PHP Plugin For Credit Card Processing?

[ozcelik]

Dear Alec,

I have searched for this topic on the support forum but couldn't find a good answer. Here it is:

I plan to use OCS for an organization that is located in Barbados and currently Paypal does not offer service for that country. Is there any way for us to use a payment gateway other than Paypal? I know that the only way to do that is to write an API (or a PHP plugin) for OCS. Being a non-professional (well, a newbee) in writing PHP codes, I have no idea where to start for this. Could you please direct me to a webpage or a help topic for this issue? Any help will be appreciated.

Regards,

Jason

[asmecher]

Hi Jason,

OCS is written to support multiple payment service providers via plugins -- PayPal and manual payment processing plugins are included by default, and adding support for a new provider will mean writing a new plugin. This can be tricky for a newcomer to PHP, so I'd suggest doing some research to find out who in Barbados has a similar system to Paypal. There are two generak sorts of providers -- the banks and traditional institutions on one hand, who don't provide any services beyond the raw transaction processing, and on the other hand, there are businesses like Paypal who provide a lot more flexibility and ease of use for developers and web designers. If you can find someone like Paypal that does operate in Barbados, it will be much easier to implement than e.g. a bank's system, both because the Paypal plugin will serve as a close example, and because payment processing is less complicated that way.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[ozcelik]

Hi Alec,

We indeed tried to find a provider similar to Paypal that offers service in Barbados but couldn't find one.

We now plan to use Authorize.net (or services provided by their resellers) for our credit card payment service provider. Do you guys have any plans to include generic plugins for Authorize.net (or some other provider other than Paypal) in the upcoming version of the OCS? I think this will provide more flexibility for OCS and will make it more international by increasing its reach.

Regards,

Jason

[asmecher]

Hi Jason,

We chose PayPal because it gave us the greatest coverage and recognition in a single resource; we wrote a plugin-based payment system in the hopes that it would encourage the user community to step in with additional implementations for situations where PayPal wasn't suitable. Unfortunately I don't know of anyone who has done so yet, so if you are able, you'll be breaking new ground; however, I'd be happy to help you with the process as much as I can. Unfortunately, adding support for additional payment providers is eclipsed by higher priorities for us at the moment, as systemic improvements to OCS benefit a greater number of users. Incidentally, have you checked PayPal's website to see if they are negotiating for the ability to operate in Barbados? I gather these are typically legislative or political issues.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team