Developer's Guide

Gateway Developer Guide and Reference 31 July 2012 43
5
Sending a Simple Transaction to
the Server
When using the Payflow SDK, you send transactions to the Gateway server in name-value pair
format. Typically, a simple transaction includes connection parameters, user parameters, and
transaction data parameters.
 “About Name-Value Pairs” on page 43
 “Payflow Connection Parameters” on page 44
 “User Parameter Data” on page 45
 “Sale Transaction Example” on page 46
 “Formatting Payflow Gateway Transactions” on page 46
About Name-Value Pairs
Name-value pair (NVP) is the format you use to specify the parameter information you send in
a transaction request to the Payflow server. A name-value pair consists of the parameter name
and its value. The equal sign (=) is a special character that associates the name and its value:
PARAMNAME=value
Typically, you send several name-value pairs as a parameter string to the server. The
ampersand (&) is a special character that separates each name-value pair in the parameter
string:
PARAM1NAME=value&PARAM2NAME=value&PARAM3NAME=value
Follow the special character and syntax guidelines when creating name-value pairs.
Using Special Characters In Values
Because the ampersand (&) and equal sign (=) characters have special meanings, they are
invalid in a name-value pair value.
The following are invalid:
COMPANYNAME=Ruff & Johnson
COMMENT1=Level=5
To include special characters in the value portion of a name-value pair, use a length tag. The
length tag specifies the exact number of characters and spaces that appear in the value. The
following are valid.