Authorize.net Configuration

The configuration settings for Authorize.net are very important. If they are not setup correctly, you will not be able to process credit card orders. The following settings are explained. If you still have questions contact your developer for assistance.

Transaction Key - If you did not purchase an SSL certificate, then this setting must be set just before your web site goes live. The transaction key is used to generate a fingerprint for each transaction on your server. The fingerprint itself is used by the Authorize.net payment gateway to verify that your web site does have a valid account with Authorize.net and that the web site doing the transaction is indeed your web site.

The following instructions are for generating your transaction key through your Authorize.net Merchant Interface:

  1. Log into the Merchant Interface.
  2. Select Settings from the Main Menu.
  3. Click on the Obtain Transaction Key in the Security section.
  4. Type in the answer to your secret question (The secret question and answer is setup during account activation. It is required to authenticate the merchant before the transaction key is generated.)
  5. Click Submit.
  6. The transaction key is returned by the Merchant Interface.

Copy and paste this transaction key into the transaction key entry on your storefront administration panel.

The other important setting that you must configure if you did not purchase an SSL certificate is also done through the Authorize.net Merchant Interface. On the settings page, there is a section called "Transaction Response". In that section there is a setting called "Silent Post URL". Do the following:

  1. Click on "Silent Post URL".
  2. Enter the following URL: "http://www.yourdomain.com/authnet_process.php, where yourdomain.com is YOUR domain name. For example, if your domain name is digigear.com then your would enter "http://www.digigear.com/authnet_process.php".

The above URL will record the order into your database. When the customer enters their payment data on the Authorize.net payment form, regardless of whether or not the transaction is approved, the gateway will post back the results of the transaction to your web site.