Authorize.net for VirtueMart 2.X

[perlarenee]

Can't wait for this plugin to be approved...it'll finally make 2.0 usable for live sites right? When it's approved will there be some sort of notice posted?
And is there a way/place i can donate something to the developers?

[aboutimage]

Why not make the plugin available in the interim for "Beta Testing" purposes? There are plenty of people here (including myself) who would be more than happy to test it while we wait for Authorize.net to wave their magic wand and give official approval. No approval need be given for such testing. My firm wrote and published the only known plugin for Innovative Merchant Solutions (an Intuit product) and we didn't have to get their authorization to put it up for sale, so I can't imagine that you'd need any approval to put a plugin up for testing.

[dontflinch]

@aboutimage - if you write one like the old VM with a offline/manual run mode (first 12 digits in order list last four emailed to admin) I would BUY!

I can't even get an answer about if that is even being considered, although I am sure that is some of what a lot of folks liked about the old VM.

[jbrunk]

i am confused why we can't see the code for the plugin?  we can get to svn for vm, why not the plugin?

[aboutimage]

i am confused why we can't see the code for the plugin?  we can get to svn for vm, why not the plugin?

I quite agree. This doesn't make sense.

[jjk]

I quite agree. This doesn't make sense.

It will be released as a commercial plugin once it has been approved by authorize.net. So it does make sense not to place it in svn. However, the process to get it approved by authorize.net might take some time. I've seen forum posts where the developers were still waiting for approval six months after they submitted their application. Hopefully the guys at authorize.net are quicker this time...:-)

[jbrunk]

the biggest payment provider plugin is going to be released as a commercial plugin?  what kind of cost are you charging for it?

[dontflinch]

I can't believe that virtuemart 2.0 was released as the stable download without any payment plugin besides paypal and more importantly that nothing was said about it until long after the fact.

if people wanted to use paypal they could put a paypal button on their site, they don't need a shopping cart for that.  And I still cannot get an answer about whether the offline auth method will be developed and from the lack of reply and this fresh bit of news I am suspecting it will not.

even more disheartening is that the first anyone is hearing of this being a 'wait and see' pay-for plugin is TODAY, even though dozens of folks have been asking about it for more than a month now.

I have already installed this both on my own small business site and the site I am developing at work. 

So now I don't know what to do.  I have two ecommerce sites that cannot take payments, and it sounds like little hope that the "soon" promised plugin will be available any time in the near future.  =(

[jbrunk]

I am all for great commercial components, but auth.net payment plugin for VM going commercial seems odd.   It has been around for a long time.  I think someone may need to just write something and release an alternative to the commercial plugin to the community.  I am in the same boat as you.  i have a site, ready to go that has been waiting on a plugin that was said to be in the stable release, and now a month later is still no where to be seen, said could be months away and is now commercial.  Very disappointing to get this info this far past the stable release.

[jjk]

Just curious, because I never used VM1.x for a live shop - is there any free payment gateway for VM1.x that uses a payment gateway API, not just a simple redirect to an html form?
The only authorize.net extension for VM1.x I'm aware of is a commercial one.

BTW - I think you have to be patient with the developers (most of the very small team writing code are located in Europe and even though the chief developer is german, you will get at least one american payment gateway before there will be one for us Germans  )
Also, just calculate what you are paying authorize.net (http://www.authorize.net/solutions/merchantsolutions/pricing/) in addition to merchant charges by your credit card supplier. I think it is only fair if the VM2 developers will charge something for the payment gateways, so they can feed their kids, too.

[dontflinch]

I have previously installed several shops with vm 1.x although I can't recall if I ever used anything but the ecommerce bundle and the a.net gateway was included in it by default.

it's not so much the paying for it jjk, as the sketchiness of the information and details.  alatak was saying 'it will be ready soooooon' a few weeks ago with no comments about how we'd have to wait for a.net approval, and that it would be commercial, etc. 

I'm not really opposed to paying, but if one is going to pay for the plugin, we might as well have already paid someone to develop it and not have to wait for bureaucratic bs to get up and running.  it could have been done by now if we knew a month ago what we have now heard today for the first time.

and no one will answer at all about the manual/offline processing.

I just think now that they probably should have waited to release this as stable until we were actually able to process payments (besides paypal).

[jenkinhill]

Well over 60% of VM sites are set up to use PayPal, so the initial release, by my reckoning, was OK,  as Paypal is not a US only payment system and the 100,000+ downloads have been from all corners of the globe. We are still waiting for authorisation of this plugin, as anyone else who developed it would have to. I think this hurdle was unforseen as it is not a US based developer who coded it.

I seem to remember that in the first releases of VirtueMart these payment systems were only available as paid extras, as they were developed by third parties, usually based in the countries that used that payment system. Many were subsequently donated to the core, which is why they became included.

Manual/offline processing plugin has been mentioned, the coding issue there is that it must be PCI compliant or many VM site owners may find they get closed down for failing the more stringent PCI checks just introduced. And possible attract heavy fines if something goes wrong or they fail to inform their card service provider what they are doing. It is a bit of a minefield.

[dontflinch]

well I don't know where you got the 60% figure but I would tend to disagree on that.  I think most people that use strictly paypal don't even need a cart system.

also, I don't believe authorize.net REQUIRES that a plugin be authorized.     http://developer.authorize.net/api/aim/     https://developer.authorize.net/integration/fifteenminutes/#custom

as far as pci compliance, the previous vm method of delivering 12 digits on the order form, last four and expiration in an email to admin is appropriate in my opinion.  then the CHOICE can be left up to the shop owner to chose to use it or not.  neither virtuemart nor any plugin can be responsible if someone sells crack from their vm shop any more than if one does something stupid in regards to PCI compliance.  I'm not a fan of being 'nannied'.

[aboutimage]

@dontflinch - I'm actively talking with my programmers about the possibility of doing a quick development for Auth.net using our already-written platform for Innovative Gateway (Intuit) as a base. I make no guarantees at this point that it will happen, as my programmer has accurately pointed out, it's rather late in the game and if the other plugin gets approval, there's no point. That said, we have decided that if the API seems simple enough, we might try to roll out a quick and basic plugin (we certainly will not wait for approval from Auth.net). I'm not trying to sound belligerent with that statement, it's just that we never asked for permission from Intuit either. The API is public information for the express purpose of writing code that interfaces with the gateway - there shouldn't be a need. Anyway, I'll be putting up a dev site tomorrow to play with and I'll let you know once we have a better idea of what we're dealing with.

[dontflinch]

I'll be watching for your updates