CGI Gateway Specifications

The ACH Commerce CGI Gateway (ACHGate) is a HTTP 1.1 Common Gateway Interface application for ACH Commerce developed by HTS. It’s purpose is to provide an online internet gateway for uploading ACH Commerce transactions and to provide several checks on the data to ensure validity including a Thompson Financial database check and others.

Field Code Descriptions

usermode

action

verstr

Note: These fields are concatenated into one string to include more than one in each request. For example to perform a routing number check – R,  a Thompson check - T and a check store – S all in the same request you would pass the string RTS.

replymode

Gateway Usage:

To use this gateway you will need to have access to either a web browser or some form of HTTP client such as the excellent LWP Perl modules. Sample code using the LWP Perl modules will be included in your API documentation. The LWP Perl sample code shows you how to make a basic request to the test server.

For windows users, you will need to purchase a COM library that can do HTTP or you will need to access the wininet.dll API directly. There is no sample code available for this at this time. If you require such sample code please give us a call and we will try to help.

To connect to the gateway you will need to access the following URL. The recommended way to access this gateway is using an HTTP Post request. HTTP Get requests should work fine but may be eliminated in the future so please do not use them for anything other than testing. The following web based example uses an HTTP request because it is easier to show you the functionality this way. This method should not be used for production code. We cannot provide support for people who choose to use the HTTP Get method to connect to the gateway.

Sample Routing Check Request with bad routing number:

http://www.checkserv.com/achgate/achgate.cgi?usermode=cgi&action=submit&verstr=R&login=demo&password=test&merchantid=1234567890&batchid=1234567890&routing=123456789

Sample Routing Check Request with good routing number:

http://www.checkserv.com/achgate/achgate.cgi?usermode=cgi&action=submit&verstr=R&login=demo&password=test&merchantid=1234567890&batchid=1234567890&routing=111903245

Sample Web Browser Form:

http://www.checkserv.com/achgate/achgate.cgi?usermode=wwwbrowser

Validation and Error Codes

• 000 - Accepted
• 100 - Failed modulus check
• 101 - Failed Thompson Financial lookup
• 110 - Failed Equifax check
• 200 - Authentication Error
• 300 - Missing or invalid routing number
• 301 - Missing or invalid merchant id
• 302 - Missing or invalid batch id
• 303 - Missing or invalid account number
• 304 - Missing or invalid fname
• 305 - Missing or invalid lname
• 306 - Missing or invalid individual id
• 307 - Missing or invalid check number
• 308 - Missing or invalid amount
• 309 - Invalid transaction code
• 310 - Invalid standard entry class
• 311 - Invalid effective entry date
• 500 - Invalid Data, no action

System Error Codes

• 900 - Unable to connect to database
• 901 - Unable to query database
• 902 - Unable to prepare query

Sample Perl Code

# Create a user agent object
use LWP::UserAgent;

$ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
$ua->agent("AgentName/0.1 " . $ua->agent);

# Create a request
my $req = new HTTP::Request POST => 'http://www.checkserv.com/achgate/achgate.cgi';
$req->content_type('application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
$req->content('usermode=cgi&action=submit&verstr=R&login=demo&password=test&merchantid=1234567890&batchid=1234567890&routing=123456789');

# Pass request to the user agent and get a response back
my $res = $ua->request($req);

# Check the outcome of the response
if ($res->is_success) {
   print $res->content;
} else {
   print "Bad luck this time\n";
}

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File Formats

ACH

See ACH Rule Book for technical specifications.

Software to structure an ACH file can be provided.

Comma Delimited or Text File

A file contains individual records of information that contain all the information necessary to insure proper routing of transactions and settlement to the company creating the file.  Records are separated by a carriage return.

Each record contains individual fields.  These fields contain information needed to insure proper routing and timing of transactions as well as settlement to the company creating the transactions.

In a comma delimited or text file, fields are separated by a comma.  Because commas are used to separate fields, commas must not be used within a field.

Each field is limited to a maximum number of characters.  Although each field is assigned a maximum number of characters, some fields may contain a fewer number of characters than the maximum allowed.  In order for the file to be processed successfully, the fields must be placed in the order below and must adhere to the format requirements.  A brief explanation and example for each field is included in the comments section. 

Example of a file with two records:

1621812909,ACH Commerce,1621812909,ACH Commerce,PPD,Dues,000728,407086177,Debbie Hickok,064208518,200001238,27,100.00,,

1621812909,ACH Commerce,1621812909,ACH Commerce,PPD,Dues,000728,407086188,Amy Hickok,064208518,200001238,27,200.00,,