RE: CF and credit card transactions
I've implemented a couple of credit card payment systems, using a few different payment processing services. Of the payment processing services I've used, the only two worth anything were Cybercash and Verisign. And Verisign was so much better than CyC it wasn't even funny. At least as of a year ago, Verisign has better reporting, better rates, they were much more stable (CyC went down something like 20 time over the Christmas season last year. Never for very long, but enough to cause CF to time-out processing the page). Not that I'm trying to put down CyC, it could have been other issues, but when we switched to Verisign a lot of problems went away. One of the biggest was that Verisign's transaction times were consistently under five seconds. Cyc usually took 45 seconds, but sometime would go up to more than two minutes. That's a lot of time for a user to click on the submit button again. That's a lot of time for your users to get pissed off, go to another site, or send an email to tech support. Some pointers on implementing the system: People get really cranky when money is involved, so you need to put a lot of effort into error handling. Keep track of everything... Assume that the processing, as it progresses down the page, can fail for any reason. Use database transactions. cftransaction is useful, too, but it is too aggressive and can cause a lot of problems with a slow CC provider. You can avoid a lot of trouble by using a fast processing service. This is what I settled on: for each transaction, make an timestamp entry to the database for every "stage" of processing. As control progresses down the page: 1.) As soon as they hit the top of the form processing page check to see if there is a "started" status code in the db. That way, if there is already a "started" in the db, you know that the user reloaded and is hitting the form processing page again. Then you can halt processing and show the user a message letting them know they might have been double charged. 2.) Enter a status code of "started" and all of the CC and user info into the db. That way if something fails as the transaction is processed you have a record. And it _will_ fail at some point. The network guys might block port 443, used by SSL, or a router on the way to a bank might suddenly start dropping packets. Anything can, and will, at some point, fail. With all of the CC info in the db, if you need to, you can give a refund, or process the transaction by hand. 3.) Run the tag to process the transaction. 4.) Save all of the returned codes into the db, and change the status to "success" if it completed successfully. You should also be aware that there might be other issues to consider in choosing your payment service, like your OS, your bank, your accounting department. For example, accounting will have to reconcile all of the transactions that go through you processing service with their bank, so reporting becomes important. Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck! Jeff Polaski Webmaster Research & Graduate Studies University California, Irvine -Original Message- From: Tangorre, Michael T. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 5:15 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: CF and credit card transactions Hi Everyone, I am looking for some insight for processing credit cards with Cold Fusion. I am aware of a few custom tags, but what kind of variety is offered in terms of companies and sites to do the processing. I am not really a fan of going from my site, to another site then back to my site as you do with 2CheckOut.. Open for discussion and ideas. Thanks, Michael T. Tangorre Resident Assistant - Brick Web Applications Developer A.U. Webteam Slave :-) AIM: CrazyFlash4 ~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: CF and credit card transactions
Thx for the tip. I'm interested in using them on a software product I'm going to be selling, plus maybe I can use them to automate my recurring hosting bills. I bill annually, but I want to move that to a recurring monthly to even out my cash flow and ease the bite on customers' wallets. Back to your question: My personal favorite is Verisign's Payflow Pro service, although you have to have a CFX installed on your server to get it running. Someone just posted a new custom tag in the dev exchg thats supposed to make things easy to interface, but its not that tough to do, either way. Authorize.net is maybe even easier to integrate. I used cf_Authorizenet3, I think. They can be a real pain to sign up with, though. Wanted 2 years' personal and corporate tax returns from me when they heard I was an internet business. I've heard similar stories from clients and other developers. They're pretty conservative, which isn't a bad thing. --- Matt Robertson[EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc., www.mysecretbase.com --- -- Original Message -- from: "Tangorre, Michael T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:37:11 -0500 Yes, I have used them with the guy I work with.. Probably on about 15 or so sites... It not only works good, but it is nice for small volume commerce sites. I am trying to investigate others to see the pros and cons. Most of the clients (upcoming) want seemless integration and do not wish their users to leave the site then return and what not as seen with 2CheckOut. Mike -Original Message- From: Matt Robertson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 8:35 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: CF and credit card transactions That 2CheckOut service actually looks pretty good for a very lite ecommerce in-house project I have coming up. Have you used these guys before? Good/bad experience? --- Matt Robertson[EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc., www.mysecretbase.com --- -- Original Message -- from: "Tangorre, Michael T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:14:50 -0500 Hi Everyone, I am looking for some insight for processing credit cards with Cold Fusion. I am aware of a few custom tags, but what kind of variety is offered in terms of companies and sites to do the processing. I am not really a fan of going from my site, to another site then back to my site as you do with 2CheckOut.. Open for discussion and ideas. Thanks, Michael T. Tangorre Resident Assistant - Brick Web Applications Developer A.U. Webteam Slave :-) AIM: CrazyFlash4 ~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: CF and credit card transactions
Yes, I have used them with the guy I work with.. Probably on about 15 or so sites... It not only works good, but it is nice for small volume commerce sites. I am trying to investigate others to see the pros and cons. Most of the clients (upcoming) want seemless integration and do not wish their users to leave the site then return and what not as seen with 2CheckOut. Mike -Original Message- From: Matt Robertson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 8:35 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: CF and credit card transactions That 2CheckOut service actually looks pretty good for a very lite ecommerce in-house project I have coming up. Have you used these guys before? Good/bad experience? --- Matt Robertson[EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc., www.mysecretbase.com --- -- Original Message -- from: "Tangorre, Michael T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:14:50 -0500 Hi Everyone, I am looking for some insight for processing credit cards with Cold Fusion. I am aware of a few custom tags, but what kind of variety is offered in terms of companies and sites to do the processing. I am not really a fan of going from my site, to another site then back to my site as you do with 2CheckOut.. Open for discussion and ideas. Thanks, Michael T. Tangorre Resident Assistant - Brick Web Applications Developer A.U. Webteam Slave :-) AIM: CrazyFlash4 ~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
Re: CF and credit card transactions
That 2CheckOut service actually looks pretty good for a very lite ecommerce in-house project I have coming up. Have you used these guys before? Good/bad experience? --- Matt Robertson[EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc., www.mysecretbase.com --- -- Original Message -- from: "Tangorre, Michael T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:14:50 -0500 Hi Everyone, I am looking for some insight for processing credit cards with Cold Fusion. I am aware of a few custom tags, but what kind of variety is offered in terms of companies and sites to do the processing. I am not really a fan of going from my site, to another site then back to my site as you do with 2CheckOut.. Open for discussion and ideas. Thanks, Michael T. Tangorre Resident Assistant - Brick Web Applications Developer A.U. Webteam Slave :-) AIM: CrazyFlash4 ~~ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
CF and credit card transactions
Hi Everyone, I am looking for some insight for processing credit cards with Cold Fusion. I am aware of a few custom tags, but what kind of variety is offered in terms of companies and sites to do the processing. I am not really a fan of going from my site, to another site then back to my site as you do with 2CheckOut.. Open for discussion and ideas. Thanks, Michael T. Tangorre Resident Assistant - Brick Web Applications Developer A.U. Webteam Slave :-) AIM: CrazyFlash4 ~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
