Build 18015 — Please insert card to synchronize.
This is our first post and it goes out with style. We are adding a new specialized tool for simulating payment cards and consolidating several hot fixes plus smaller improvements.
For those who are still not acquainted with VirtualTestCenter.io, imagine having everything you need on one seamless interface to quickly prototype and test products that depend on a lot of different systems. That’s it. No more wasting of time configuring a bunch of different stuff or realizing that a service is down just when you most needed it. We want you to be productive while keeping the quality.
And if you are in the payment industry, it just got better. Instead of buying expensive and very industry oriented tools, you just subscribe to Virtual Test Center and get things done.
This sprint was actually a marathon. We have been working for the past couple of months to create what ended up being a product within the product.
You already have a way of testing Point Of Sale terminals into our Virtual platform. The way it works is your device or payment gateway shoots authorization messages against an assigned port, whether using TCP/TLS/HTTPS/XML/JSON/ISO8583 or any other standard Virtual supports. The message is then validated and a response is generated.
Previously though, there was a problem when you needed to stimulate the terminal. You had to rely on third party card kits or tools.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present you Virtual Pay.
Clever name, right?
Virtual Pay is a collection of auxiliary tools specifically made for the payment industry. In this release, we are introducing the Connector application and the Pay Applet.
- Connector: It’s a Java application contained in a .jar executable that you download from within Virtual Test Center and integrates seamlessly on Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Pay Applet: It’s a Java Card application that will be automatically installed if you got a blank Global Platform card.
The Connector application acts as a bridge between the web and your PC. It’s compatible with standard PC/SC readers which makes it very practical since these are very cheap and usually readily available in any country.
Depending on your country, Dtechta can provide you with a kit that comes with two chip cards and a set of industry standard magnetic stripe test cards. Get in touch for more information (it’s really neat).
Tests now have a new goal called Card Validation. You can define multiple goals that would each define a card template if multiple cards are necessary for a particular test. A card template defines basically 4 things (getting real techy here): The Request to match an APDU sent by the device to the card, the Response the card will give, the SW value to be returned and a Validation expression that will be applied on the request.
It’s simple actually. Almost magic. Once a test is created and executed, the card is automatically prepared for usage. After the card is reinserted into the reader, all log information will be uploaded and validated.
I was planning to include a short video showing the hole test cycle. But apparently I lack the necessary patience to edit videos or most video edition software just sucks.
Here is a Gif though (of a finished test).
But what else changed?
Well, along with the new tool just mentioned we also updated our Official Content to include the Card Validation feature. We might still need some time to finalize some details though.
Another very useful thing was adding {{tag}} interpretation to both transaction Match and Validation fields. This will increase the flexibility and enable users to be more specific when creating tests.
What’s next?
Information is key. Since we are preparing to come out of BETA, documentation will be essential to help our customers to navigate through Virtual without having to ask for anything. In fact, our blog is the first step to build a better communication (or any for that matter).
You might also have noticed that there’s still no website. I don’t want to sound apologetic but this was actually a part of the strategy since our business model needed more thought. This is something that will be released very soon.
If you want to check what we are doing, please take a look at our development board at https://trello.com/b/gGRGkCKi.
If you are already using virtualtestcenter.io, thank you! Early adopters will always receive our love and appreciation.
If you want to be an early adopter, drop us a line at beta@virtualtestcenter.io.
