Specifying extended purchase data for subsequent merchant use

Overview

The booking_info parameter allows you to keep track of booking information relevant to a certain payment and receive this information in callbacks from the payment platform. In comparison to specifying the addendum with itinerary data (details) utilised in certain branches of travel industry, this capability can be applied in a wider range of use cases (for example, to specify information about booking concert tickets) and with more flexibility as there are no restrictions by MCC (Merchant Category Code, MCC) and no required parameters. At the same time, using the booking_info parameter may not offer the advantages that are available for addendum data capabilities, so if you have more questions concerning the use of these capabilities, refer to your ecommpay account manager for more details.

The booking_info parameter can be used for processing almost all types of payments made with cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay: it includes performing such actions as purchase processing, placing authorisation holds, registering unscheduled COF purchases (one-click and autopurchases), and payment instrument verification.

The booking_info parameter can be used for keeping track of booking information in requests. This capability is available for processing card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments.

Use case

Here is an example of a use case when a merchant in the music festival industry needs to:

• collect and process data about music festival tickets booked by the customers.
• Provide the company's employees with the timely access to such information about each customer.

For this purpose, the following workflow is set up:

1. Each request for opening Payment Page for which specifying booking information is available contains such information in the booking_info parameter. The value of this parameter is a string containing a Base64 encoded JSON object with the booking parameters.

   The following parameters can be included:

   • firstname—the name of the customer provided at the time of booking
   • surname—the last name of the customer provided at the time of booking
   • email—the email provided at the time of booking
   • start_date—starting date of the booked service
   • end_date—ending date of the booked service
   • description—a free-form description of the booked service
   • total—the total cost of the booking
   • pax—the number of people per booking
   • reference—the booking reference, which can be the URL, the name of the booked service or its code in the merchant web service
   • id—the identifier of the booking, unique in the merchant web service
2. When a relevant operation has been processed, the information specified in the booking_info parameter is passed to the merchant web service in the final callback.
3. The web service processes this information as needed together with the rest of the operation data.

Setup

The capability of using the booking_info parameter in requests and receiving booking information in callbacks (with standard format) is available by default and does not require any specific setup.

The capability of using the booking_info parameter is available by default and does not require any specific setup.

Data format

The booking_info parameter can be specified in requests for opening Payment Page as a string containing the Base64 encoded JSON object (booking_info) with the necessary booking parameters.

"booking_info": {
    "firstname": "William",
    "surname": "Herschel",
    "email": "rsfellow@mail.com",
    "start_date": "12-08-2026",
    "end_date": "13-08-2026",
    "description": "Sideris music festival full pass",
    "total": 200000,
    "pax": 4,
    "reference": "musicfestlink",
    "id": "83"
}

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{
    "payment": {
        "date": "2024-01-24T06:24:45+0000",
        "method": "card",
        "id": "FESTIVAL_PASS_1781",
        "sum": {
            "amount": 0,
            "currency": "EUR"
        },
        "type": "purchase",
        "status": "refunded",
        "description": "FESTIVAL_PASS_1781"
    },
    "project_id": 111738,
    "customer": {
        "id": "musicaficionado_83"
    },
    "account": {
        "number": "551115******1822",
        "token": "7123ba1f24f16a115f3390a9",
        "type": "mastercard",
        "card_holder": "WILLIAM HERSCHEL",
        "expiry_month": "08",
        "expiry_year": "2030"
    },
    "booking info": {    // Object with the booking information
        "firstname": "William",
        "surname": "Herschel",
        "email": "rsfellow@mail.com",
        "start_date": "12-08-2026",
        "end_date": "13-08-2026",
        "description": "Sideris music festival full pass",
        "total": 200000,
        "pax": 4,
        "reference": "musicfestlink",
        "id": "83"
    },
    "operation": {
        "provider": {
            "payment_id": "0010000124258736",
            "auth_code": "",
            "endpoint_id": 414,
            "id": 414
        },
        "sum_converted": {
            "amount": 200000,
            "currency": "EUR"
        },
        "code": "0",
        "message": "Success",
        "id": 55386010114429,
        "type": "refund",
        "status": "success",
        "date": "2024-01-24T06:24:45+0000",
        "sum_initial": {
            "amount": 200000,
            "currency": "EUR"
        },
        "created_date": "2024-01-24T06:24:43+0000",
        "request_id": "abcaf52323381a-d988c158cc4b43046-00055387"
    }
}

Overview

The merchant_data parameter can be used for keeping track of extended information about the order, applying promotions and bonus points, and other relevant data. In addition, the value of this parameter can be combined with the information passed in the payment_description parameter and the receipt information passed in the receipt_data object. As a result, all necessary data can be provided in callbacks without passing certain pieces of information multiple times in different parameters.

Use case

Here is an example of a use case when a merchant in the video game industry needs to:

• collect and process data about add-on services that the gamers purchase as they play.
• Provide the company's employees with the timely access to such information about each customer.

Merchant specialists in charge of the integration inform the ecommpay account manager about these requirements. As a result, the following workflow is devised and set up:

1. Each request for opening Payment Page sent from the merchant web service contains information about the purchased services—passed as a JSON object in the merchant_data parameter.

   The merchant_data string includes the following:

   • The items array in which each element contains the SKU (sku), the description (description), and the number of the purchased services (count).
   • The total_count parameter with the total number of the purchased services or goods items.
   • The user_id parameter with the internal identifier of the customer.
2. When a payment has been processed, the information specified in the merchant_data string is passed to the merchant web service in the final callback and can be viewed in the payment information tab in Dashboard.
3. The web service processes this information as needed together with the rest of the payment data.

Figure: Placing an order in the web service

Figure: Viewing information in Dashboard

Setup

To use the capability of passing information in the merchant_data parameter, contact your account manager. The capability is then set up in the payment platform by the ecommpay specialists who will subsequently inform you that it is ready to be used and that the extended information is now available in callbacks and in the Dashboard interface.

Data format

In requests for opening Payment Page to process payments, the data specified in the merchant_data parameter must be passed as a JSON object. However, because this parameter is a string (string), to pass the JSON object in it when using the HTTP POST method, you need to escape the " character (quotation mark, U+0022) by adding \ (backlash or reverse solidus, U+005C) in front of it. It is necessary in order to distinguish on the level of programmatic interaction which quotation marks close the string and which quotations marks are part of the JSON contents within the string. At the same time, when sending HTTP GET requests, there is no need to use escape sequences if you pass a JSON object (the string is going to be interpreted correctly in this case even without escaping).

In the following examples, the contents of the parameter are split into several lines for the reader's convenience.

"merchant_data": "{"items":[{"sku":"GM12-CC",
        "description":"10 Copper Coins","count":1},
        {"sku":"GM12-GC","description":"Golden Coin",
        "count":2}],"total_count":3,"user_id":"122"}"

"merchant_data": "{\"items\":[{\"sku\":\"GM12-CC\",
        \"description\":\"10 Copper Coins\",\"count\":1},
        {\"sku\":\"GM12-GC\",\"description\":\"Golden Coin\",
        \"count\":2}],\"total_count\":3,\"user_id\":\"122\"}"

"merchant": {
        "data": "{\"items\":[{\"sku\":\"GM12-CC\",
        \"description\":\"10 Copper Coins\",\"count\":1},
        {\"sku\":\"GM12-GC\",\"description\":\"Golden Coin\",
        \"count\":2}],\"total_count\":3,\"user_id\":\"122\"}" 
}