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==History==
WarpCharge provides the missing piece in your OS/2 e-commerce solution : the payment system.
WarpCharge provides the missing piece in your OS/2 e-commerce solution : the payment system.


Line 4: Line 5:


We could not take "no" as an answer, especially since we knew a lot about the technology involved in doing secure online payments. Rather than switch away from our favorite platform, we decided in mid-1998 to dedicate half of our company resources to the development of a native OS/2 online payment system. This system was initially designed for our own internal use, but it quickly became apparent that it could benefit other companies facing similar problems with online payment on OS/2. We decided to make this a product and called it WarpCharge, an early version of which we demonstrated at Warpstock in October 1998. In May 1999, IBM shipped OS/2 Warp Server for E-business with a strong focus on electronic commerce, and WarpCharge complements it perfectly.
We could not take "no" as an answer, especially since we knew a lot about the technology involved in doing secure online payments. Rather than switch away from our favorite platform, we decided in mid-1998 to dedicate half of our company resources to the development of a native OS/2 online payment system. This system was initially designed for our own internal use, but it quickly became apparent that it could benefit other companies facing similar problems with online payment on OS/2. We decided to make this a product and called it WarpCharge, an early version of which we demonstrated at Warpstock in October 1998. In May 1999, IBM shipped OS/2 Warp Server for E-business with a strong focus on electronic commerce, and WarpCharge complements it perfectly.
==Features==
{|class="wikitable"
!Feature||Benefit
|-
|Secure & flexible. ||
WarpCharge ensures the security of your transactions by using SSL encryption to submit your transactions to the ECHO network.
Because Warpcharge uses the 128-bits encryption engine in Netscape Communicator for OS/2 and does not itself contain any encryption code, there are no restrictions on the distribution of Warpcharge. Warpcharge will automatically use the highest level of encryption supported by the browser software installed on your web server machine.
|-
|No other processing software required. ||WarpCharge does not require you to use any other software to interface with your bank network. WarpCharge works with the ECHOnline service from Electronic Clearing House, Inc.
|-
|No extra connectivity needed. ||
WarpCharge only requires a connection to the Internet available to OS/2 in order to function.
For you, this means significant savings on telecommunications charges.
If you are using WarpCharge with your web server, then you already have an Internet connection and there is no extra connectivity requirement.
If you are using WarpCharge standalone for mail or phone orders, you can sign up with any Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a phone number local to you to avoid connection charges.
Other credit card processing software typically requires you to connect to your bank network via a modem for each transaction. Your telephone charges can add up quickly if the bank network is not a local call. And you still have to pay those telecommunications charges even if the transaction is bogus, just to verify it.
With WarpCharge, your telecommunications costs are predetermined, and are usually a flat fee corresponding to your ISP and phone line monthly charges.
|-
|Real-time transactions. ||
As previously mentioned, WarpCharge connects to the ECHO network over the Internet. This method is much faster than using a modem connection and dialing in for each transaction, since there is no modem negotiation involved - only a secure network connection. When running WarpCharge on your web server, the time between which your customers click on your order page and when they receive confirmation of their order can be under 5 seconds - and you can setup your web server to begin electronic delivery of your product right away if you wish.
In addition, because Warpcharge uses the Netscape Communicator engine for establishing the secure connection to ECHO, it will keep your network connection to ECHO open for 30 seconds, so that if another order comes in, it will not even need to renegotiate the secure link, and process your second order even faster than the first one. This is made possible by the use of the HTTP pipelining feature in Netscape Communicator.
|-
|Support for all major credit cards. ||WarpCharge places no artificial limits on the type of credit cards that you can process. This means that you can accept almost any brand of credit card your customer may have, as long as it is supported by the ECHOnline service. Please refer to their web site for the most current details. As of this writing, ECHO-supported cards include VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
|-
|All common transaction types support. ||WarpCharge lets you perform all of the common transaction types, such as Authorization, Address Verification, Deposit, Credit. You don't have to pay extra to get full functionality !
|-
|No per-transaction fee. ||WarpCharge doesn't add any per-transaction surcharge. You only pay the transaction fees associated with the ECHOnline service.
|-
|Includes sample scripts. ||It's easy to customize the sample REXX scripts to suit your own needs. You can build a low-key internal-use-only site for manual processing of credit cards, or you can build a full-featured public web site.
|-
|Full documentation provided. ||WarpCharge comes with full documentation, rather than making you pay extra for a developer's kit.
|-
|Transaction logging.  ||All transactions are written to a database in CSV (Comma Separated Value) file format, which can be imported into most database software on the market, including IBM's DB2 UDB for OS/2.
|-
|Online transaction reports. ||ECHOnline lets you generate a free transaction report covering recent activity via any web browser. This report lets you quickly see all of your transactions, including all of the transaction details.
|-
|}
==Technical Information==
WarpCharge has a very modular and particular architecture. While you do not need to understand all the internal details of WarpCharge in order to use it, we recommend that you pay close attention so that you can better understand how to setup your own solution later.
There are three different ways to operate WarpCharge.
===Phone or mail orders===
The graph below describes the processing of transactions submitted manually by an operator for mail or phone orders.
This is the simplest type of order, which uses the provided simple REXX order scripts that you may customize at will.
The following is a sample transaction :
* The operator receives an order over the phone.
* He runs a simple REXX script to enter the transaction information.
* The REXX script uses an OS/2 Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanism, a Named Pipe, to contact the WarpCharge plug-in, which is an OS/2 Named pipe Server running in a Netscape Communicator for OS/2 background process. The script passes all the transaction information to the plug-in over the Named Pipe.
* The WarpCharge plug-in uses a Netscape Communicator function to initiate a secure connection to Electronic Clearing House over the Internet to authorize the credit card payment.
* Upon receipt of the authorization answer from ECHO, the WarpCharge plug-in relays the answer back to the REXX order script via the OS/2 Named Pipe.
* The REXX order script interprets the authorization answer, logs the transaction, and tells the operator whether it was successful or not.
* The operator can then take appropriate action - for example give the customer an immediate order confirmation over the phone, then package and ship the order.
Typically, after the operator has entered the transaction information, it will take WarpCharge between 5 and 10 seconds to process.
Note that the same sequence applies not just to credit card authorizations but also other types of transactions, such as Deposit, Credit, or Address Verification.
===Web orders===
The graph below describes the processing of transactions submitted by a customer to a merchant secure web server and processed real-time.
The real-time web processing differs from the manual processing in that the transaction data is no longer entered by the operator but comes from a customer web browser.
* When the customer submits his order on his web browser, it is transmitted securely over the Internet to your secure OS/2 web server.
* The web server executes a CGI order script written in REXX, which will parse the transaction data.
* The REXX CGI script uses an OS/2 Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanism, a Named Pipe, to contact the WarpCharge plug-in, which is an OS/2 Named pipe Server running in a Netscape Communicator for OS/2 background process. The script passes all the transaction information to the plug-in over the Named Pipe.
* The WarpCharge plug-in uses a Netscape Communicator function to initiate a secure connection to Electronic Clearing House over the Internet to authorize the credit card payment.
* Upon receipt of the authorization answer from ECHO, the WarpCharge plug-in relays the answer back to the REXX CGI order script via the OS/2 Named Pipe.
* The REXX CGI order script interprets the authorization answer, logs the transaction, and sends your customer an HTML page stating whether the order was approved or not.
* When customized, the REXX order script can also do extra processing if the order was approved, for example deliver a product electronically directly to the customer, add him to a customer database, or send him an e-mail confirming the order.
===Custom application orders===
Because the WarpCharge REXX interface is fully documented, you can create your own REXX order script and integrate it with any OS/2 application supporting REXX, or with your own custom application. The rest of WarpCharge works the same as in the other cases, only the data source and recipient is different and customized in your REXX script.
Note: the use of a firewall between your computer and the Internet is optional in all cases. OS/2 can be made adequately secure without the use of a firewall when properly configured.
[[Category:Guides]]

Latest revision as of 02:22, 8 July 2019

History

WarpCharge provides the missing piece in your OS/2 e-commerce solution : the payment system.

When we at Theta Band Software tried to setup our own OS/2 online store, we discovered that the lack of OS/2 payment software made it impossible to complete without additional computers running other operating systems, because the main vendors of credit card processing software, IC Verify and CyberCash, in their infinite arrogance, always refused to support OS/2 as a web server platform for their payment systems.

We could not take "no" as an answer, especially since we knew a lot about the technology involved in doing secure online payments. Rather than switch away from our favorite platform, we decided in mid-1998 to dedicate half of our company resources to the development of a native OS/2 online payment system. This system was initially designed for our own internal use, but it quickly became apparent that it could benefit other companies facing similar problems with online payment on OS/2. We decided to make this a product and called it WarpCharge, an early version of which we demonstrated at Warpstock in October 1998. In May 1999, IBM shipped OS/2 Warp Server for E-business with a strong focus on electronic commerce, and WarpCharge complements it perfectly.

Features

Feature Benefit
Secure & flexible.

WarpCharge ensures the security of your transactions by using SSL encryption to submit your transactions to the ECHO network.

Because Warpcharge uses the 128-bits encryption engine in Netscape Communicator for OS/2 and does not itself contain any encryption code, there are no restrictions on the distribution of Warpcharge. Warpcharge will automatically use the highest level of encryption supported by the browser software installed on your web server machine.

No other processing software required. WarpCharge does not require you to use any other software to interface with your bank network. WarpCharge works with the ECHOnline service from Electronic Clearing House, Inc.
No extra connectivity needed.

WarpCharge only requires a connection to the Internet available to OS/2 in order to function.

For you, this means significant savings on telecommunications charges.

If you are using WarpCharge with your web server, then you already have an Internet connection and there is no extra connectivity requirement.

If you are using WarpCharge standalone for mail or phone orders, you can sign up with any Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a phone number local to you to avoid connection charges.

Other credit card processing software typically requires you to connect to your bank network via a modem for each transaction. Your telephone charges can add up quickly if the bank network is not a local call. And you still have to pay those telecommunications charges even if the transaction is bogus, just to verify it.

With WarpCharge, your telecommunications costs are predetermined, and are usually a flat fee corresponding to your ISP and phone line monthly charges.

Real-time transactions.

As previously mentioned, WarpCharge connects to the ECHO network over the Internet. This method is much faster than using a modem connection and dialing in for each transaction, since there is no modem negotiation involved - only a secure network connection. When running WarpCharge on your web server, the time between which your customers click on your order page and when they receive confirmation of their order can be under 5 seconds - and you can setup your web server to begin electronic delivery of your product right away if you wish.

In addition, because Warpcharge uses the Netscape Communicator engine for establishing the secure connection to ECHO, it will keep your network connection to ECHO open for 30 seconds, so that if another order comes in, it will not even need to renegotiate the secure link, and process your second order even faster than the first one. This is made possible by the use of the HTTP pipelining feature in Netscape Communicator.

Support for all major credit cards. WarpCharge places no artificial limits on the type of credit cards that you can process. This means that you can accept almost any brand of credit card your customer may have, as long as it is supported by the ECHOnline service. Please refer to their web site for the most current details. As of this writing, ECHO-supported cards include VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
All common transaction types support. WarpCharge lets you perform all of the common transaction types, such as Authorization, Address Verification, Deposit, Credit. You don't have to pay extra to get full functionality !
No per-transaction fee. WarpCharge doesn't add any per-transaction surcharge. You only pay the transaction fees associated with the ECHOnline service.
Includes sample scripts. It's easy to customize the sample REXX scripts to suit your own needs. You can build a low-key internal-use-only site for manual processing of credit cards, or you can build a full-featured public web site.
Full documentation provided. WarpCharge comes with full documentation, rather than making you pay extra for a developer's kit.
Transaction logging. All transactions are written to a database in CSV (Comma Separated Value) file format, which can be imported into most database software on the market, including IBM's DB2 UDB for OS/2.
Online transaction reports. ECHOnline lets you generate a free transaction report covering recent activity via any web browser. This report lets you quickly see all of your transactions, including all of the transaction details.

Technical Information

WarpCharge has a very modular and particular architecture. While you do not need to understand all the internal details of WarpCharge in order to use it, we recommend that you pay close attention so that you can better understand how to setup your own solution later.

There are three different ways to operate WarpCharge.

Phone or mail orders

The graph below describes the processing of transactions submitted manually by an operator for mail or phone orders.

This is the simplest type of order, which uses the provided simple REXX order scripts that you may customize at will.

The following is a sample transaction :

  • The operator receives an order over the phone.
  • He runs a simple REXX script to enter the transaction information.
  • The REXX script uses an OS/2 Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanism, a Named Pipe, to contact the WarpCharge plug-in, which is an OS/2 Named pipe Server running in a Netscape Communicator for OS/2 background process. The script passes all the transaction information to the plug-in over the Named Pipe.
  • The WarpCharge plug-in uses a Netscape Communicator function to initiate a secure connection to Electronic Clearing House over the Internet to authorize the credit card payment.
  • Upon receipt of the authorization answer from ECHO, the WarpCharge plug-in relays the answer back to the REXX order script via the OS/2 Named Pipe.
  • The REXX order script interprets the authorization answer, logs the transaction, and tells the operator whether it was successful or not.
  • The operator can then take appropriate action - for example give the customer an immediate order confirmation over the phone, then package and ship the order.

Typically, after the operator has entered the transaction information, it will take WarpCharge between 5 and 10 seconds to process.

Note that the same sequence applies not just to credit card authorizations but also other types of transactions, such as Deposit, Credit, or Address Verification.

Web orders

The graph below describes the processing of transactions submitted by a customer to a merchant secure web server and processed real-time.

The real-time web processing differs from the manual processing in that the transaction data is no longer entered by the operator but comes from a customer web browser.

  • When the customer submits his order on his web browser, it is transmitted securely over the Internet to your secure OS/2 web server.
  • The web server executes a CGI order script written in REXX, which will parse the transaction data.
  • The REXX CGI script uses an OS/2 Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanism, a Named Pipe, to contact the WarpCharge plug-in, which is an OS/2 Named pipe Server running in a Netscape Communicator for OS/2 background process. The script passes all the transaction information to the plug-in over the Named Pipe.
  • The WarpCharge plug-in uses a Netscape Communicator function to initiate a secure connection to Electronic Clearing House over the Internet to authorize the credit card payment.
  • Upon receipt of the authorization answer from ECHO, the WarpCharge plug-in relays the answer back to the REXX CGI order script via the OS/2 Named Pipe.
  • The REXX CGI order script interprets the authorization answer, logs the transaction, and sends your customer an HTML page stating whether the order was approved or not.
  • When customized, the REXX order script can also do extra processing if the order was approved, for example deliver a product electronically directly to the customer, add him to a customer database, or send him an e-mail confirming the order.

Custom application orders

Because the WarpCharge REXX interface is fully documented, you can create your own REXX order script and integrate it with any OS/2 application supporting REXX, or with your own custom application. The rest of WarpCharge works the same as in the other cases, only the data source and recipient is different and customized in your REXX script.

Note: the use of a firewall between your computer and the Internet is optional in all cases. OS/2 can be made adequately secure without the use of a firewall when properly configured.