Administer > Manage instances > WebSphere Commerce Payments instance
WebSphere Commerce Payments
WebSphere Commerce Payments is a protocol-independent payment transaction server for online merchants. It provides cash register-like functionality to a site, supporting multiple payment methods using protocol-specific cassettes.
These cassettes are software components that can be attached to the WebSphere Commerce Payments framework to interpret generic payment and administrative commands into payment protocol-specific requests. The requests are forwarded to the appropriate recipient, such as the payment gateway of an Acquirer institution. The end result is similar to when a cashier swipes a payment card at the checkout counter in a traditional store.
WebSphere Commerce Payments handles all the background details of Internet payments for the merchant (or a group of merchants, such as a store group), and provides a graphical interface to simplify transaction management. WebSphere Commerce Payments performs the following functions:
- It verifies, upon startup that all required Acquirer certificates are available for the cassettes. Missing certificates are requested from the Acquirer or payment gateway automatically.
- It continuously runs, listening on dedicated ports and serving all incoming requests from the wallet and the merchant server.
- It communicates with the Acquirer over the Internet using the TCP/IP protocol or other protocols depending on the cassette.
- It uses database tables to maintain information about the status of transactions, approval requests, and deposit requests. The records in these tables are kept for working purposes and for tracking and record-keeping. The database also contains configuration tables that retain information about the merchant, the brands of payment cards, and the Acquirers that provide card authorization and payment capture services to the merchant.
The merchant server interacts with WebSphere Commerce Payments by using APIs. Payments APIs are general enough to support other payment technologies.
To use WebSphere Commerce Payments with the store, include a payment asset file in the store archive. For more information about payment asset files, see the topic Payments instruments.
- Create a WebSphere Commerce Payments instance
The first step in migrating WebSphere Commerce Payments is to create a Payments instance.
- Create a payment policy
By default, WebSphere Commerce v6 uses the Payment plug-in controller payment policies.To use WebSphere Commerce Multipayment Framework payment policies register the payment policies in the database using compatibleMode.