FDMSRetail Component

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The FDMSRetail component is an advanced tool used to authorize credit cards in a Retail environment, where the customer is purchasing products or services in person. This component makes authorizing these types of transactions very easy. Supported Industry Types include retail stores, restaurants, and grocery or food stores.

Syntax

DPayments.DPaymentsSDK.Fdmsretail

Remarks

This component connects to the First Data Merchant Services (FDMS) processor, by way of the Datawire VXN transaction transport network. Transactions originating with these components go through Datawire, to the FDMS processor where the transaction is authorized. The result is then returned back through Datawire and received by the component. This component can be integrated into web pages or stand-alone Point Of Sale applications. Because all SSL communications are handled inside the component, any application or web page can be deployed without the need for expensive dedicated SSL servers.

The FDMSRetail component makes authorizing Card-Present transactions (where the customer's card is swiped through a card reader) very easy by adding an additional layer of abstraction between the programmer and the protocol. There is no need to deal with raw sockets, TLS/SSL handshakes, or data packet formatting. The steps to setting up the component and authorizing a transaction are outlined below:

First, you must register and activate your account with Datawire. Datawire will provide you with a MerchantNumber and MerchantTerminalNumber, but you'll need to use the FDMSRegister component to activate the merchant and receive a DatawireId. Once you acquire the DatawireId and receive your transaction URLs through Service Discovery, you may begin to authorize transactions.

To authorize a credit card, set the MerchantNumber and MerchantTerminalNumber with the values supplied by FDMS and Datawire, and the DatawireId with the value retrieved by the FDMSRegister component after activating your merchant account. Set the URL property with one of the URLs you retrieved during Service Discovery.

  FDMSRetail.MerchantNumber = "000000999990";                 'Supplied by FDMS/Datawire
  FDMSRetail.MerchantTerminalNumber = "555555";               'Supplied by FDMS/Datawire
  FDMSRetail.DatawireId = "0000B47FFFFFFFFFFFFF";             'Retrieved with the FDMSRegister component.
  
  FDMSSettle.URL = "https://staging1.datawire.net/sd/";       'Retrieved with the FDMSRegister component.

Next, set properties that contain details about the transaction. The TransactionNumber should be incremented for every transaction you authorize. The TransactionAmount must be set, and it should contain the amount to be charged, with an implied decimal point (ie: $1.00 is "100"). The IndustryType will indicate whether the transaction is made for a Retail store, a restaurant, or a grocery store.

  FDMSRetail.TransactionNumber = 1
  FDMSRetail.TransactionAmount = "100"
  FDMSRetail.IndustryType = itRetail

Now, set the credit card properties. If available, you should use Track1 data. Some cards may have a corrupt or missing track1, and for these cards you may use track2 data. If the card is not readable, you may also manually enter the card number and expiration date. The following example shows a transaction sent with track1 data.

  FDMSRetail.Card.MagneticStripe = "%B4444333322221111^SMITH/JOHN J         ^031210100000033301000000008000000?";
  FDMSRetail.Card.EntryDataSource = edsTrack1;  

Finally, submit the transaction by calling the Authorize method.

When the component receives a response, the result of the authorization will be available in several Response properties. The DatawireStatus and DatawireReturnCode indicate whether any errors occurred while passing the transaction through the Datawire VXN system. These two properties alone do not indicate a successful transaction, they only tell whether or not there were any problems transporting the authorization request and response through the Datawire system. If the transaction was successfully authorized by FDMS, then the CaptureFlag will be True, and the ApprovalCode will contain an approval code that beings with "AP". (or "AL" for components that support partially-approved/split-tender transactions). The remaining properties provide additional information about the transaction.

Once an authorization request is approved, the money in the customer's account is blocked and tagged for the merchant. This transaction must go through the Batch Settlement process in order for the blocked money to be transferred to the merchant account. This is done by passing the XML aggregate returned from the GetDetailAggregate method to the FDMSSettle component. Usually, a Batch Settlement of all authorized transactions is done at the end of each business day.