[thelist] beta site using Authorize.net

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Sun Jan 13 01:58:20 CST 2002


> From: Kristy Frey <kristenannfrey at yahoo.com>
[...] 
> I have written 2 very basic web forms for the University at Buffalo so
> they may accept online credit card donations using Authorize.net.

can't.... resist.... urge.... to... help.... alma.... mater....

> The 2 sites are in "Test" at
> 
> https://ubfoundation.buffalo.edu/kristytest/giving/general/
> and
> https://ubfoundation.buffalo.edu/kristytest/giving/buyabrick/

long list of stuff to come, sorry to say... also, not testing across 
browsers or validating code -- it's just too late and there are too 
many extras on the Tomb Raider DVD to watch still... this is from 
the first URL...

- wider than my 640 window...

- red is required, but red implies all sorts of other things... the 
asterisk is good for the color blind, but have you considered leaving 
the field labels all black and using boldness to delineate required 
fields?

- labels should be used on all form fields, especially ones with 
radio buttons...

- i can type my state abbreviation in more quickly than it takes me 
to select it from a list... hell, i can do it more quickly than it takes 
the HTML code for the select to come down to my browser...

- in addition displaying error messages above (missing fields), 
highlight the fields as well, and maybe now use the red to do the 
highlighting (it *is* a warning color) with the error message next to 
the offending field... now those red required fields are just 
distracting...

- do i really need to use a title?  why is it required?  isn't "no 
answer" the same as leaving it blank?  so why's it required?

- is middle inital required?  if not, then why is it referenced in red?

- should i enter hyphens in my phone number and soc-sec?

- why on earth is my socsec requested?

- if you collect credit card type, you can compare the number with 
the type before sending it off to authorize.net to make sure it's even 
valid... dunno how your arrangement is set up with them, but if you 
can save money by not passing them bad cards, all you have to do 
is the mod check and the card type check on your side to remove 
some potential bad entries...

- why does my email receipt have a section for shipping info?

- can you make the email receipt wrap the text at some character 
length?

for the bricks:

- tell me that >20 bricks won't be accepted on the form in 
advance...  that's something you should tell the user sooner, no 
matter how few may care...

- you should tell the user character limits on the bricks in advance, 
too... you only rely on the input field maxlength (which i could 
defeat by submitting from another page)...

- you should list accepted characters.... found out '?' wasn't 
allowed only after submission... dunno if you get that one much, 
though...

- my transaction expired?  i only left the computer to get all the 
things i wanted on my brick, then my mom called, and the sauce 
was burning... ugh... ok, fake scenario aside, you could use hidden 
fields to hold the data independent of sessions if you just didn't ask 
for personal info up-front like socsec number... oh, wait, you do... 
and yet it expires?  hmm...

- shouldn't you tell me i'll get an email receipt from both forms?

- no address validation... any zip with any state with any country 
works... dunno if that matters, tho... but it did accept an order from 
Detroit, NY 90210, Uzbekistan

- hey, at least here i get to review my info before i'm asked for my 
cc info... the last form stuffed it all into one page...  although i can't 
go back to the brick page alone, it takes me through it all over 
again... that's annoying on a dial-up... why not let me just adjust 
my bricks?

- what's with the embedded (instead of linked) CSS?  and the 
styles you call that aren't up there?

- why doesn't the receipt have an order summary and order 
number?  i would like proof other than my credit card statement, 
and if someone misprints a brick, i want proof i did it right...

> For those interested in Authorize.net, if I can get all the bugs
> worked out and they "go live", I may put the process together in an
> evolt article - Focusing on php and Authorize.net.  (I have noticed
> recent inquiries about Authorize.net on thelist)

that would be very cool...

> I welcome any feedback.  This site is in test mode, so "real" credit
> cards will get rejected. Authorize.net has test card numbers to use:
[...]

i used my own fake number, and it worked fine...





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