Use Poynt device as a credit card terminal

Developers Poynt Cloud APIs
#1

Hi, we have a web based POS application and are trying to see if Poynt devices would be a good fit or not. Using the Cloud API is it possible to initiate a CAPTURE transaction? I do see in the API where it lists operations, but they speak to already having an AUTH which you are capturing. This would not be the case in our model. We would perform our sale process in our POS and if the cashier indicates credit card, we would then initiate a charge using the Poynt device.

In one of our currently supported configurations, the flow is: POS web page initiates a charge via REST call, web app within Tomcat makes a call to a third party middle-ware application which manages credit card machines, charge is performed on desired credit card machine (end-to-end encryption from swipe) and the result returned to web app. POS then interrogates response and if successful finalizes the sale.

Thanks,

Pete

#2

Hi Pete,

If an auth is performed on a Poynt terminal, capture can happen on another Poynt terminal (obviously both terminal s have to be configured with the same merchant id).

#3

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, but not talking about AUTH on one and AUTH-CAPTURE on other. Talking about in our POS creating a sale in our POS and then only using a Poynt device to capture a payment. All we would want to do is call a Poynt REST method to capture a payment. From what I was looking at in the REST API it appears that the capture is based off already having an AUTH. We will not have an AUTH. What I am trying to figure out is if we can make a REST call to capture a payment for an amount we pass into the call.

#4

To capture an auth, it needs to be in the Poynt system, which means it has to be created on a Poynt terminal.
Additionally we don’t provide WRITE access to TRANSACTION resource via REST API which would be something you would need to capture an authorization.

Maybe you can give some more details about your use case. Based on what I have read so far my understanding is that your POS makes an API call to the acquirer to create an authorization. Is that correct? If so, why do you need to run the capture through Poynt versus doing it on your POS calling the acquirer directly?

#5

Here’s my guess as to what the original poster is going for (as it’s something I’d also think would be useful).

  1. Merchant rings up a sale in POS, say for $23.55
  2. Merchant presses “Credit” button in POS
  3. POS makes an API to Poynt, something like “Charge(23.55,MID=my_merchant,ref=my_unique_tranaction_id)”.
  4. Poynt device opens terminal app pre-set to charge $23.55
  5. Customer and merchant interact with Poynt device to complete the transaction (which either succeeds or fails)
  6. POS calls “CheckStatus(ref=my_unique_tranaction_id)” to discover the state of the transaction
  7. If the transaction state is “success”, POS completes sale and prints a receipt.

So, instead of writing a native app to control the payment fragments, he wants to write a cloud app to remotely control the terminal app (or some similar app), and get similar results to writing a native app.

That being said, Pete, if I understood your point correctly, the way to go might be to write a native app with an Android WebView and have your cloud-based POS run on the Poynt. Or, if your POS needs non-Poynt-compatible hardware, do the same thing, but point the web-view to a sub-section of your app, like https://myposapp.com/poyntwatch?poyntid=abc123 and have it monitor that for state changes. Then when you ring up a sale on your POS, your native app on the point will notice the state change on your server and then doing the stuff with the payments fragments to process the sale, and then write the results to your server.

(PS Pete, I’m working on my suggested idea. I’m a bit overbooked at the moment, so I’ve only just now gotten the sample app up and running on the Poynt emulator, but once I have a few hours to really dive in, ask me again about my results:-) )

-Michael

#6

Pete,

If what Michael described it correct, we already support that, but have not published the docs yet. Let me know and I can email you the integration doc.

#7

Dennis,
Any chance you could e-mail me those docs too? I’ll probably still write a native app with a WebView, but that would be an interesting way to accelerate the integration for certain situations. (And it might just be that the built-in terminal app is just better-looking than whatever I’d program, so it might make sense for that to be what’s used anyway.)

Thanks Dennis! I appreciate all the time you spend answering questions on here:-).

-Michael

#8

Pete,
Just curious is your POS integrated into Open Bravo by chance. We are looking for some way to integrate the terminal into Open Bravo as well. We got the web pos to load on the terminal but had issues with getting jetty to start up correctly to handle the hardware integration with the terminal.

Also Dennis is there a way i could get a copy of the docs as well.

#9

Just sent the doc to both of you.

#10

Hi Dennis !!! Good Afternoon !!!

I am starting development in Brazil within an effort to introduce Poynt platform. Right now we are evaluating usage scenarios and we are very interested in cloud/features capabilities.

I wonder if you could sent me theses docs too.

Thanks a lot,

Pedro

#11

Hi Dennis - we’d like to do a similar integration as well from our iPad based cloud POS - we have our own catalog and inventory system that we wouldn’t want to duplicate on Poynt. Could you please mail me the doc as well?

In addition, we would be interested in a deeper integration as well (probably semi-integrated over bluetooth).

#12

Vish,

We also have a beta version of iOS SDK to connect an POS app to Poynt over local network. Would this work better?

#13

Dennis I believe that might be ideal. How do we get our hands on the SDK?

#14

Here’s the repo for the iOS SDK: https://github.com/poynt/pos-connector-ios-sdk-sample. You will need an Android component as well. Give me your terminal serial number (sticker on the back or inside the printer roll chamber) and I will install it remotely.

Please share some feedback once you start using.

1 Like
#15

Dennis can you send me the docs.

#16

Dennis, this sounds very similar to what I am trying to accomplish. I can’t seem to find what mnehring is suggesting in the docs. If they’re not yet published could you send them to me as well. Thanks!

#17

Hi Dennis, would you mind sending me these docs as well. We are working on a similar project to integrate another POS application and use the POYNT terminal to pull down tabs and pay/close them, then send the total payment amount back to the POS and close the tab in the POS.

#18

Hi All,

We have recently updated the doc https://poynt.github.io/developer/semi/pos-bridge.html.

Thanks,
Dennis

#19

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#20

Are you able to send me the Docs?