ePayment Specifications

The merchant application must confirm to the following rules and specifications:

• The merchant pages are the responsibility of the merchant. ITS does not create or maintain these pages.
• The last page in the merchant application will only pass final information to the SMU ePayment system. The ePayment system will not "total up" or validate any data beyond some very core integrity constraints. This means that the merchant is fully responsible for establishing and finalizing all details of the transaction except collecting and verifying the credit card and eCheck information. Transaction details include but are not limited to: calculating shipping, verifying suitability of order, totaling and verifying the final shipping prices, calculating taxes.
• The merchant will not enclose the SMU ePayment system within in its own frames or attempt to interfere with the look and feel of the SMU ePayment system. Enclosing the ePayment system in frames prevents the user from seeing the SSL icon ( ) in his browser’s border.
• The last merchant page must pass all required fields to the SMU ePayment System, and they must be passed using HTTP POST.
• The merchant application must manage all needed transaction information required for their business processes beyond what is contained in the required or optional fields. The merchant may handle this with a secondary field profile. This is coordinated with the Webmaster’s Office.

• The merchant’s pages will not collect or store credit card numbers or any personally-identifiable information. This is exclusively handled by the SMU ePayment system. “Personally identifiable information” includes but is not limited to credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license number. Exceptions must be approved by the Associate Vice President for Information Technology Services. This rule is critical. Non-approved exceptions are in violation of University Policy, and appropriate action will be taken to disable the merchant's site.
• The Webmaster’s Office must certify the merchant’s application before it can use the SMU ePayment system. This ensures that the SMU ePayment system can correctly process data passed to it by the merchant application. In certifying a merchant application, the Webmaster’s Office will test the merchant system by simulating orders. These simulated orders will verify that the merchant application passes the correct fields in the correct format to the SMU ePayment system. The Webmaster’s Office also verifies that the merchant application correctly transfers control to the SMU ePayment System. The Webmaster’s Office will not inspect code, verify correct math, verify optional fields, or verify the internal workings of the merchant application.
• The merchant must identify each transaction with a unique invoice number that complies with the invoice number schema. We provide an invoice number generator to simplify this.
• The merchant must always collect a billing address. The merchant may choose to also collect a shipping address if products or goods are to be shipped. Shipping address must be requested after the billing address. The ePayment application utilizes an address verification process. To prevent rejections, the billing name and address must match what is on the credit card or checking account. The merchant is strongly urged to put a statement by the billing address fields that instructs buyer to enter the same name and address that appear on credit card statements. Following is a suggested statement: “Please make sure the name and address you have entered match your credit card statement information. The credit card transaction will not be accepted unless this information matches exactly.”
• Two important considerations for the country fields:
• A blank country field will cause the address to be validated as if it is a US address. Therefore, international transactions with a blank country field will fail.
• To guarantee US address verification, the country field must be blank, nonexistent, or contain "USA".

Required and Optional Fields

ü: required ?: optional

Invoice Number Schema