Protx VSP Direct 3.x

Hi,

I'm starting two new threads here to make things easier for those using the free version 2.x of the Protx Direct payment module and the commercial 3.x to find information specific to their version.

This thread is for the full (commercial) version 3.x of the module!


The current version of the module is 3.2.2


As of September 2007, the merchant accounts supported by Protx include those provided by the following companies:

• Royal Bank Of Scotland
• Barclaycard
• Streamline
• Lloyds TSB
• HSBC
• euroConex
• American Express
• Diners Club International
• JCB Cards

Full details about the contribution are available at its website...


Information and Downloads

http://dev.ceon.net/web/zen-cart/protx_direct

It is recommended that you take a look at the above site but for those who want more information first, here is the feature list...


Features

This Payment Module has been written to be as comprehensive as possible. The most recently added features have been marked as new...

• Support for every Card Type handled by Protx.
  Each card type can be enabled or disabled at the click of a button inside the admin. Cards supported:
  
  [LIST]
• Visa
• MasterCard
• Maestro
• Visa Debit
• Solo
• American Express
• Visa Electron (UKE)
• Diners Club International
• JCB

[*] Full support of all essential parts of Protx VSP Direct's 2.22 Protocol. This includes support for the three different Transaction Types: Authenticate, Deferred and Immediate Charge. It also includes support for the various AVS (Address Verification) Options and 3D-Secure Options. Configuration of these features is accomplished using simple radio buttons in the Module's Admin Configuration.


[*]Allows gathering of the following information:

• Card Holder's Name
• Card Type
• Card Number
• Expiry Date
• CVV Code
• Start Date (Maestro/Solo/American Express Only)
• Issue Number (Maestro/Solo Only)

[*][New for 3.0.0] Full 3D-Secure Support. Also known as “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard SecureCode”, 3D-Secure adds an extra layer of security to the acceptance of card details over the internet. The online equivalent to “Chip and Pin”, it is anticipated that the majority of cards will eventually make use of this technology. In fact, since 30th June 2007, all Maestro cards require 3D-Secure authorisation.


[*][New for 3.0.0] Surcharges/Discounts Support. In collaboration with another of our modules, the Payment Surcharges/Discounts Order Total module, each Card Type can have an individual surcharge or discount rate specified which applies to all Order Values, or each Card Type can even have a full range of surcharge/discount rates specified so that differing Order Value ranges result in differing surcharge/discount rates being applied! This means that store owners can pass the cost of accepting certain card types onto their customers, or offer their customers discounts for using particular card types. The Payment Surcharges/Discounts module is free to all those who have purchased this Protx Direct module and is simple to use/integrate with stores!


[*]Visual Feedback of Javascript Validation. In order to catch any problems with Card Details entered by the customer as quickly and easily as possible, this module will not only alert the user to any incorrect information when they attempt to submit the form, it will actually highlight the form fields which require their attention. This helps to avoid customers getting frustrated and leaving at the last hurdle!


[*]Icons for each Credit/Debit Card accepted. If you enable the option in the admin, icons are displayed for each credit/debit card accepted (see picture at right). Maybe not an essential feature, but it does look more professional for your shop!


[*][New for 3.2.0] Cards Accepted Sidebox. A “Cards Accepted” sidebox comes with the module, allowing the dynamic display of icons for each credit/debit card accepted, making it simple to alert your customers to your accepted card types even before they've reached the checkout stage.


[*]Support for a Single Merchant Account Currency or Multiple Merchant Account Currencies. Each currency that you want to accept payment in requires you to have a separate merchant account for that currency. This payment module supports the sending of payment information to Protx in any number of currencies, according to the settings you specify in the Module's Admin Configuration.


[*]Storage and Display of Completed Transaction Information. The Transaction Information for any order processed using this module is available directly for viewing on the Order Details page for that order in the Zen Cart Admin.


[*]Support for Protx's VSP Simulator testing services. This module allows you to test its operation and configuration in conjunction with Protx's extremely handy VSP Simulator service so you don't have to worry about putting through lots of bogus details. Once you are satisfied with your configuration of the module you can switch the checkout to being live at the click of a radio button!


[*]Retains entered Card Details right throughout the checkout process. If a user goes back to change their Shipping Address, or realises at the Confirmation Stage of the checkout procedure that they have entered some incorrect information, when they return to the Payment Page the card details they entered previously will be automatically restored. This prevents any frustration with customers having to re-type details and should help prevent customers leaving at the last hurdle! Please note: If your server has PEAR:Crypt_Blowfish installed, this information is kept encrypted in the session to ensure the confidentiality of the details!


[*]Ability to disable Autocomplete. Some browsers store credit/debit card numbers and/or CVV numbers entered and automatically insert them in a card number field/CVV field when a user returns to a website. This can be quite disconcerting to customers so the option to have this browser feature disabled is offered. The default setting disables this storing of numbers.


[*]Dynamic Start Date and Issue Number support. Certain cards (Maestro/Solo/American Express) may need a Start Date to be supplied for authorisation to take place, while certain cards (Maestro/Solo) may also need an Issue Number to be supplied. This module dynamically displays the necessary form gadgets to capture this information from the user, based on the card types enabled in the admin.


[*]Start Date/Issue Number Message. A message can be specified above the Start Date/Issue Number gadgets, for the purpose of informing users about problems with particular Card Issuers' Cards causing transactions to be declined if the Start Date and/or Issue Number is entered. This message can let them know how to resolve the situation and therefore complete their order. This message is displayed by default but can be disabled in the configuration.


[*]Debug Support. Sometimes there can be problems sending and receiving information to/from Protx. The debug mode allows you to see what information was sent and received so you can check your settings. Most people should never need this though and it is subsequently disabled by default.


[*]IP Address Lookup. The IP address of the server contacting Protx must be entered in the VSP Admin. The module's Transaction Mode can now be set to “IP Address Check” to look up the IP address which should be entered.


[*]Complete support for Zen Cart 1.3.x's Observer/Notification System. Previous versions of this module worked with both Zen Cart 1.2.x and 1.3.x using the same code but now there are two versions, one of which makes full use of Zen Cart 1.3.x's handy new notification system to make installation even more of a breeze![/LIST]


Download Now!


Please read the documentation before posting any questions in this thread so that we can hopefully keep the number of posts here down to a minimum!

Enjoy! :thumbsup:


All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi Conor, we're still having the problem with Maestro cards that I described in this post: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpost.php?p=417881&postcount=318

We have 3.2.0 installed.

Could this be a problem with the test account number? I'm in the US and don't have access to a real Maestro card. Any other ideas about what's going wrong? Thanks!

Hi Conor

Great to see you back again - hope all is well!

I will be getting all my sites on V 3 soon promise - just a bit hectic at the moment.

The reason for this post does not really relate to your software but moreso a general protx issue which I thought I would throw out to the community.

Today I had a Amercian customer email me saying that their CC had been declined - so I went into Protx admin and checked out the reason. It was while I was looking at the reports that I discovered that there had been a load of invalid payment requests - reason description too long.

Tracking back I discovered that these errors only started at the beginning of Aug (we all remember that little period I bet). I have yet to complete thorough testing but it looks like Protx rejects any payment request where their is a apostrophe in the description For example: I'm Welsh I am and if there is more than 1 product being purchased. (Simply put the apostrophe seems to act as a unifier to cerate one long description from two seperate ones)

It may be that it's known universally that u should not use apostrophe's in descriptions but its news to me.

Cheers
Brinley

Hi Brinley,

welshop.com:

Great to see you back again - hope all is well!

Thanks, things are going well enough! :)

welshop.com:

I will be getting all my sites on V 3 soon promise - just a bit hectic at the moment.

No problem, I can understand that time spent working on websites can mean things don't happen exactly when expected! ;)

welshop.com:

It may be that it's known universally that u should not use apostrophe's in descriptions but its news to me.

The latest version of the module has been tested with apostrophes, quotes and other strange characters in product names and works okay here... if you are using an earlier version of the module you should upgrade as there had been problems found with the way the product names were sent to Protx in the shopping basket details.

Hopefully that's all that's necessary for you to get this sorted. I've contacted you privately so if you are still having trouble, please e-mail me back and we'll get you sorted!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi Conor

I don't know whether I have missed something in the setup of Protx or the module but we have had a couple of customers put off by the VbV signup screen at the end of the checkout process.

The problem is that they are taken there purely if their card issuer is signed up to the scheme and once at the screen there is no way out other than signing up or aborting the payment process.

It seems to only affect VbV and not SecureCode.

Cheers

Hi,

TPHoare:

The problem is that they are taken there purely if their card issuer is signed up to the scheme and once at the screen there is no way out other than signing up or aborting the payment process.

Hmmm, unfortunately there isn't anything that can be done about this. The system is completely automated, the customer is redirected to a bank's 3D-Secure page only if the bank says they should be. If their card issuer wants them to sign up and doesn't give an option to "not sign up at this time" then I'm afraid the only option is for the customer to sign up or for a way to be found to not use 3D-Secure for certain banks. That would probably require getting a range of valid credit card numbers for particular banks... I've no idea where anyone could get this!

I am surprised that any bank would be stupid enough to employ a "sign up or quit the transaction process" policy given that 3D-Secure for non-Maestro cards isn't obligatory across the board. The only screens I've seen have had a "not at this time" option... which is the only sensible way to do things IMO.

The good thing about chip and pin was that everyone enforced it at once, I've a feeling that 3D-Secure is going to be a bit of a messy rollout. I've received mailings about 3D-Secure from one of my card issuers and to be honest, if it wasn't for having worked on the Protx modules I'm not sure I'd have had a clue what the bank was on about. The public information programmes for 3D-Secure are, so far, pathetic!

I wish I had better news for you but I predict that things will get slighlty worse in this regard before they get better.

If you feel that this may be causing too many lost sales then I'd suggest that you turn off the autosubmission behaviour of the Protx Direct module and rewrite the message on that page to let your customers know that if their bank won't let them progress without 3D-Secure that they may want to click the back button and use a different card.

Sorry I can't be of more help than that but, as is the case too often, the large companies and the "powers that be" don't seem to know how to do things the right way. :(

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Thanks for that Conor. Barclays seems to be the culprit in this case. I think I might add an explanatory page somewhere.

Cheers

Hi

We were losing a few sales because of the 'automatic' redirection I think as people were sent to a 'strange' page without any warning. Especially as there was none of our 'branding' on the 3DS page.

That's why I use the:

Display message and button, customer must click to continue.

option in the module. Then at least there is an explanation of what is going to happen. We do not lose many now. :)

Out of interest, the number of fully 3DS authenticated transactions we are getting is up to about 50%. What are other shops figures?

Craig

Hi,

CES:

We were losing a few sales because of the 'automatic' redirection I think as people were sent to a 'strange' page without any warning. Especially as there was none of our 'branding' on the 3DS page.

I've come up with a new solution to this which should make things much better for all... I'll be posting again very soon with information about this new solution and availability details for the updated version of the module! :)

(Just thought I'd tease you there... ;) )

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi Conor

I have always had issues with the expiry month drop down being words when cards actually have numbers and came across thsi solution which I really liked.

Is there any way i can amend your software to incorporate it

<option value="1">01 - January</option>
<option value="2">02 - February</option>
<option value="3">03 - March</option>
<option value="4">04 - April</option>
<option value="5">05 - May</option>
<option value="6">06 - June</option>
<option value="7">07 - July</option>
<option value="8">08 - August</option>
<option value="9">09 - September</option>
<option value="10">10 - October</option>
<option value="11">11 - November</option>
<option value="12">12 - December</option>

Cheers
Brinley

welshop.com:

Hi Conor

I have always had issues with the expiry month drop down being words when cards actually have numbers and came across thsi solution which I really liked.

Is there any way i can amend your software to incorporate it



Cheers
Brinley

It sounds trivial but I agree with Brinley :)

It would be better to have both.

Craig

Do you have to capture the County/State information when using Protx?

Hi,

CES:

It sounds trivial but I agree with Brinley :)

It would be better to have both.

It's good for intuitiveness so I'll add an option into 3.4.0 to allow custom specification of the date format to use. :)

All the best...

Conor

Hi,

DanDaMan:

Do you have to capture the County/State information when using Protx?

No, Protx's AVS checks, if enabled, only check against the Street Number (first part of Address line 1) and Postcode, the County and State information is not used. If it's there, it's sent to Protx for informational purposes though.

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Thanks a lot Conor.

Craig :)

conor:

Hi,



It's good for intuitiveness so I'll add an option into 3.4.0 to allow custom specification of the date format to use. :)

All the best...

Conor

Hi Conor

Have you seen the following from the 1.3.8 docs?

Added: Month numbers added to CC expiry dates in pulldowns of core payment modules

Will this save you a job and be available for us??

Craig

Conor,

Im using protx direct v3.2. In the last couple of days ive had two unauthorised payments (one because of incorrect 3d details and one that the bank didnt authorise).

On both occasions the customer has recieved an order confirmation and the payment reference under the admin panel on the orders page is cc (usually protx direct) but i dont have the cc module turned on.

I have 2 questions:

1) should an order confirmation go out if payment fails.
2) why would the payment reference be cc.

Hi,

fantasticals:

I have 2 questions:

1) should an order confirmation go out if payment fails.
2) why would the payment reference be cc.

Please get in contact with me directly. I'm going to need access to your Zen Cart admin and your Protx VSP Live admin to debug this one I'm afraid! :(

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi,

I'm very happy to announce the release of the latest version of the Protx Direct 3.x module, 3.4.0.


This is a major new release with completely rewritten 3D-Secure support! :bigups:


Unlike previous versions, this version uses IFrames to keep customers on your site the whole way through the checkout process. This should result in much happier customers and therefore fewer people abandoning their carts at the last hurdle.

Customers are given full instructions/information on what is happening, why it is happening and what they can/should do next!


A few other features have been added to the module. The update list is as follows:


[ADDED] Automatic 3D-Secure IFrame generation and handling added. Customer now stays within main layout of store and is given full instructions/information on what is happening, why it is happening and what they can/should do next. All browser technologies (IFrame support/Javascript support) are accounted for, with automatic fallback to simpler output if a particular technology is not supported/active.
[ADDED] Ability to set custom formats for the month and year select gadgets added.
[ADDED] Option to append model number to product's description in cart details sent to Protx added.
[ADDED] Module now automatically disables itself if a configuration problem is identified.
[UPDATED] Error handling improved by including checks for specific error codes in returned status detail.
[UPDATED] Module now allows usage of normal HTML tags for error messages due to new support of error message encoding.
[UPDATED] Check for Surcharge/Discount rate updated to cope with type conversion problems on misbehaving servers.
[UPDATED] Documentation updated with details of the recommended 3D-Secure rule to be added in the VSP admin.
[UPDATED] Documentation updated with more information about what to do when module doesn't appear on the store catalog side.


It is highly recommended that all users of the module upgrade to this latest version!

Also, please read the updated 3D-Secure information in the configuration section of the documentation, it has new recommendations for your 3D-Secure rules.

To download the latest version simply log into your account on our website, find your order and the links to the new version are there.

Hope you like the new additions! :)


All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi Conor.

I upgraded on my test site and when I try and submit my password on the 3DS page in the checkout, I get my servers 404 page in the iFrame.

I'll look into it again tomorrow to make sure I've installed it right, but I thought I'd let you know.

Craig