SIM vs AIM Confusion

[Charles Bastari]

I have an SSL certificate and it's finally time to integrate my site with my PSP (Authorize.net).

From my reading of the posts in the community and elsewhere, it would seem that one would use the SIM if their site does not have an SSL certificate. The reason being that they would need to secure transactions using the gateway hosted payment and receipt forms.

Since my site is secure, it would seem that I would want to use the AIM so transactions would be done using the Actinic payment and receipt forms.
I just don't want a customer to be whisked off to another site to complete a transaction.

I'm confused in general over this whole issue and specifically about whether I have this SIM/AIM option built somewhere into Version7. There is nothing about it in the 'Payment Service Provider Configuration' Setup.

I am familiar with the Authorize.net SIM Integration Settings Instructions, the link for which was posted repeatedly in some of the older threads I followed. Does anyone know if there are similar instructions for the AIM Integration Settings?

Any direction in this area would be greatly appreciated as I'm not even sure I'm on the right track.

Charles Bastari
supplyspecialties.biz

[I-CC]

To use an OCCP within Actinic, it needs to have integrated with the software systems, for which I do not believe that Authorize.net are configured into the software, so they would either need to get the toolkit from Actinic and get them selves all sorted out to work with Actinic, or look at payment providers from the support list which have configured for Actinic operations.

[Charles Bastari]

What? What's an OCCP? Authorize.net is one of the PSP's listed in version7. Either I'm in way over my head or I'm missing something.

I think this will bottom line my question:
If I just use the 'Payment Service Provider Configuration' setup in Actinic, will the site integrate with my PSP for authorizations and not take customers somewhere other than my site to complete a transaction? Is there anything more that I need to do than use configuration tool provided by the software?

c

[I-CC]

Sorry, OCCP - Online Credit Card Processor...

Maybe we have an out of date list of OCCPs in our installations, as don't see it listed in our OCCP lists, and not on the Actinic page for payment providers integrated into Actinic.

If got it wrong, apologies, but can not see it listed... Maybe it is listed under a different name and I am not seeing it properly - wide eyed but not quit with it yet

[I-CC]

For the buyer to stay in your site for processing of the payment would require an invisible connection to the backend OCCP, which I do not believe is possible within an Actinic site, unless someone has developed it behind the scenes...

Only other way is to stick with your SSL, take receipt in the site and then manually process, which defeats the object of using the OCCP of course.

[Bruce]

Authorize.net is a PSP that is availabel in the US version of the software.

If I just use the 'Payment Service Provider Configuration' setup in Actinic, will the site integrate with my PSP for authorizations and not take customers somewhere other than my site to complete a transaction? Is there anything more that I need to do than use configuration tool provided by the software?

If you use a PSP to get payments your customer will be bounced to the PSP's website to enter their CC details, after they have completed entering their invoice / address details. Once the payment has been authorised and accepted, the customer is then bounced back to your site where they see the receipt page.

To configure Authorize.net, you will only need to enter the relevant details in Business Settings | Payment and Security | Configure method. The inbuilt script will do all the rest for you.

Kind regards,

[Bruce]

To add to the post above, you will need to get the Merchant ID from Authorize.net by registering with them, also do tell them that you are using Actinic, as the intergration with Actinic is SIM.

Kind regards,

[Charles Bastari]

Well, I was hoping to keep customers on my site, but I suppose it's not going to happen. I'm already set up with Authorize.net, but haven't configured anything yet.

As my last question on this issue, can you advise me what goes in the 'Transaction ID' field. This entry field is located under 'Merchant' in the configuration window. It's right under ID, Secret Key, Confirm Secret Key. My sales rep at Authorize.net didn't have a clue.

Thanks for your help.

c

[Bruce]

Take a look at this link please .. http://www.actinic.com/documentation...AuthNetSim.pdf

Kind regards,

[advwebsys]

charles - sim and aim are the two methods a system can use to connect to a.net.

using sim, you either (a) send a complete transaction to them and they post the results to another program on your server or (b) you send part of the info to them and request that they put up a payment page. the page can be customized to SOME extent, but can never really be made to look like your website.

actinic now uses option (b) which has the 'advantage' of not requiring your customer to purchase a secure certificate for his domain name. that's because all of the credit card stuff gets entered on a.net's page which IS secure.

i can tell you from experience that my customers still want a cert because then the entire order process is secure, and their customers feel better about that.

aim uses a completely different method and protocol where the program you write sends the request on an https session and waits for (and then processes) the response.

we use aim for non-actinic e-commerce applications.

if you want to continue this, just email me.