Using PaymentModule_Order_Authorize

[Kent Multer]

Hi folks, -- this question is mainly for the in-house gurus.

One of my clients wants a module that can pre-test a customer's credit card by issuing an auth-only transaction for $0.01 or some other very small amount. I think I can handle this by calling the PaymentModule_Order_Authorize() function in the store's existing payment module. There are no examples of this in the LSK; but by reading the API manual and looking at some of the HTML source of the admin pages, I've been able to figure out most of what I need.

I have one key question right now. The store's payment module will be set to do Auth + Capture for normal checkouts. In that case, when the custom module callsl PaymentModule_Order_Authorize(), will the payment module do an auth-only transaction? I think the answer is probably Yes, since there is a separate API function for doing Captures. But I wanted to confirm this before I start writing code.

Thanks --

[Rick Wilson]

From Dev:

We changed all the modules a while back to do auth+capture in PaymentModule_Order_Authorize if that is how they are configured, so what he wants to do won't work

[Kent Multer]

Well, hmmm, the client won't like that ... I'm trying to think fo a work-around, short of writing a new payment module. The client's store uses the "Payflow Pro (Legacy)" payment module, although they're in the process of switching to the new "PayPal Payments Advanced and/or Payflow Gateway" module. In the dev store, we have the new module running, and the old is still installed but inactive. Suppose we set the old module for auth-only, and the new one for auth + capture. We leave both modules running, but restrict the old one so that it's never used for checkout. This could be done by making it inactive, or just by un-checking the boxes for all the different types of credit cards, or just by putting an mvt:if on the OSEL page to make sure that the payment methods from the older module are never offered to customers.

Once this is done, the store will use the new payment module for checkout; but my custom module can use the older payment module to do the auth-only's for testing the customers' credit cards. I think that would work unless there's some reason why a store can't run both modules at the same time: some sort of conflict between the modules, or maybe something in their merchant account that won't allow the use of both modules. What do the in-house gurus think about this scheme?

Thanks for your help --

[Rick Wilson]

From Dev:

There’s nothing that would stop both payment modules from being used but at this point I don’t understand why he doesn’t just directly integrate with PayPal’s API. It’s not particularly complicated.

[Kent Multer]

Well, that's a good point. I don't need to write a whole new payment module, just the part that does auth-only's. I'll give that some thought.

Thanks & have a good weekend!