Sofort (legacy)

Warning: This method is temporarily not supported.

Overview

Sofort is an alternative payment method that allows customers in Poland to perform purchases and issue refunds by using online banking. Purchases are performed by using Payment Page and Gate, refunds—by using Gate.

Note:

A new technical implementation is available for working with the Sofort method. It is described in the Sofort section.

For the information on how to switch to a new implementation refer to your key account manager.

General information

Payment method type Online banking
Countries and regions AT, BE, CH, DE, ES, NL
Payment currencies EUR, CHF *
Currency conversion On ecommpay side
Purchases +
Payouts
Stored credentials payments
Full refunds +
Partial refunds +
Chargebacks
Notes
Onboarding and access fee Refer to your ecommpay key account manager

* For exact information on available currencies refer to the ecommpay key account manager.

Interaction diagram

Payment processing by using the Sofort payment method requires merchant's web service, one of ecommpay interfaces, and the ecommpay payment platform, as well as Sofort service which supports interactions with banks.



Operations support

  Interfaces Amounts, EUR
Payment Page CMS Plug-ins Gate Dashboard minimum maximum
Purchases + 1.00 5,000.00 *
Full refunds +
Partial refunds +

* Refer to your ecommpay key account manager for more information.

Processing scenarios

To perform a purchase operation, you need to redirect a customer to the Sofort service, while to initiate a refund, you need to receive a request from a customer via your web service and then notify the customer about funds crediting.

Figure: Purchase by using Payment Page procedure



Figure: Purchase by using Gate procedure



Figure: Refund by using Gate procedure



The sections that follow provide detailed information about what you need to perform payments and how you can analyse the information on payments and operations.

Purchase by using Payment Page

General information

In the Sofort method, to perform a purchase by using Payment Page, the merchant web service should send a request with all the required parameters and signature to the ecommpay URL and get the callback with the payment result from the payment platform. When opening Payment Page, you can have Payment Page opened with the Sofort method selected. For more information about preselecting payment methods, see in Preselecting payment methods.

The full sequence and particularities of the purchase process are provided below.



Figure: Purchase sequence by using Payment Page

  1. A customer initiates a purchase on the merchant's web service.
  2. The web service sends the request for Payment Page opening to the specified ecommpay URL.
  3. The request for opening is redirected to the payment platform.
  4. The payment platform performs the initial request processing that involves validation of the required parameters and signature.
  5. Requested Payment Page is generated into the ecommpay payment platform as specified in the project settings and the request parameters.
  6. Payment Page is displayed to the customer.
  7. The customer selects Sofort method.
  8. The payment platform receives the purchase request for payment processing.
  9. The payment platform performs the internal purchase request processing and sends it to the Sofort service.
  10. The purchase request is processed on the Sofort service side.
  11. The service generates the data for redirecting the customer to its payment form and sends it to the payment platform.
  12. The payment platform sends the customer redirection data to Payment Page.
  13. The customer is redirected to the Sofort service.
  14. The customer completes all the payment steps required.
  15. The payment is processed on Sofort side.
  16. The result is displayed to the customer on the service.
  17. The customer is redirected to Payment Page.
  18. Sofort sends the result notification to the payment platform.
  19. The payment platform sends a callback with the payment result to the web service.
  20. The payment platform sends the result to Payment Page.
  21. A page with the payment result information is displayed to the customer on Payment Page.

The sections that follow discuss in more details the request format and the Payment Page parameters to use in the Sofort payment method and provide the information on the format of callbacks with payment results. For the general information on how to use the API, see Payment Page API Description.

Request format

There are several things you need to consider when requesting a payment through the Sofort method:

  1. You must provide values for the basic minimum of parameters. Listed below are the parameters that are mandatory for any payment method:
    • project_id—the project ID obtained from ecommpay
    • payment_id—payment ID unique within the project
    • payment_currency—payment currency in ISO-4217 alpha-3 format
    • payment_amount—payment amount in minor units
  2. The currency of payment can only be EUR or CHF.
  3. To open Payment Page, pass the language code in the language_code parameter in the request for opening. For more information, see Interface language support.
  4. There are more mandatory parameters with customer details:
    • customer_id—the unique ID of the customer within your project
    • customer_country—country
    • customer_first_name—first name
    • customer_last_name—last name
    • customer_email—email address
  5. If you need to have payment form displayed with the Sofort method selected, set the force_payment_method parameter to sofort.
  6. If required, you can also add any other additional parameters Payment Page supports.
  7. After you specify all the parameters you need, you must create the signature for the request. For instructions on how to sign a payment request, see Signature generation and verification.

Thus, a correct payment request in the Sofort method must include project, customer, and payment IDs, the currency and the amount of a payment in the appropriate currency, as shown in the following example:

EPayWidget.run(
    { payment_id: 'X03936', 
      payment_amount: 10000, 
      payment_currency: 'EUR', 
      project_id: 239,    
      customer_id: 'customer123',
      customer_first_name: 'John',
      customer_last_name: 'Johnson',
      customer_email: 'johnson@mail.com',
      customer_country: 'DE',
      language_code: de,  
      signature: "kUi2x9dKHAVNU0FYldJrxh4yo+52Kt8KU\/RLCvhtT4DqtVUkDJrOcZzUCwX6R\/ekpZhkIQg=="
    }
)

For information about all parameters available in the Sofort method, see Parameters for opening payment form.

Callback format

The Sofort method uses the standard format for callbacks to deliver purchase results. For more information, see Callbacks.

The following is the example of a callback with an information about successful 100,00 EUR purchase on account 2626324568 in the 238 project.

Figure: Example of a successful purchase callback

 {
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "test_Sofort_02",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "success",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "description": "payment_02"
        },
        "account": {
            "number": "2626324568"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 14153000003282,
            "type": "sale",
            "status": "success",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
            "request_id": "9d11b2ca618ec3bad2913b488"
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "105887607",
                "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "0",
            "message": "Success"
        },
        "signature": "of8k9xerKSKpFBR4XL1QFaDRbOmstt9Mh0CIcjmOwSwKJ7KLTZYO56lCv+f1M0Sf/7eg=="
    }

The following is the example of a callback for a purchase declined due to minimum amount limit.

Figure: Example of a declined purchase callback

{
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "TEST_154996862174000",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-12T10:56:22+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 100,
                "currency": "USD"
            },
            "description": "TEST_154996862174000"
        },
        "customer": {
            "id": "1"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 9172000003183,
            "type": "sale",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-12T10:56:22+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-12T10:56:18+0000",
            "request_id": "11d4aabf869cb74c0681927ad7",
            "sum_initial": {
                "amount": 100,
                "currency": "USD"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 88,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "20000",
            "message": "General decline"
        },
        "signature": "n/1oVdS/mE0AlVOUDbbNqasdfghjm/jmhngfdsxeI14MBiRz0yJRrqn7HiBOEIObz2tN5SLw=="
    }
}

Related topics

The following topics might be useful when implementing payments through Payment Page:

Purchases by using Gate

General information

In the Sofort methods, when processing a purchase by using Gate, the merchant web service is required to do the following:

  1. Send a request with all the required parameters and signature to the ecommpay URL.
  2. Perform the redirection of a customer to the Sofort service.
  3. Get the callback with the payment result from the payment platform.

The following diagram provides the detailed picture of the payment processing procedure.



Figure: Purchase by using Gate

  1. A customer initiates a purchase through Sofort on the merchant's web service side.
  2. The web service sends the request for processing the purchase by using Gate to the specified ecommpay URL.
  3. The payment platform receives the request for processing the purchase from Gate.
  4. The payment platform performs the initial request processing that includes validation of the required parameters and signature.
  5. The payment platform sends the response with request receipt confirmation and correctness check result to the web service. For more information, see Response format.
  6. The payment platform performs the internal payment request processing and redirects the request to the Sofort service.
  7. The request is processed on the Sofort side.
  8. The Sofort service sends the data for redirecting the customer to the Sofort service to the payment platform.
  9. The payment platform sends the callback with the redirection data in the redirect_data object to the web service.
  10. The customer is redirected from the web service to the Sofort service.
  11. The customer completes all the payment steps required.
  12. The payment is processed on the Sofort side.
  13. The result is displayed to the customer.
  14. The customer is redirected to the merchant's web service.
  15. The Sofort service sends the payment result notification to the payment platform.
  16. The payment platform sends a callback to the web service.
  17. The customer receives the payment result on the web service.

The sections that follow discuss in more details the request format and the Gate parameters to use in the Sofort payment method and provide the information on the format of callbacks with purchase results.

Request format

There are several things you must consider when using purchase requests in the Sofort method:

  1. You perform refunds by sending the /v2/payment/online-banking/sofort/sale/ request by using POST (HTTP) method. This is an online banking request group: /v2/payment/online-banking/{payment_method}/sale
  2. The following objects and parameters must be specified in any request:
    • Object general—general purchase information:
      • project_id—project identifier
      • payment_id—unique purchase identifier
      • signature—signature created after you specify all the required parameters. For more information about signature generation, see Signature generation and verification
    • Object customer—customer information:
      • id—the unique ID of the customer within your project
      • country—country
      • first_name—first name
      • last_name—last name
      • email—email address
      • ip_address—IP address
    • Object payment—purchase information:
      • amount—purchase amount
      • currency—payout currency in the ISO-4217 alpha-3 format.
    • return_url—URL for customer returning from the bank site:
      • return—site URL for returning
  3. The currency of payment can only be EUR or CHF.
  4. If required, you can also add any other additional parameters Gate supports.

Thus, a correct payment request in the Sofort method must include project, customer and payment IDs, customer data, currency and amount of the purchase, as shown in the following example:

Figure: Example of a purchase request

{
    "general": {
        "project_id": 2990,
        "payment_id": "payment_id",
        "signature": "PJkV8ej\/UG0Di8NN5e7cVHq3LwY3T\/pOMeSaRfBaNIipTv+AWoXW\/9MTO8yJA=="
    },
    "customer": {
      "id": "1customer1",
      "ip_address": "1.1.1.1",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Johnson",
      "email": "johnson@mail.com",
      "country": "DE"
    },
    "payment": {
      "amount": 1000,
      "currency": "EUR"
    },
    "return_url": {
      "return": "http://merchantsite.com"
    }
}

Formats of the customer redirection data

To redirect a customer from the web service to the Sofort site, you must receive a callback from the payment platform containing the URL for redirection in the redirect_data.url parameter and data to be sent in the request body in the redirect_data.body parameter, and use these parameters when opening the HTML page using the method specified in the redirect_data.method parameter.

The following is the callback fragment containing the redirection data.

"redirect_data": {
                    "body": [],
                    "method": "GET",
                    "url": "https://sofort?tx=478011136&rs=a9X4A17Zp260P1vj&cs=13073"
                }

Callback format

The Sofort method uses the standard format for callbacks to deliver purchase results. For more information, see Callbacks.

The following is the example of a callback with an information about successful 100.00 EUR purchase from account 2626324568 made by the customer in the 239 project.

Figure: Example of a successful purchase callback

 {
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "test_02",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "success",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "description": "payment_02"
        },
        "account": {
            "number": "2626324568"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 14153000003282,
            "type": "sale",
            "status": "success",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
            "request_id": "9d11b2ca618ec3bad2913b488"
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "105887607",
                "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "0",
            "message": "Success"
        },
        "signature": "of8k9xerKSKpFBR4XL1QFaDRbOmstt9Mh0CIcjmOwSwKJ7KLTZYO56lCv+f1M0Sf/7eg=="
    }

The following is the example of a callback for a purchase declined due to the inappropriate payment amount.

Figure: Example of a declined purchase callback

{
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "TEST_154996862174000",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-12T10:56:22+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 100,
                "currency": "USD"
            },
            "description": "TEST_154996862174000"
        },
        "customer": {
            "id": "1"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 9172000003183,
            "type": "sale",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-12T10:56:22+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-12T10:56:18+0000",
            "request_id": "11d4aabf869cb74c0681927ad7",
            "sum_initial": {
                "amount": 100,
                "currency": "USD"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 88,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "20000",
            "message": "General decline"
        },
        "signature": "n/1oVdS/mE0AlVOUDbbNqasdfghjm/jmhngfdsxeI14MBiRz0yJRrqn7HiBOEIObz2tN5SLw=="
    }
}

Related topics

The following topics might be useful when implementing payments through Gate:

Refunds by using Gate

General information

Sofort supports full and partial refunds processing by using Gate: merchant's web service sends a request with all the required parameters and signature to ecommpay URL, and receives a callback with the payment result. The full sequence of the refund process is provided below.



Figure: Refund sequence in the Payment Page method

  1. A customer orders a refund by using merchant's web service.
  2. Merchant's web service sends the refund request for processing the refund by using Gate to the appropriate ecommpay URL.
  3. Gate redirects the request to the ecommpay payment platform.
  4. The payment platform performs all the necessary check and processes the request.
  5. The reply with the request processing results is sent to the merchant's web service. For more information, see Response format.
  6. The payment platform redirects the refund request to the Sofort service.
  7. The refund is processed on Sofort side.
  8. Sofort sends the result notification to the payment platform.
  9. The payment platform sends a callback with the payment result to the web service.
  10. The customer receives the information about the receipt of the requested funds from the web service.

The sections that follow discuss in more details the request format and the Gate parameters to use in the Sofort payment method and provide the information on the format of callbacks with refund results.

Request format

There are several things you must consider when using refund requests in the Sofort method:

  1. You perform refunds by sending the /v2/payment/online-banking/sofort/refund/ request by using POST (HTTP) method. This is an online banking request group: /v2/payment/online-banking/{payment_method}/refund
  2. The following objects and parameters must be specified in any request:
    • Object general—general payment information:
      • project_id—project identifier
      • payment_id—unique payment identifier
      • signature—signature created after you specify all the required parameters. For more information about signature generation, see Signature generation and verification
    • Object customer—customer information:
      • ip_address—customer IP address
    • Object payment—refund information:
      • description—comment or description
      • amount—refund amount in minor units (mandatory for partial refund only)
      • currency—refund currency in ISO-4217 alpha-3 format (mandatory for partial refund only)
  3. If required, you can also add any other additional parameters Gate supports.

Thus, a correct refund request in the Sofort method must include project and payment IDs, customer IP address, currency and amount of the refund, as shown in the following example:

Figure: Example of a refund request

  "general": {    
    "project_id": 239,    
    "payment_id": "refund_02",   
    "signature": "of8k9xerKSKpFBR4XL1QFaDH3p9Mh0CIcjmOwSwKJ7KLTZYO56lCv+f1M0Sf/7eg=="
  },  
    "customer": {    
     "ip_address": "1.2.3.4" 
 },  
    "payment": {    
     "amount": 10000,    
     "currency": "EUR",
     "description": "refund_02"
}
}

Callback format

The Sofort method uses the standard format for callbacks to deliver refund results. For more information, see Callbacks.

Here is an example of callback with an information about successful 100.00 EUR refund for the customer account 2626324568 in the 238 project.

Figure: Example of a successful refund callback

{
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "refund_02",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "refunded",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "description": "test_02"
        },
        "account": {
            "number": "2626324568"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 14153000003282,
            "type": "refund",
            "status": "success",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
            "request_id": "9d11b2ca618ec3ba0f588af8af3c4fc9f5fa58f174",
            "sum_initial": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 10000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "105887607",
                "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "0",
            "message": "Success"
        },
        "signature": "of8k9xerKSKpFBR4XL1QFaDH3p9Mh0CIcjmOwSwKJ7KLTZYO56lCv+f1M0Sf/7eg=="
    }

Here is an example of callback for a refund declined as the amount in the refund requested is greater than the amount in the initial payment.

Figure: Example of a declined refund callback

{
        "project_id": 238,
        "payment": {
            "id": "refund_02",
            "type": "purchase",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "method": "sofort",
            "sum": {
                "amount": 100000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "description": "test_02"
        },
        "account": {
            "number": "2626324568"
        },
        "operation": {
            "id": 14153000003282,
            "type": "refund",
            "status": "decline",
            "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:25+0000",
            "created_date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
            "request_id": "9d11b2ca618ec3ba0f588af8af3c4fc9f5fa58f174",
            "sum_initial": {
                "amount": 100000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "sum_converted": {
                "amount": 100000,
                "currency": "EUR"
            },
            "provider": {
                "id": 1169,
                "payment_id": "105887607",
                "date": "2019-02-19T14:25:24+0000",
                "auth_code": ""
            },
            "code": "3283",
            "message": "Refund amount more than init amount"
        },
        "signature": "of8k9xerKSKpFBR4XL1QFaDH3p9Mh0CIcjmOwSwKJ7KLTZYO56lCv+f1M0Sf/7eg=="
    }

Relates topics

The following topics might be useful when implementing payments through Gate:

Analysis of payments results

As with other payment methods ecommpay offers, when using the Sofort method, you have several options to analyse the information about payments and operations performed by using the method—alone or in conjunction with other methods.

You can load and analyse all the necessary information in Dashboard, for instance you can use the analytic panels on the Analytics tab to this end.

Also, you can export the information for further analysis by using third party analytical tools. The following options are available:

  • Dashboard allows you to download reports in CSV and XLS formats—by using the tools on the Payments tab. You can perform export as a one-time download to your local computer or have payment data regularly exported and delivered to email addresses you specify.
  • Data API allows you to have payment information exported in JSON format and delivered to a URL you specify. The payment information is exported by using the /operations/get queries.

If you have any further questions regarding payment data analysis, contact ecommpay technical support.