E-Commerce Websites at UChicago

Web Services, a department within UChicago IT Services, can assist you with setting up a do-it-yourself e-commerce site to sell products or intangibles, such as conference registrations or application fees.

Do You Qualify for an E-commerce Site?

You can use do-it-yourself e-commerce if you:

• want to build an order-taking website form.
• are comfortable using the admin interface provided by Cashnet to reconcile and track payments.
• have basic scripting abilities (HTML and forms).
• can do the HTML work yourself.
• have met with the Office of the Bursar to make arrangements for e-commerce credentials.

If you are interested and meet the above criteria, submit a General Support Request for Merchant and Cashiering Services to the Bursar's Office.

Once approved, you will get an account from the Office of the Bursar for the Cashnet administration website. This website will allow you to find all the information about the e-commerce transactions hosted from your site. You’ll be able to search for transactions by consumer name and email.

The Bursar’s office offers several other credit card processing options, including point-of-sale terminals for in-person, phone, or mail orders; and event registration forms that accept credit cards.

Building an E-commerce Form

Embed E-Payment Code

Wherever you want the payment to happen, embed this code:

<form method="post" action='https://epayment-gateway.uchicago.edu/epayment.php'>
<input type="hidden" name="pmt_type" maxlength="3" value="" required  />
<input type="hidden" name="amount_paid" maxlength="5" value="1.00" required />
<input type="hidden" name="account" maxlength="15" value="form1" />
<input type="hidden" name="finish_url" maxlength="60" value="" />
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_url" maxlength="60" value="" />

<label for="consumer_firstname">first name:</label> 
<input type="text" id="consumer_firstname" name="consumer_firstname" maxlength="20" required /><br>

<label for="consumer_lastname">last name:</label>
<input type="text" id="consumer_lastname" name="consumer_lastname" maxlength="50" required /><br>

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" /> </code

Change the values for the following fields:

amount_paid	Required. The amount to pay on the Cashnet website. You can either keep amount_paid hidden and specify the amount in the embed code, or change the type to text to allow the user to enter the amount. Tip: The amount must be greater than $0.
consumer_firstname	Required. This is the first name as it appears on the payer's credit card. The maximum is 20 characters.
consumer_lastname	Required. This is the last name as it appears on the payer's credit card. The maximum is 20 characters.
pmt_type	Required. This value comes from the Bursar, and it indicates who will receive the payment.
account	Optional. Also known as the transaction ID. This is an identifier that lets you follow a user’s transaction through the Cashnet system. The use of this field is flexible, and you can populate it with a unique value for every submission, leave it blank, or set a value that all transactions from this form will share. You are discouraged from using the same account in multiple forms because it will be difficult to distinguish between transactions in the Cashnet admin site. 15 characters maximum.
cancel_url	Optional. If a visitor hits the "Cancel" button on Cashnet’s site, he or she will be redirected to this URL. Leaving this field blank will direct the user to a default cancel page on epayment-gateway.uchicago.edu.
finish_url	Optional. If a visitor hits the "Finish" button or the "Sign out" button after successful submission on Cashnet's website, the individual will be redirected to this URL. Leaving this field blank will direct the user to a default finish page on epayment-gateway.uchicago.edu.

Language to Include with Your Form

Include this information with your e-commerce form:

• It is not permitted to process the same credit card twice in a 10-minute window. This is a security measure.
• Wherever you use the payment gateway, you must post a refund policy (even if the policy is that you don’t refund for any reason).

Known Usability Issues

• Your Cashnet UI may include data labels like "Student First Name" and "Student Last Name". At this time, we are not able to change the wording for these labels.
• If your Cashnet UI includes the "Sign out" button, advise users to sign out.

Accessibility

• Visible form inputs should be paired with labels.
• Required form inputs should use the "required" attribute. 
• See digitalaccessibility.uchicago.edu for accessibility resources.

Support

If you have technical problems, contact webhelp@uchicago.edu. If you have non-technical questions, send a General Support Request for Merchant and Cashiering Services to the Bursar's Office.