is best to use a hosted solution. We recently had great success using Chargify for recurring billing for a subscription service.
Check out spreedly.com. Super simple with a great API.
I'm about set up my first eCommerce site. I was hoping you could recommend some shopping cart software. What are the perks of using pre-built software rather than developing some simple solution catered to my needs. Also, are there pre-written Terms and conditions for sites? Or templates that outline what aspects need to be addressed? What other things should I look out for when building this website?
Also, I develop in PHP server side, so software in that language would be best.
I use osCommerce a lot, but this software is a bit outdated. Magento is a good alternative for setting up a commerce website.
Google Checkout is probably a good starting point for a clean base to start from: http://checkout.google.com/sell/.
The hands down easiest all in one ecommerce platform IMO is the Yahoo Small Business platform - you have a number of options there, including using hosting and php. It's not free, but you get EVERYTHING you need to run an eCommerce store all in one painless spot - your cart, ssl, content management, integration for merchant gateway, shipping rules, integration with ups realtime rates... Order processing, the whole nine.
There are two ways to develop on this platform - using their proprietary RTML language, or use the hosting that you get with it and access the items in your catalog through what they call store tags.
So I wound up writing my own shopping cart software because the site is not based in the U.S. and services like PayPal and Google Checkout do not cover it. I coupled my cart with an API from a national bank to charge credit cards. This required SSL which was easy enough to set up.
I found a Terms and Conditions generator online and used that to lay out the basics of the document. Then I added site specifics myself and tried to sound as much like a lawyer as possible.
I second Yahoo! Small Business (although I would get a developer, their default template looks horrible). If you are looking for something that looks nice and is out of the box good to go, Bigcommerce would be my second choice. After that, I would go with 3dcart (it's a little more flexible, but the default themes are not as good as what Bigcommerce offers). Although, if you are a hardcore programmer, going with Drupal Commerce would probably be your best bet, but you will really need to know some programming to customize it. On the plus side, it is the only cart that I have mentioned that is free (minus hosting costs of course).
Could anybody recommend a up-to-date class (or payment system) for handling paypal recurring payments with PHP?
Thank you!
UPDATE: I ended up using the PaypalNVP class by Peter Reisinger. Unfortunately, that was a very long time ago and I can't seem to locate it online (the readme and class files had no URL - just the name). If you can find it, that's a great class and I highly recommend it.
If you have the freedom to pick a gateway, pick one that provides recurring billing services and APIs to us them. I know authorize.net does.
You really, really, really, don't want to store credit card information. Really.
If you want to do a "save my information" kind of thing, find a vendor that supports storing the card details for you. Braintree does this, and I'm sure other vendors do as well.
Just in case you are still interested in one. This one is working really great and extremely easy to implement:
http://www.micahcarrick.com/04-19-2005/php-paypal-ipn-integration-class.html
I published a class that really simplifies using the Paypal API, you can check it out over on Binpress. I just recently added recurring payments support
Paypal provides a very nice code snippet for processing paypal transactions, then it's just a matter of setting up a cron job that pulls from a DB what transactions to process.
PHP Payment Library for Paypal, Authorize.net and 2Checkout:
http://www.phpfour.com/blog/2009/02/php-payment-gateway-library-for-paypal-authorizenet-and-2checkout/