com.ibm.commerce.payments.plugin

Interface Summary
Interface	Description
Credit	This class is a value object container for credit-related transactions.
FinancialTransaction	This Interface is a value object container representing a financial transaction.
Payment	This interface is a value object container for payment-related transactions.
PaymentInstruction	This interface is a value object containing detailed information required by plug-ins to process financial transactions (`FinancialTransaction`).
Plugin	This interface is implemented by a payment plug-in.
Plugin_V2	This interface extends the interface of Plugin , in order to support new APIs for online Plugins such as `PaymentechPlugin`.
PluginConfiguration	This interface is the plug-in metadata and configuration.
PluginConstants	This interface contains most of the constants use by Payment Plug-in Controller and plug-ins for the different transactions and other needs.
PluginContext	This interface is the request context used in financial transactions and queries.
QueryablePlugin	This interface is implemented by payment plug-ins that support financial queries.

Class Summary
Class	Description
ExtendedData	This class is a value object container that aggregates non-standard protocol data required in financial transactions(`FinancialTransaction`).
NameValueObject	This class represents a data attribute with a name, a value, and an encryption flag.
PluginMessages	This class defines standard translated messages and the utility to retrieve them.

Exception Summary
Exception	Description
ApprovalExpiredException	This Exception is thrown when a plug-in finds out that the payment approval (authorization) has expired.
CommunicationException	This exception is thrown by a plug-in when it experiences a connectivity problem while communicating with the payment back-end system.
ConfigurationException	This exception is thrown by a plug-in when it cannot find required information from `PluginConfiguration`.
FinancialException	This exception is thrown whenever a transaction against the back-end system fails with a financial error.
FunctionNotSupportedException	This exception is thrown when a type of financial transaction is not supported by the plug-in implementation.
InternalErrorException	This class is thrown when an unexpected error happened in the plug-in implementation.
InvalidDataException	This exception is thrown either by the Payment Plug-in Controller or by the plug-in.
InvalidPaymentInstructionException	This exception is thrown to indicate the `PaymentInstruction` is invalid.
PaymentInstructionBlockedException	This exception is thrown when a financial transaction cannot be processed against a `PaymentInstruction`.
PluginException	This class is the base exception for the plug-in exception hierarchy.
TimeoutException	This Exception is thrown if a plug-in times out waiting for a response.

Package com.ibm.commerce.payments.plugin Description

Contains the IBM payment plugin specification.

A payment plug-in is a stateless session bean that externalizes payment services for a particular payment back end, payment processor, or payment service provider (PSP).

The service comprises the basic financial transactions expected in the implementation of a payment protocol. Examples include transactions for credit cards, electronic checks, gift certificates and credit lines.

Plug-in implementation

A plug-in implementation consists of the following:

A stateless session bean (EJB) interface extending Plugin or QueryablePlugin
The EJB implementation
The EJB home interface containing a create() method without any parameters
A plug-in deployment descriptor

Plug-in deployment descriptor

The plug-in deployment descriptor should follow this schema: descriptor.xsd.
Here is an example: descriptor.xml.
For details on each attribute of the plug-in deployment descriptor, please refer to PluginConfiguration.

Payment Plug-in Controller

Payment plug-in API methods are invoked by the IBM Payment Plug-in Controller (PPC). The Payment Plug-in Controller provides a unified view of all payment protocols being implemented by plug-ins by means of a simple facade. Merchants can use Payment Plug-in Controller to access multiple payment back ends through a simple and unique API. Merchants use the Payment Plug-in Controller to process orders and refunds. The Payment Plug-in Controller is the IBM WebSphere Commerce solution for multiple payment protocols in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) shopping flows.

The Payment Plug-in Controller provides the following facilities to plug-in implementations:

Persistence of financial object containers: PaymentInstruction, Payment, Credit, FinancialTransaction, ExtendedData
Transaction management
Encryption of sensitive data (see description of ExtendedData and PaymentInstruction)
Retry logic

Dynamic plug-in and back-end system selection

When dealing with financial transactions for orders and returns, the Payment Plug-in Controller needs to determine which plug-in will process those requests. Since multiple plug-ins can be configured in a single environment. A selector called payment system name is used in every request to the Payment Plug-in Controller. The Payment Plug-in Controller uses the payment system name to determine, based on configuration, which plug-in implementation will process the request.

A plug-in can also implement multiple payment protocols and communicate with multiple payment back-end systems by itself. With that purpose, the payment system name is also passed in the PaymentInstruction. The PaymentInstruction is available directly or indirectly in each and every plug-in API method.