CardValidator Control

Properties   Methods   Events   Config Settings   Errors  

The CardValidator control is used to verify that a given credit card number is formatted properly, and could be a valid card number. Validating a card before actually submitting a transaction for authorization can reduce the fees that may be associated with invalid or declined transactions.

Syntax

CardValidator

Remarks

Utilization of this control catches accidentally mistyped card numbers and allows buyers to re-input their number without having the transaction declined. It can also determine the type of credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, etc) to easily determine if the customer is presenting a payment type which you do not support. The control can also parse swiped track data and perform these same checks on it.

There are three checks performed on the customer's credit card information:

The ValidateCard method explains these checks in more detail.

Property List

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The following is the full list of the properties of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Method List

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The following is the full list of the methods of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Event List

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The following is the full list of the events fired by the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Config Settings

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The following is a list of config settings for the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

CardExpMonth Property (CardValidator Control)

Expiration month of the credit card specified in CardNumber .

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.CardExpMonth[=integer]

Default Value

1

Remarks

This field contains the month portion of the expiration date of the customer's credit card. This property must be in the range 1 - 12. The ValidateCard method compares this property against the system time to determine if the card is expired.

Data Type

Integer

CardExpYear Property (CardValidator Control)

Expiration year of the credit card specified in CardNumber .

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.CardExpYear[=integer]

Default Value

0

Remarks

This field contains the year portion of the expiration date of the customer's credit card. This property must be in the range 00-99, or 2000-2099. The ValidateCard method compares this property against the system time to determine if the card is expired.

Data Type

Integer

CardNumber Property (CardValidator Control)

Credit card number to be validated.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.CardNumber[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the customer's credit card number. A credit card number may be of any length, and may optionally include dashes or spaces. However, in practice the maximum length of the supported CardTypes is 19 characters (excluding whitespace), and the minimum length is 13 characters.

Data Type

String

CardType Property (CardValidator Control)

Indicates the results of the Luhn Digit Check algorithm.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.CardType

Possible Values

vctUnknown(0), 
vctVisa(1), 
vctMasterCard(2), 
vctAmex(3), 
vctDiscover(4), 
vctDiners(5), 
vctJCB(6), 
vctVisaElectron(7), 
vctMaestro(8), 
vctCUP(9), 
vctLaser(10)

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property is filled after a call to the ValidateCard method. Allowable values include:

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

CardTypeDescription Property (CardValidator Control)

Human-readable description of the CardType .

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.CardTypeDescription

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property is filled after calling the ValidateCard method, and will contain a text description of the CardType. This is useful to distinguish different program cards. For instance, a CardType of ccDiners might have a corresponding CardTypeDescription of "Diner's Club International", "Diner's Club Carte Blanche", or "Diner's Club enRoute".

This property is read-only.

Data Type

String

DateCheckPassed Property (CardValidator Control)

Indicates whether the card is expired or not.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.DateCheckPassed

Default Value

False

Remarks

The ValidateCard method checks whether the card's expiration date (CardExpMonth and CardExpYear) is a valid future date, and stores that result in the DateCheckPassed property.

This property is read-only.

Data Type

Boolean

DigitCheckPassed Property (CardValidator Control)

Indicates the results of the Luhn Digit Check algorithm.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.DigitCheckPassed

Default Value

False

Remarks

The ValidateCard method checks whether or not the CardNumber conforms to the mod-10 digit check algorithm, and stores that result in the DigitCheckPassed property. Note that a card may pass this check and still be an invalid card. (Either a fake number that passes the digit check, or an unknown CardType).

This property is read-only.

Data Type

Boolean

TrackData Property (CardValidator Control)

Magnetic stripe data read off the credit card.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.TrackData[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property may be set with the magnetic stripe read off the back of a credit card using any commercially available card reader. You may set this property with either Track1 or Track2 data. If TrackData is set, the values contained in CardNumber, CardExpMonth, and CardExpYear are ignored when calling ValidateCard. Instead, these properties are parsed out of the track data. This allows you to easily retrieve the expiration date and card number from either Track1 or Track2 data. For instance:

CardValidator1.TrackData = "4012000033330026=21121015432112345678" CardValidator1.ValidateCard()

The CardNumber, CardExpMonth, and CardExpYear will now contain the values parsed from the track data. TrackType will also indicate whether the TrackData is Track1 or Track2 (in this case, it's Track2 data).

Data Type

String

TrackType Property (CardValidator Control)

Indicates the type of the specified TrackData .

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.TrackType

Possible Values

ttUnknown(0), 
ttTrack1(1), 
ttTrack2(2)

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property will be filled after a call to ValidateCard. If magnetic stripe data was supplied in the TrackData field, this property will indicate which type of track was entered. If no track data was entered (ie, the CardNumber was specified instead) then the TrackType will be ttUnknown.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

Config Method (CardValidator Control)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.Config ConfigurationString

Remarks

Config is a generic method available in every control. It is used to set and retrieve configuration settings for the control.

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

To set a configuration setting named PROPERTY, you must call Config("PROPERTY=VALUE"), where VALUE is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).

To read (query) the value of a configuration setting, you must call Config("PROPERTY"). The value will be returned as a string.

Reset Method (CardValidator Control)

Clears all properties to their default values.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.Reset 

Remarks

This method clears all properties to their default values.

ValidateCard Method (CardValidator Control)

Checks the card number and expiration date for validity.

Syntax

cardvalidatorcontrol.ValidateCard 

Remarks

This method performs several checks on customer information to determine if the card information submitted could be valid. This should be done before submitting an actual transaction for authorization. The tests performed are listed below:

Error Event (CardValidator Control)

Information about errors during data delivery.

Syntax

Sub cardvalidatorcontrol_Error(ErrorCode As Integer, Description As String)

Remarks

The Error event is fired in case of exceptional conditions during message processing.

ErrorCode contains an error code and Description contains a textual description of the error. For a list of valid error codes and their descriptions, please refer to the Error Codes section.

Config Settings (CardValidator Control)

The control accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

CardValidator Config Settings

Base Config Settings

Trappable Errors (CardValidator Control)

CardValidator Errors

	20505    Luhn digit check failed.
	20506    Card date invalid.
	20507    Card expired.
	20704    Invalid CardNumber format (contains letters or unknown characters).
	20705    Could not determine the Credit Card type.
	20706    Error parsing TrackData. Format cannot be determined.