Payment plug-ins

Payment plug-ins

A payment plug-in is a self-contained software component that serves as a proxy for a payment back-end system. Payment plug-ins are responsible for payment protocol and protocol data validation.

A payment plug-in follows these steps to validate a payment:

receives data about a financial transaction
sends the request to the payment back-end system
receives a response from the back-end system
decides what data should be stored
returns the appropriate information to WebSphere Commerce Payments

WebSphere Commerce Payments then performs the database operations necessary to record all the financial transactions for a payment plug-in.

Payment plug-ins are simpler and less expensive alternatives to the use of traditional payment cassettes, and offer an easier way to integrate with payment systems.

When a payment plug-in is added to the WebSphere Commerce environment, the foundation of WebSphere Commerce remains intact. The payment plug-in modifies the function of WebSphere Commerce payment processing through interaction with WebSphere Commerce Payments. A plug-in is identified to WebSphere Commerce Payments through a plug-in deployment descriptor (XML file). The deployment descriptor configures the plug-in in WebSphere Commerce and enables the plug-in to work properly.

Although some plug-ins are provided in WebSphere Commerce, a payment plug-in specification is available to enable plug-in writers to develop their own plug-ins for use in a WebSphere Commerce environment. Plug-ins can be simple in nature (serving as a proxy to a payment back-end system) or more complex, such as an interface to an accounting system, or some other system that serves a particular purpose (for example, a gift certificate processing system). Regardless of their complexity, plug-ins can be implemented as lightweight plug-ins.

Payment plug-ins are responsible for implementing the following mandatory Payment APIs. As an option, query-related APIs can also be implemented to extend the plug-in interface.

Plug-in APIs
checkPaymentInstruction()
validatePaymentInstruction()
approve()
reverseApproval()
deposit()
reverseDeposit()
approveAndDeposit() 
getMessage()
credit()
reverseCredit() 

Query-related APIs

getAvailableBalance()
getCredit()
getPayment()