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Published 08/07/2002

Chapter 2

Adding Payer Authentication To a Strategy

This chapter explains how to use the Payer Authentication Plug-In as part of a Risk Manager business strategy.

Running the Plug-Ins

To use payer authentication, the Decision Server must run the ProcessPA and ValidatePA plug-ins at some point while it processes a strategy.

You can configure these plug-ins to run as pre-process plug-ins, meaning that they run at the beginning of every transaction. It does not matter which plug-in runs first.

You can also run the ProcessPA and ValidatePA plug-ins based on the outcome of a rule in your strategy, just as you can run any other plug-in. This enables you to perform other tests, such as checking your negative hotlist, before you attempt to authenticate the customer.

Creating a Payer Authentication Module

You can create a module that requests the ProcessPA and ValidatePA plug-ins and interprets their results. After you create the module, you can use it in any of your business strategies.

This section provides an example of a module that interprets the results of payer authentication. You are not required to use this example in your own strategies. The Payer Authentication Plug-In gives you the flexibility to interpret and process the payer authentication results differently.

Important  Before you use this module in your own strategies, verify that it meets your business needs.

1. The PARes rule checks whether the request included a signed payer authentication result:

validatepa_signedpares == ""

1. If validatepa_signedpares is equal to an empty string, the request did not include a payer authentication result. This indicates that the customer has not been authenticated.

The module runs the ProcessPA plug-in, then branches to the ProcessPA rule (Step 2).

2. If validatepa_signedpares is not equal to an empty string, the request included a payer authentication result. This indicates that the customer has already been authenticated.

The module runs the ValidatePA plug-in, then branches to the Success? rule (Step 3).

Note  If you use ProcessPA and ValidatePA as pre-process plug-ins, you can omit them from the module.

2. The ProcessPA rule checks whether the customer is enrolled in a payer authentication program:

processpa_enrolled == "true"

1. If processpa_enrolled is equal to true, the customer is enrolled in a payer authentication program and should be authenticated.

The module runs the AddFields plug-in, which sets a custom field, rule_code, to the value authenticate. Your order management system (OMS) can check for this value; if is is present, the OMS can use the payer authentication request (PAReq) to authenticate the customer.

The module then branches to a return point, which sets a custom field, pa_module_result, to the value review. This value indicates that the strategy should mark the transaction for review.

2. If processpa_enrolled is not equal to true, the customer is not enrolled in a payer authentication program.

The module branches to a return point.

3. The Success? rule checks whether the customer's authentication was validated successfully:

validatepa_status_code == "0"

1. If validatepa_status_code is equal to 0, the customer's authentication was validated successfully.

The module branches to a return point, which sets a custom field, pa_module_result, to the value accept. This value indicates that the strategy should accept the transaction.

2. If validatepa_status_code is not equal to 0, the customer may not have been authenticated, or a system error may have occurred at the issuing bank.

The module branches to the Error? rule (Step 4) to further evaluate the results of validation.

4. The Error? rule checks whether a system error occurred at the issuing bank:

validatepa_status_code == "6"

1. If validatepa_status_code is equal to 6, a system error occurred at the issuing bank during authentication. You should process the order as if the customer is not enrolled in payer authentication.

The module branches to a return point.

2. If validatepa_status_code is not equal to 6, the customer did not complete authentication, or Arcot TransFort was unable to validate the results of authentication.

The module branches to a return point, which sets a custom field, pa_module_result, to the value review. This value indicates that the strategy should mark the transaction for review.

Using the Module in a Strategy

This section shows how to use the sample payer authentication module, described in Creating a Payer Authentication Module, as part of a strategy.

1. The strategy calls the PayAuth module, described in Creating a Payer Authentication Module.
2. The Accept PA rule checks whether the transaction should be accepted:

pa_module_result == "accept"

1. If pa_module_result is equal to accept, the strategy accepts the transaction.
2. If pa_module_result is not equal to accept, the strategy branches to the Review? rule (Step 3) to further evaluate the results of the module.
3. The Review PA rule checks whether the transaction should be marked for review:

pa_module_result == "review"

1. If pa_module_result is equal to review, the strategy marks the transaction for review.
2. If pa_module_result is not equal to review, the strategy continues with your business rules for customers who are not enrolled in payer authentication.