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The transaction object is the central piece of data in your card-linked application. When a user makes a purchase with a linked card, Fidel API captures the transaction event in real time. Fidel API then sends the data to your server in JSON format through webhooks. This allows you to build customized experiences that react to users' real-time transactions.

This page explains how transactions can be collected and processed with the Fidel API platform.

Transaction Event Types

In the life cycle of a transaction, there are multiple transaction events. One transaction event occurs at authorization time. Another transaction event occurs when the transaction has cleared, meaning the funds were successfully moved. If a payment gets reimbursed, that results in a third event. These are distinct events, and Fidel API processes all of them, even if you're not registering webhooks to listen for all event types.

Fidel API currently supports three types of transactions: authorization transactions, clearing transactions and refund transactions.

Authorization Transactions

Authorization transactions are processed when a purchase is made on a linked card at an auth-enabled location (either in-store or online). For example, when a customer makes a purchase at an auth-enabled location with their linked card, the transaction.auth webhook will be triggered and the transaction object will be sent to your specified URL in real time.

Clearing Transactions

Clearing transactions - also known as settled transactions - are processed when a payment transaction settles. This usually happens 48 to 72 hours after a payment is made. Clearing transactions trigger the transaction.clearing webhook event. The processes run multiple times per day for Visa. Only one transaction is sent per event.

Refund Transactions

Refund transactions are processed when a payment is refunded, i.e., when a purchased item is returned and the payment reverses. A refunded transaction triggers two webhook events: transaction.clearing and transaction.refund, with the auth property set to false. The amount on both events is negative. Fidel API tries to identify the initial transaction for which the refund was issued using cardId, locationId, merchantId, amount and datetime. If an associated initial transaction is identified, the webhook data contains the originalTransactionId. If no initial transaction is identified, the data comes in on both webhooks with a negative amount but no originalTransactionId property.

The original transaction has a refundTransactionId property set to the transactionId of the refunded transaction. Updates on the original transaction will not trigger a webhook event.

You will receive both transaction.auth events in real time and transaction.clearing events (in the next 48 to 72 hours). When clearing transactions are processed, Fidel API matches the clearing transaction to the corresponding authorization transaction if it exists by updating the cleared property from false to true.

If you need the updated information about the original transaction, you can retrieve it using the Get Transaction endpoint, with the originalTransactionId from the refunded transaction object.

Transaction Object

The transaction object contains the following data:

Example of a transaction in JSON format:

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{
  "accountId": "f61741c3-3dc9-45f5-8e7c-123456789012",
  "amount": 486,
  "auth": true,
  "authCode": "00856I",
  "billingAmount": 4.43,
  "billingCurrency": "USD",
  "brand": {
    "name": "My Coffee Company"
  },
  "card": {
    "firstNumbers": "123456",
    "id": "159cad70-8187-4d01-8b67-123456789012",
    "lastNumbers": "1234",
    "scheme": "visa"
  },
  "cardPresent": null,
  "cleared": true,
  "created": "2021-08-05T20:10:31.746Z",
  "currency": "JPY",
  "datetime": "2021-08-05T20:10:28",
  "id": "a6e9759c-525b-4942-aa56-123456789012",
  "identifiers": {
    "amexApprovalCode": null,
    "mastercardAuthCode": null,
    "mastercardRefNumber": null,
    "mastercardTransactionSequenceNumber": null,
    "visaAuthCode": "00856I"
  },
  "location": {
    "countryCode": "JPN",
    "postcode": "340-0144",
    "state": "SAITAMA"
  },
  "merchantCategoryCode": "4816",
  "merchantDescriptor": "My Coffee Company",
  "programId": "9ba1adb2-22e8-4c7e-b100-123456789012",
  "programType": "transaction-stream",
  "updated": "2021-08-11T11:31:18.543Z",
  "wallet": null
}

Creating a Test Transaction on the Dashboard

For testing purposes, you can use the API Playground in the Fidel API test environment to create test transactions and test your application logic. Alternatively, you can use the Create Test Transaction endpoint to create authorization test transactions.

To create a test transaction, you will need to have a program and a test card already linked to it.
Then, follow these steps to create a test transaction:

1. On the Fidel API dashboard go to the Playground option in the navigation menu.
2. Click on Create Transaction. The method will be set to POST and the endpoint to /transactions/test.
3. Select a program and a card. This selection will be used to populate the cardId in the JSON payload. You can modify any of the properties in the request payload (including the cardId).
4. Click Run and a test authorization transaction will be created.

If the transaction is created successfully, you will see the transaction object in the Response box. If you have registered a transaction.auth webhook event for this program, the authorization transaction object will be sent to your webhook URL as well.

Clearing Test Transactions Using the Dashboard

To clear an authorization transaction, you can navigate to the program, and then to the Transaction option in the Dashboard navigation menu. You'll see all your transactions listed there. Find the one you want to change the status of, click on the three dots on the right side of it. A popup menu will appear. Click on the 'Clear' option. This action will change the status of the transaction from auth to cleared, and trigger the transaction.clearing webhook event.

Testing Transactions in a Live Environment

How to Collect Test Data

After going live, you can link any eligible card to a program, and make regular purchases to test your system.

How to Receive the Data Collected

You can check the transactions of a specific program on the Fidel API Dashboard.

You can also retrieve the data using the Transactions API. In addition, you can create webhooks to receive transaction events.

Unsupported Transactions

The following types of transactions are not supported:

• Encryption verification transactions
• Transactions that don't travel through the network (e.g some recurring payments, some subscriptions of digital services) **

** Specific scenarios are geographically dependent.

For Developers

Creating a Test Transaction Using the API

To create a test transaction, you will need to have a program and a test card already linked to it. Then, you can create a transaction the following way:

12345678910
curl -X POST \
https://api.fidel.uk/v1/transactions/test \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-H 'fidel-key: sk_test_50ea90b6-2a3b-4a56-814d-1bc592ba4d63' \
-d '{
    "amount": 10,
    "cardId": "bc538b71-31c5-4699-820a-6d4a08693314",
    "currency": "USD"
}'

API Reference

To find out more about our Transaction Stream API and how to use it with your application, check the API Reference.