Notes on Payments

Unsolicited Identified Payments allow customers to submit payments on existing accounts from a web page. The payments are unsolicited because the piece of media that motivated the customer to go to the web page and submit the payment will not be apparent when the transaction is formatted and processed.

The expected sequence of interface with the customer is that the customer will first submit an Inquiry. The return page from the Inquiry will post the matchcode (for identified customers) as a hidden html tag on the response page. The customer will then have the option to choose a button that will take them to a Payment page. The page will be prepopulated with the customer's account information, including the amount due for each order that requires payment. The customer will then enter the necessary information for a payment (credit card type, credit card number, credit card expiration date). The transactions will be subject to order hygiene (matchcode check digit, credit card check digit, and an optional on-line credit card authorization). Successful transactions will be inserted into the ITPS database, where they will be extracted once per day and formatted for processing to the subscriber mainfile.

The following fields are required for a Payment transaction:

HTML Tags

• ItemCode (4 character pub description)
• Matchcode (Value will be supplied by Inquiry via double bar substitution)
• BillingEffort (1 character - must be supplied in the Payment page)
• PackageCode (1 character - must be supplied in the Payment page)
• AllOrders (See explanation below.)

The AllOrders tag is unique in that it returns a block of formatted html containing data for all orders that require payment; this includes order number, payment amount, and subscriber type. The specific tags containing these fields are dynamically generated, depending on the number of orders requiring payment.

There are two options for using the Unsolicited Payment feature: the first requires the use of custom html pages; the second utilizes system-generated default response pages.

Using Custom Replies

To use custom reply pages, you will need to construct a custom reply page that is identified in the iResponse tag on your Inquiry web page. That form will have an OrderType of "Reply Only", and an iResponse tag that returns the actual web form to take the Payment information.
Example:
<input type=hidden name="iResponse" value="Inquiry_Response">

The custom reply page (Inquiry_Response) will use double bar substitution to pass the matchcode and order information as hidden tags within the form associated with the "Make a Payment" button on the iResponse page.

NOTE: When enclosing the AllOrders tag in quotes, as in the example below, be sure to use single quotes, as the tag contains values in double quotes.

Example (not a complete form):
<form action="http://www.neodata.com/ITPS2.cgi" method=post>
<input type=hidden name=ordertype value="Reply Only">
<input type=hidden name=matchcode value="||matchcode||">
<input type=hidden name=allorders value='||allorders||'>
<input type=hidden name=billingeffort value="X">
<input type=hidden name=packagecode value="X">
<input type=hidden name=iResponse value="SolicitPayment">
<input type=submit value="Make a payment">

You may use double bar substitution to prepopulate the Payment form, using any of the standard tags available from the Inquiry page. Any field that is used for prepopulation must be passed in only the "Reply Only" page, however. The Payment form will have an ordertype of "Payment".

Using Default Replies

To use the system-generated default pages, you need only include a "DoPayment" html tag on your Inquiry page, plus the required information for the Payment transaction. ITPS will scan for this option tag, and add the appropriate html to the default response page for successful lookups.

Example (not a complete form):
<form action="http://www.neodata.com/ITPS2.cgi" method=post>
<input type=hidden name=ordertype value="Inquiry">
<input type=hidden name=dopayment value="on">
<input type=hidden name=billingeffort value="X">
<input type=hidden name=packagecode value="X">
<input type=submit value="Account Lookup">