Batch
Overview
Batch allows you to submit batch transactions securely and reliably for processing through the Mastercard Gateway . This removes the need to install and maintain batch transaction applications within your environment and help with meeting the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA DSS) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements.
For example, you can use an online shopping cart to initiate authorizations, then use batch processing to carry out captures and refunds to the gateway for processing. This does not require direct payer interaction.
Once submitted, you can periodically request a batch status to determine the current state of the batch processing. This includes a count of the total uploaded, processed, and erred operations as well as time and date stamps on processing actions. The same batch status is also visible to your your payment service provider through the Batch Status Search screen in Merchant Manager.
After a batch has completed processing, you can request a response file that contains the result of each of the uploaded operations.
The batch functionality provides an integration point to the gateway that can accept multiple WS API operations sent in a single upload request. The version specified in the upload request determines accepted operations. For example, if version X is specified then the operations accepted are the ones supported in version X of the WS API.
You can submit batches for processing either through REST integration or upload in Merchant Administration.
Key benefits
The key benefits of batch processing are as follows:
- Processes multiple operations securely and efficiently: You can securely process multiple operations by submitting a batch rather than processing each operation individually.
- Removes the need for installing a local application: You need not install an application on your system. This removes the cost of deploying, updating, and maintaining applications.
- Removes PA-DSS compliance obligation: Providers of payment applications to third parties must comply with the PA-DSS requirements The cost of meeting the PA-DSS compliance requirements is eliminated if the application is not installed on your system.
- Supports both small and large merchants: Supports the needs of both a) small merchants, who mainly require a solution that is easy to use and does not require integration, and b) large merchants who want to efficiently process large transaction volumes.
- Reduces PCI compliance costs: When used with Tokenization, you get the combined benefits of tokenization and batch processing.
Batch usage
At the highest level, batch can be considered as a front-end processor to the WS API. The batch is processed as follows:
- You can upload a request file, which the batch processes and validates. The batch breaks the file into records and stores the records in the database.
- According to the available processing capacity, the batch extracts each record from the database, sends it as a Name-Value Pair (NVP) request to the WS API, and waits for the response. If the response shows a retriable failure, the batch retries the operation at set intervals.
- At any time, you can issue a request to download the status file. The batch reads the counts of processed, successful, and failed records from the database, collates them into the status file, and returns it to you.
- You can request to download the response file. The batch reads the response records from the database, collates them into the response file, and returns it to you.
Information flow
The information flow for batch is illustrated as follows:
- Your integration aggregates payer operations into a batch and uploads the batch of operations using HTTPS PUT over the Internet to the gateway through the gateway batch service. For more information, see Creating a Batch Request.
- Before the gateway processes the batch, you will need to validate the batch contents by sending a Message Integrity Code (MIC) comprising an SHA-1 digest of the batch contents so that any missing or corrupt records are detected. For more information, see Sending a Batch Request.
- Once validated, the gateway processes each operation in the batch.
- During processing, you can poll for the status of the batch to determine the number of records processed and the overall status. For more information. see Retrieving Batch Status.
- Once the status indicates that the batch processing is complete, you can request a batch response. The batch response includes the response values as specified in the original uploaded batch header. For more information, see Downloading the Batch Response.
You may choose to combine collected card details with details stored on a previously stored token. For more information, see Multiple Sources of Card Details.
You may also pass additional fields in the Batch Request depending on your business need. For more information, see Supported Features.