WebSphere Commerce Payments

- IBM® WebSphere® Commerce Payments is a component in WebSphere Commerce that processes payments through the use of the new payment plug-ins (for WebSphere Commerce V6), or payment cassettes (for WebSphere Commerce V6, and V5 for backward compatibility).

- In WebSphere Commerce V6, a new payment architecture is introduced to provide a set of capabilities such as multiple payment methods per order, payment instructions for special handling and payment plug-ins to simplify the integration with payment back-end systems. WebSphere Commerce Payments works with the Payment Rules subcomponent to handle payment actions according to a set of configurable business rules. It defines the processing agreement for payment plug-ins and manages the life cycle of payment plug-ins. The processing agreement simplifies integration with a payment system and enables common payment and credit actions to occur for any payment method. WebSphere Commerce Payments is also designed to allow plug-ins to be transportable across operations systems and database tools.

- WebSphere Commerce Payments has a global view of the authorizations and credits required to process an order transaction, whereas a payment plug-in only has information about what needs to be processed for a specific payment action. For example:

• A customer purchases two pairs of pants ($60 U.S. dollars) and a shirt ($40); the total cost of the order is $100. The pants can be delivered the next day but the shirt will be delivered three days later. The Payment Rules subcomponent calls WebSphere Commerce Payments to create a payment instruction in the amount of $100, and approve $100. It also calls WebSphere Commerce Payments to deposit $60 for the pants. A few days later it deposits $40 for the shirt.

• WebSphere Commerce Payments records the fact that the payment instruction has a $100 total amount, with a single approval of $100 and two deposits--one for $60 and one for $40. However, the payment plug-in does not retain this information; it processes the individual actions as they occur. Because it treats these actions separately, it does not store information about all three transactions. WebSphere Commerce Payments and Payment Rules subcomponent keep track of the actions performed under a particular payment instruction.

- WebSphere Commerce payment component offers the following benefits:

• Payment rules are configurable through a set of default XML files, based on order life cycles and business rules.

• Payments can be processed for multiple releases of an order. For example, when part of an order ships to one address, and the rest of the order ships to another address. Additionally, more than one payment transaction can occur in an order. For example, you can charge a credit card for the part of an order that ships immediately, and charge the remaining items a week later when the backordered items ship.

• Customers can also use multiple payment methods or multiple payment instructions for an order. For example, a credit card can be used to pay for part of the order and a check for the balance.

• Payments can be processed to issue refunds for returns on one or more orders. For example, a single refund transaction can occur for orders 1234 and 4567, rather than two transactions.

• Payment instructions can be provided to associate in each payment method for special handling. For example, a replacement credit card number can be captured in the payment instruction if the original credit card was stolen.

• The payment component provides fail-over support in a clustered environment and is horizontally scalable across your system.

- WebSphere Commerce Payment supports a variety of payment methods, which include:

• Credit cards*

• Electronic checks*

• Gift cards

• Gift certificates

• Stored value cards

• Bill Me Later*

• Cash on Delivery (COD)*

• Credit line* (with typical back-end integration with account receivable systems)

- Plug-ins are provided in IBM WebSphere Commerce to support these methods. You might want to develop your own payment plug-in for use in a particular commerce situation. If you want to write your own plug-in, you must follow this specification for developing a payment plug-in.

- If you are currently using payment cassettes, consider these advantages and evaluate whether your payment processing would be better served through the use of payment plug-ins.