Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) allow the services provided by a processing gateway to be used by an external website.
If you've ever made a real-time credit card purchase on the internet, chances are that the site you purchased from is using a back-end gateway like Authorize.net or Network Merchants.
By using an API, a website can achieve a seamless integration with the backend processing gateway. In many cases, a customer making a purchase on your website would not even know the gateway exists. The processing "magic" all happens behind the scenes using the secure APIs provided by the gateway.
By using gateway APIs, you can take advantage of all of the services provided by the gateway, including:
- secure processing of credit card and e-check transactions
- support for multiple processing networks via a single API
- automated batching and settlement of transactions
- transaction reporting
Gateway APIs normally support all of the transaction types that could otherwise be performed using a virtual terminal: sales, authorizations, captures, voids and refunds.
Some gateway APIs also expose methods for retrieving transaction reporting information via the API. The built-in query / reporting API methods is useful when building a customized application that incorporates transaction reporting.
Most Gateway APIs rely on open standards such as SSL, XML, REST and SOAP methods. As a result, APIs can usually be called from a number of programming languages including PHP, C#, Java, Perl, Ruby and others.
Confused by what this API stuff all means? Contact Us. As an organization, we have decades of technical and programming experience and we have hands-on experience with all of the APIs and technologies required to build custom solutions.