I have a fairly strong software dev. background and (am rather naively at this stage) interested in developing my own Ecommerce software to integrate in to various web applications I develop. Those systems can be anything from shops to online services, etc. I am aware of systems such as Zen Cart, osCommerce, etc (bloated Shopping Carts), but to be honest a shopping cart isn't necessarily what I'm looking for either, it's more specifically the ability to facilitate electronic payments.
I have looked at the likes of PayPal integration and Realex (which seems like €thousands to get going), and I want to make sure that I am not naievely leaving something out. When taking Euro payments from people primarily located in Ireland, what is my best payment gateway option. I don't expect anything more than a few dozen small payments per day for now.
At a basic level if I develop a system and I can derive a total amount to be charged to someone, take credit card details, and pass those to a payment processor, check payment status, then what else is there? Now of course I have to invoice my customer, etc, etc, etc, but in terms of payments what else do I need to be able to do. The process seems quite simple in concept, and I can see the various options available to me, but I can seem to ignore the fact that it's only the big players that seem to be doing this sort of thing themselves and leaving ordinary developer Joe on the ground the less elegant solutions of using some bloated open source system.
I know that you would need to be able to offer refunds, etc, but surely that sort of functionality is merely invoked through code hooks to your payment processor. The reason why I ask is that I am in the process of developing an online service that I want to be able to charge customers for, electronically. I don't want big "Payment Process" banners or Iframes, or redirects, etc in the system. The system is a web application (ajax'ed interface, etc) and I would just like to be able to process payments myself and am not afraid of the challenge as long as I know all the facts.
Am I being naive? If so what do you suggest I do. Also Realex seems to be the best in terms of the level of transparent integration, but they seem to be so expensive for setup, running costs, etc. especially when my estimated turnover isn't that high for now.
I have already spent quite a lot of time over the last year looking in to this sort of thing but I feel like I could be walking off the edge of a cliff without knowing it due to ignorance.
I have looked at the likes of PayPal integration and Realex (which seems like €thousands to get going), and I want to make sure that I am not naievely leaving something out. When taking Euro payments from people primarily located in Ireland, what is my best payment gateway option. I don't expect anything more than a few dozen small payments per day for now.
At a basic level if I develop a system and I can derive a total amount to be charged to someone, take credit card details, and pass those to a payment processor, check payment status, then what else is there? Now of course I have to invoice my customer, etc, etc, etc, but in terms of payments what else do I need to be able to do. The process seems quite simple in concept, and I can see the various options available to me, but I can seem to ignore the fact that it's only the big players that seem to be doing this sort of thing themselves and leaving ordinary developer Joe on the ground the less elegant solutions of using some bloated open source system.
I know that you would need to be able to offer refunds, etc, but surely that sort of functionality is merely invoked through code hooks to your payment processor. The reason why I ask is that I am in the process of developing an online service that I want to be able to charge customers for, electronically. I don't want big "Payment Process" banners or Iframes, or redirects, etc in the system. The system is a web application (ajax'ed interface, etc) and I would just like to be able to process payments myself and am not afraid of the challenge as long as I know all the facts.
Am I being naive? If so what do you suggest I do. Also Realex seems to be the best in terms of the level of transparent integration, but they seem to be so expensive for setup, running costs, etc. especially when my estimated turnover isn't that high for now.
I have already spent quite a lot of time over the last year looking in to this sort of thing but I feel like I could be walking off the edge of a cliff without knowing it due to ignorance.
