Making normalized database for credit card transactions via payment gateway..

[nikefido]

I need to figure out a proper way to store transaction info..

the payment gateway used passes XML back and forth.

 

There are three steps - Auhorization, Settlement and Voiding. Auth / Settlement both happen for (successful) transactions while voiding is optional....

 

For each step, I'm sending info and then receiving a response with info.

 

So i'm not sure how to database this.

 

Should I have one row for each transaction, incl auth, settle and void info? Or 3 tables, one for each step?

I also need to pull info in from a users and billing information table (2 separate tables).

 

Any ideas on how to get started?

[fenway]

Definitely just a single payments table... all cc transactions have a similar format (i.e. # of fields returned).

[nikefido]

mmm..should the datatable entries all come from incoming data only? (where as outgoing data such as authorization requests would be automated from other datatables such as the users billing information table)

[fenway]

I usually have a payments table where I hold all of the "final" details that go out for payment processing... this table also has fields for all of the "incoming" data too.

[nikefido]

Thanks, your replies are a good help!