The server side of this is identical whether your storefront is web, iOS, or Android. Only the client installation differs.
If your storefront runs on a commerce platform Bolt has a plugin for, that plugin does most of this for you. See platforms.
The Checkout Modal
The checkout modal drives all of the storefront functionality that your shopper experiences when adding an item to their cart and checking out. It generally includes:- Two javascript installations.
- A fast-loading SVG checkout button.
- Your Merchant Division’s publishable key. The publishable key is a long string of lower and upper case letters and numbers that consists of three sections.
- A call to
BoltCheckout.configure, which receives the order token. See create an order token.
The Bolt API
The Bolt API is a series of endpoints you can make requests to either during order handling, transaction processing, or when pulling statements for your records and reconciliation.- Orders: Create an order token used in the Checkout Modal to reference the cart generated in your storefront.
- Transactions: Authorize, capture, refund, review, view, or void a given transaction.
- Statements: View a statement for your merchant account division by specifying a timeframe.
The Merchant Callback API
The Merchant Callback API is a custom implementation that you must build on your cart platform that Bolt can send requests to in relation to order processes. When a shopper interacts with the Checkout Modal, requests are sent to your Merchant Callback API to obtain shipping options, pickup locations, tax calculations, acceptable discount codes and values, etc. Bolt has included the data structure required as part of our API reference.- Read Merchant Callback conventions, which covers the request and response envelope, failure behavior, amount encoding, and request verification. These are the same for every event.
- Build an endpoint for each event you need:
order.create,order.shipping,order.tax, anddiscounts.code.apply. One Universal API URL can serve all of them. - Register the URLs yourself under Administration > API > Merchant Callbacks, or over the API with
POST /v1/merchant/callbacks. You do not need Bolt to do this for you.
Transaction Status Webhooks
Transaction Status Webhooks enable merchants to handle the payment authorization lifecycle according to the business rules of their unique eCommerce platform. You must build a webhook endpoint for your store that handles the POST requests sent by Bolt. Webhooks are configured separately from callbacks and do not share a URL. See transaction webhooks.Summary
The Checkout Modal handles the shopper’s experience and first contacts the Bolt API to generate a unique order token. It then passes order information back and forth to your Merchant Callback API endpoints, checking for discount codes, shipping options, and tax rates that you’ve defined. The modal finally initiates a payment authorization process using transaction status webhooks, which are sent to your store’s dedicated webhook endpoint. More webhooks are sent as the transaction changes statuses.What to do, in order
- Confirm your prerequisites, including the checks you can run before writing any code.
- Create an order token and get a token back.
- Read Merchant Callback conventions, then build the events you need.
- Register your callback URLs.
- Receive transaction webhooks, which are configured separately from callbacks.
- Install the client: web, iOS, or Android. React Native targets Embeddable Checkout instead, so it does not use this flow.