Proper gift creation flow?

Allan Delmare

I'm processing gift payments fine through bb checkout/payments API; but I've found that I'm unable to submit a gift to NXT without a constituent id.

So I first search for constituent by email, and if no match found, create a new constituent - then use that Id (matched or created) to create/submit the gift.

The problem is, that this bypasses NXT's own constituent matching, bypasses the ‘gift management’ review process, and instantly attaches the gift to the constituent with no further review.

What am I doing wrong here? I'm just trying to get gifts submitted via API to behave like gifts submitted through NXT's native online giving forms – I want them to follow the same process of review, matching, etc. by our gift processor.

Thanks for your help!

Alex Wong

You can create gifts directly in RE NXT or put it into gift batch (webview batches). So depending on your need you can use either.

As for the process for batch, it will have to depend on how you plan to "separate" transactions of different "kind" to different batch, you may need to check if a batch is still open or already approved (closed).

add a new gift batch using this API endpoint.

add a gift into an open gift batch using this API endpoint.

Allan Delmare

Thanks, I learned from support that the 'gift management' feature I was trying to achieve (of matching/reviewing constituents) is exclusive to the native NXT giving forms, and is not a workflow that is available to external gift submission methods (ie, custom giving forms / gifts submitted via API).

In short, you must perform constituent matching and lookup externally, and cannot use NXT's native matching system - gifts must be associated with a user - and can either be attached directly or inserted into batches.

So my workflow now involves a custom application for constituent lookup, selection, and field mapping (add/update) → add to batch → send batch to NXT → review/approve batch in NXT.

Alex Wong

process is sound.

just a small point, you don't "send batch to NXT" unless what you mean by batch is JSON data that you are submitting.

1. create gift batch
2. for each transaction
   1. constituent lookup
      1. add new constituent or update existing if found (also need logic if more than one match is found)
   2. add gift to the batch created in step 1
3. review/approve gift batch in RE NXT

OR

1. for each transaction
   1. constituent lookup
      1. add new constituent or update existing if found (also need logic if more than one match is found)
   2. create JSON gift object for transaction and add to an array
2. create gift batch
3. add array of gift objects into gift batch
4. review/approve gift batch in RE NXT

the main diff in first method vs 2nd method is, you will be making less API calls in 2nd mathod, but if any error in 2nd method, no gift would be added to batch, whereas 1st method add each transaction into batch one at a time. you can also have error handling in 2nd method such that not everything failed when error occurs.

Good luck.

Allan Delmare

Hi @Alex Wong this was helpful, thanks. I've got the gift batch creation workflow working properly. However, I'm trying to inset a comment in the BBMS 'comment' field ('transaction list' view in merchant services … in this case, for testing, 'TEST'), but I can't seem to figure out the right field. Either that, or I do have the right field, and I just need to debug my payload.

Can anyone first confirm for me if the 'comment' field in the /payments/v1/checkout/transaction endpoint is the correct field … or if not, which field in which endpoint am I looking for to populate this 'Comment' in the Marchant Services 'Transaction list' view? Thanks!

Alex Wong

the comment property should be the right field to populate, if this isn't working, submit a BB support ticket. Once open, send the support ticket # here and tag Erik Leaver and he can help push for a fix.

Allan Delmare

It was the proper field, I was structuring it wrong in my payload. Fixed it, and the comment shows up fine. Thanks for your time!