Open Affirm Virtual Card Checkout

Overview

Starting a payment with Affirm on the web with a virtual card consists of creating a checkout form, tokenizing customer information securely, and generating a virtual card. You can then process the card through your existing payment gateway.

This guide shows you how to include Affirm.js and Affirm Checkout on your web page to create an Affirm virtual card.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Set up Affirm.js

Include the following script in the head section on every page on your site. This script should always be loaded directly from the Affirm domain.

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Use only your sandbox API keys and domain for testing and development

This ensures that you don't accidentally modify your live transactions. Note that Affirm does not generate real virtual cards in the sandbox environment. If applicable, please work with your technical account manager on live testing.

<script>
const _affirm_config = {
		public_api_key: "YOUR_PUBLIC_API_KEY", /* replace with public api key */
		script: "https://cdn1-sandbox.affirm.com/js/v2/affirm.js",
		locale: "en_US",
		country_code: "USA",
	};

(function(m,g,n,d,a,e,h,c){var b=m[n]||{},k=document.createElement(e),p=document.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],l=function(a,b,c){return function(){a[b]._.push([c,arguments])}};b[d]=l(b,d,"set");var f=b[d];b[a]={};b[a]._=[];f._=[];b._=[];b[a][h]=l(b,a,h);b[c]=function(){b._.push([h,arguments])};a=0;for(c="set add save post open empty reset on off trigger ready setProduct".split(" ");a<c.length;a++)f[c[a]]=l(b,d,c[a]);a=0;for(c=["get","token","url","items"];a<c.length;a++)f[c[a]]=function(){};k.async=
  !0;k.src=g[e];p.parentNode.insertBefore(k,p);delete g[e];f(g);m[n]=b})(window,_affirm_config,"affirm","checkout","ui","script","ready","jsReady");
</script>

See here for supported locale and country codes.

Once you include the script above, a defined instance of Affirm will be created on your client. You will gain access to methods within the Affirm object to trigger multiple actions.

Step 2: Create the Checkout Object

When a customer chooses Affirm to pay for a purchase, a checkout object containing the order details should be created with affirm.checkout.open_vcn() so that Affirm can render the checkout flow. When the customer completes their purchase, you will need to handle the callbacks or leverage redirects. See below for a sample checkout object:

const checkoutObject = {
  merchant: {
    user_confirmation_url: 'https://merchantsite.com/confirm',
    user_cancel_url: 'https://merchantsite.com/cancel',
    user_confirmation_url_action: 'POST',
    name: 'Your Customer-Facing Merchant Name',
    use_vcn: true,
  },
  shipping: {
    name: {
      first: 'Joe',
      last: 'Doe',
    },
    address: {
      street1: '633 Folsom St',
      street2: 'Floor 7',
      city: 'San Francisco',
      state: 'CA',
      zipcode: '94107',
      country: 'USA',
    },
    phone_number: '4153334567',
    email: '[email protected]',
  },
  billing: {
    name: {
      first: 'Joe',
      last: 'Doe',
    },
    address: {
      street1: '633 Folsom St',
      street2: 'Floor 7',
      city: 'San Francisco',
      state: 'CA',
      zipcode: '94107',
      country: 'USA',
    },
    phone_number: '4153334567',
    email: '[email protected]',
  },
  items: [
    {
      display_name: 'Awesome Pants',
      sku: 'ABC-123',
      unit_price: 10000,
      qty: 3,
      item_image_url: 'http://merchantsite.com/images/awesome-pants.jpg',
      item_url: 'http://merchantsite.com/products/awesome-pants.html',
      categories: [
        ['Apparel', 'Pants'],
        ['Mens', 'Apparel', 'Pants'],
      ],
    },
  ],
  discounts: {
    RETURN5: {
      discount_amount: 500,
      discount_display_name: 'Returning customer 5% discount',
    },
    PRESDAY10: {
      discount_amount: 1000,
      discount_display_name: "President's Day 10% off",
    },
  },
  metadata: {
    shipping_type: 'UPS Ground',
    mode: 'modal',
  },
  order_id: 'JKLMO4321',
  currency: 'USD',
  financing_program: 'zero_pct_promo',
  shipping_amount: 1000,
  tax_amount: 600,
  total: 30100,
};

affirm.checkout.open_vcn(checkoutObject)

For additional information, please refer to our Checkout Object page or Checkout Object recipe linked below.

Method Arguments

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Note:

• Our virtual card product only supports modal mode. The Affirm checkout will open in a modal that floats on top of your checkout page. This is indicated in the checkout object when setting the mode parameter to modal.
• Set the use_vcn parameter to true to enable card details to be generated on loan origination.
• affirm.checkout() validates the required data in the checkout object.

Step 3: Launch Checkout and Handle Callbacks

After you create the checkout object, you can launch the Affirm checkout modal using the affirm.checkout.open_vcn() function. When the customer confirms their Affirm loan, we send a javascript callback on success or on error, depending on the outcome. In the event of a successful checkout, you will retrieve the card details and the checkout_id from the callback. See below for a template:

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Note:

If you do not want to retrieve the card details from the client-side, we can always pass them back via the server-side only via our Read Card API (for PCI reasons). Please contact Merchant Help for further information.

Returns

Returns callbacks that resolve in a card_checkout, error_response or checkout_validation_error. Those objects have either:

• card_checkout: A card object was successfully created.
• error_response: There was an error. Includes the checkout_id for the attempt and the reason why it failed.
• checkout_validation_error: There was a validation error with the checkout request submitted.

affirm.checkout.open_vcn({
      success: function(card_checkout) {
         console.log(card_checkout);
      },
      error: function(error_response) {
        console.log(error_response);
      },
      onValidationError: function(checkout_validation_error) {
      console.log(checkout_validation_error)
    }
 });

Retrieve full card details via success callback

{
    billing_address: {
        city: "San Francisco",
        line1: "650 California St.",
        line2: "12th Floor",
 		state: "CA",
        zipcode: "94108"
    },
   callback_id: "b67350e8-ad14-4844-8230-adc6e5f3e490",
   cardholder_name: "AffirmInc John Doe",
   charge_ari: "GDC3-MKAG",
   checkout_token: "RTKS63U383SZ9GY7",
   created: "2023-05-18T16:10:57.300017",
   cvv: "123",
   expiration: "0122",
   id: "RTKS63U383SZ9GY7",
   number: "4111111111111111"

Alternative success callback: Omit card details retrieve the checkout_token client side and obtain card details via your server

{
  callback_id: "b67350e8-ad14-4844-8230-adc6e5f3e490",
  charge_ari: "GDC3-MKAG",
  checkout_token: "RTKS63U383SZ9GY7",
  created: "2023-05-18T16:10:57.300017",
  id: "RTKS63U383SZ9GY7"
}

Step 4: Card Management

Once you receive the card details from the checkout response or Read Card API, you can submit authorizations, captures, and refunds to the virtual card using your existing payment rails.

FAQ

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Resolving "affirm.checkout.open_vcn is not a function" Error in VCN Integration

Q: How do I fix the error "affirm.checkout.open_vcn is not a function" when using Affirm's checkout methods?

A: This error typically occurs when the Affirm script hasn't fully loaded before the checkout and open_vcn methods are called. To resolve this, wrap the Affirm checkout and open_vcn method calls within the affirm.ui.ready method. Below is a solution that has assisted multiple merchants:

JavaScript

affirm.ui.ready(function() {
  affirm.checkout(checkoutObj);
  affirm.checkout.open_vcn({
      success: function(card_checkout) {
          //On successful loan confirmation Affirm will trigger this function
          //This function will be used to pass CC number to your CC processor
          //You will need to handle redirecting to a success page here as well
          console.log(card_checkout);
      },
      error: function(error_response) {
          //On Cancel or decline Affirm will trigger the following function
          //You will need to handle redirecting to an error page here
          console.log(error_response);
      }
  });
});

In this solution, the success function is used for processing successful loan confirmations, including passing credit card details to your processor and redirecting to a success page. The error function handles cancellations or declines by redirecting to an error page. This workaround ensures that Affirm's methods are only called after the script is fully loaded, effectively preventing the error.