PTechGiftCard Control

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The PTechGiftCard component is used to manipulate funds on Stored Value (Gift) Cards with the Paymentech NetConnect system on the Tampa platform. This component supports card-present gift card transactions, and allows for simple, direct, secure communication to the Paymentech TLS/SSL gateway through a standard Internet connection. This component can be integrated into web pages or stand- alone Point Of Sale applications. Because all TLS/SSL communications are handled inside the component, any application or web page can be deployed without the need for expensive dedicated TLS/SSL servers.

Syntax

PTechGiftCard

Remarks

A Stored Value Card (or Gift Card as they are commonly called) is a not actually a type of credit or debit card. Simply put, a Stored Value Card is a card with a magnetic strip on the back that holds information about monies that have been "pre-paid" into an account for the purpose of making financial transactions. Examples include a retailer's gift card, a prepaid telephone card, a college campus meal plan card, a reloadable subway pass, etcetera. Not included are government income-support cards, otherwise known as EBT cards or electronic food stamps.

There just a few steps to setting up the control and sending transactions. First, set the MerchantNumber, TerminalNumber, ClientNumber, UserId, and Password with the information given to you when you signed up for Paymentech service. You should also set your PINCapability and CashRegisterId at this time.

After the merchant information is setup, you may enter transaction data. When the CardEntryDataSource is Manually Entered, the merchant should fill the CardNumber, CardExpMonth, and CardExpYear properties. Otherwise, you should fill the CardMagneticStripe property with the Track 2 data read from the back of the card, and set CardEntryDataSource to Track2. These are the only two Entry Data Sources supported for Stored Value (Gift) Cards.

Now you must choose what transaction you wish to make. Adding Value to a card, Redeeming a card, voiding a previous transaction, or retrieving the card's current balance.

To add funds to an existing Gift Card, simply set the TransactionAmount with the amount to add to the card, and then call AddValue. Activating a new gift card is handled the same way. If the card indicated by CardMagneticStripe (or CardNumber) has not yet been activated, calling AddValue will automatically activate it with the amount indicated by TransactionAmount.

To redeem funds from a Gift Card due to a customer purchase, set TransactionAmount to the total for the purchase and call RedeemCard. If the Gift Card account contains enough funds, ResponseCode will indicate the card was approved. If there are not enough funds available on the card to cover the TransactionAmount, normally the transaction will be declined. However, the merchant may set PartialRedemption to True. This allows the customer to split the cost of the purchase between the Gift Card and another form of payment. Instead of declining the Gift Card, ResponseAuthorizedAmount will contain the amount deducted from the Gift Card. The merchant may subtract that from TransactionAmount to determine the difference to charge the customer.

Finally, you may inquire as to the total funds contained on the card by calling BalanceInquiry. This will not effect the amount of funds contained on the card in any way.

The status of any of the above transactions will be stored in the ResponseCode property, with human-readable text appearing in ResponseText. Like the PTechCharge control, there are several other Response fields which will contain data that should be logged. However, there are a few new properties specific to the PTechGiftCard control: ResponseBalance will be returned after all transactions except VoidTransaction, and will contain the current balance of the Gift Card. ResponsePreviousBalance will indicate the balance BEFORE the last transaction went through. The ResponseTrace property is used for tracking after the sale, and must be printed on every customer receipt.

Gift Card transactions are instant funds transfers. There is no block placed on the debit card, funds are immediately removed and sent to the merchant. Therefore, only the Host Capture settlement mode is supported. At the end of the day you should release the current batch using the PTechHostSettle control (the batch may contain other authorizations that were made using different controls from this product. See the documentation for the other controls you are using for more information).