Understand the intent of terminology widely used in our documentation.
API Key (merchant level) - also referred to as the merchant/sub merchant’s private Key - this API key is used for the payment processing and reporting functionalities. This key is unique to the merchant account/merchant_id and can be accessed/created via the API using the Partner Level Enrollment API Key.
Brand - you may see mention of brand within this document and in some of the Enrollment API resources. Brand is how we determine a merchant account is correlated to a specific ISV. When testing, the brand will have the “-sandbox” appended to the brand’s “production name” (ex. Production [brand: “stax”] vs Sandbox [brand: “stax-sandbox”). This is important to understand because the Partner Level Enrollment API Key will only allow you to perform API operations for merchants under the same brand. When testing, you will use a “Sandbox Partner Key” which points to the “-sandbox” branded merchants; when in production, you will use a “Production Partner Key” which points to the non-sandbox branded merchants.
Independent Software Vendor (ISV) - synonymous with “Partner” in this context. An ISV Partner will have merchants beneath it in the hierarchical structure.
Merchant - (Also referred to as a sub merchant) An individual business which is/wants to process payments. In the Stax system, the bank account which funds should be deposited into is what determines an individual account. For businesses with multiple locations with separate bank accounts, for example -- they will need to have separate merchant accounts with Stax (One for each location). Each merchant has a specific merchant_id that correlates the payment activity within that merchant’s account via the proper API Key and Web Token for the merchant account.
Partner Level API Key (sometimes referred to as Partner Key) - In the hierarchical structure, this key ties to the ISV, and never to an individual merchant. The Partner Level API Key enables you to hit our Enrollment related routes to do things like create merchants, create or retrieve a merchant’s API Keys, and much more. This key is never used to process payments or to generate reports for a merchant.
- IMPORTANT - There are 2 environments of API Keys that you will need - one for sandbox/test environments, and one for live production environments. Please ensure your software is set up to accept this as an environment variable. These keys are extremely sensitive (particularly in Production) as they allow you to hit all of the necessary routes to process payments on behalf of a merchant if need be. The production partner level enrollment key is typically only shared to members as determined by the ISV key points of contact due to sensitivity of live accounts.
Web Token (merchant level) - also referred to as Website Payments token and held in the merchant.hosted_payments_token value - this is the public token used with Fattmerchant.js to tokenize payment methods.
For additional information, please visit our API documentation.
- If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, you can call our Support Team at 1.855.550.3288 or email support@staxpayments.com