Member Avatar for alpha2006

What do you think about the new payment processor (Google Checkout) that Google has introduced?
Has anyone actually used it to make any purchases on the internet???

I have successfully integrated Google Checkout into my website but it wasn't easy. Google Checkout is by far the most complicated payment processor to integrate on an existing website. It took me a full week and several sleepless nights to finish the integration. And I had to learn XML and XML parsing functions.
I hope all this effort pays off :cheesy:

Anyone has had experience with it so far????

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Short update for anyone landing here years after the original posts: Google Checkout (the merchant-facing payment service discussed above) was officially retired by Google — web merchants could accept payments through Checkout until November 20, 2013 (refunds were allowed through December 20, 2013). (commerce.googleblog.com)
Google Commerce announcement (May 20, 2013).
Official Checkout pages now show the retirement notice.

Technical context (why and others found it painful) and practical help for trying ASP.NET integration:

  • There were two common flows: simple HTML button fields (item_name_1, item_price_1, etc.) for single-item buys, or the full “cart-in-the-flow” XML method where you build a <checkout-shopping-cart/> XML, create an HMAC‑SHA1 signature with your Merchant Key, base64‑encode both XML and signature, and post them to Google’s checkout form endpoint. That XML + signature requirement is what forced learning XML parsing and careful encoding. (doczz.net)
  • You could also use the server-to-server XML API (curl/example with MerchantID:MerchantKey using HTTP Basic auth) for programmatic requests. Test in the sandbox and never mix sandbox and live credentials. (developers.googleblog.com)

Quick troubleshooting checklist (most common integration hangups):

  • Validate your cart XML against the Checkout XSD: tiny formatting errors (decimal format, stray child nodes) cause 400s.
  • Sign exactly the XML string you send (HMAC is whitespace-sensitive) and base64 both XML and signature before putting them in the form. A compact C# snippet to compute signature and cart bytes:
var xmlBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xmlString);
var keyBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(merchantKey);
using var h = new HMACSHA1(keyBytes);
var sig = Convert.ToBase64String(h.ComputeHash(xmlBytes));
var cart = Convert.ToBase64String(xmlBytes);
  • Callbacks: Google sent XML via HTTPS POST to your callback URL. Your handler must read the raw request body, authenticate the callback (HTTP Basic auth / merchant credentials) and return the expected acknowledgement. If the server strips the Authorization header you will never see the merchant credentials — configure the server so it forwards Authorization to the app (Apache: CGIPassAuth / SetEnvIf; see how to preserve Authorization headers) and, for IIS/ASP.NET, read Request.Headers["Authorization"]. (httpd.apache.org)

If this thread is being read while planning a new integration: Google Checkout is gone — use modern, supported gateways (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, etc.) or follow Google’s migration guidance from the 2013 announcement (Google recommended partners such as Braintree/Shopify at the time). (commerce.googleblog.com)

Notes: — your one-week investment matched what many reported (XML + signing = a steeper curve). — expect signup and merchant-verification steps to require business details. — if you post the exact XML you generate (sanitized) it will be easier to point to the specific schema error.

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All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for jmorty732

What do you think about the new payment processor (Google Checkout) that Google has introduced?
Has anyone actually used it to make any purchases on the internet???

I have successfully integrated Google Checkout into my website but it wasn't easy. Google Checkout is by far the most complicated payment processor to integrate on an existing website. It took me a full week and several sleepless nights to finish the integration. And I had to learn XML and XML parsing functions.
I hope all this effort pays off :cheesy:

Anyone has had experience with it so far????

I had a hard enough time answering all the 20 million questions they asked when you signed up. IMHO some of those questions are none of their business (company online sales, etc).

Glad to hear you got it integrated. Let us know how the rest of your experience goes! I am curious as to how easy it is to take them up on the $10 for $1 adword deal they have going.

Morty

Member Avatar for Sam111659

I saw your message about the Google Checkout process. I am trying to integrate it into a ASP.NET 1.1 web application and I am somewhat stumped. I used Google's XSD to generate the XML classes and I am able to get the XML structure as requested, however, the I have no clue how to get the include the cart in the flow support to send it to google. Their instructions are a bit cryptic. Any thoughts?

Sam

Member Avatar for guruwebllc

Yeah i would like to know a little bit more about this too....

Member Avatar for musicbox

google checkout is not charging fees and its verification are good.

Member Avatar for fps.sledge

I studied google checkout for my fathers website. He's only selling a couple of books. No plans for any more products either.

From what I read at google checkout (I spend probably a full day reading everything there was to know about them, and to understand COMPLETELY what they were about) is that in order to use their free service, you can only sell one item per customer. In other words, a customer can only order one product at a time. So in order to integrate it with my father's website, people would either have to call to order multiple books, or go through the checkout process again. You can use their merchant affiliates to setup shopping carts on your websites, but then again, why not just use their services anyways?

For the rest of this year (2007), google is allowing everyone to use googlecheckout for FREE. After that, it's $2 per and 0.2% of each sale. Except that's not all. The whole googlecheckout thing is to promote their adwords program. Every $1 you spend on adwords, you can process up to $10 of orders for free. So expand on that, every $1000 of adwords you spend, you get up to $10,000 of order process's for free. After that, they get the $2 and .2% of each sale.

So if you calculate it out and really want to spend the time to use googlecheckout, it can be worth it. It's meant to promote their entire adwords (and froogle) program. I personaly just bought an online shopping cart for my father's website. Much easy process than dealing with google. Plus, it cuts out the middleman.

Member Avatar for fennimore

Too bad it's for US only....

Member Avatar for omesa

I checked the google checkout but was disappointed, because Kenya my country is listed but they don't yet offer these services to "outsiders." See, I wanted to use it with my upcoming website, everyone here is googling so I thought why not, but there vanished my dreams as I don't yet have a credit card:- they come expensive these sides, but I will keep checking it out...

Member Avatar for expertentity

I believe Google is trying to play monopoly, its providing all the ecomerce, web solutions, web development services. why? just to cover market........
they are very smart.

Member Avatar for stymiee

They're not trying to be a monopoly. They're trying to diversify because they know their current core markets won;'t exist in ten years and need alternative sources of revenue to stay relevant and continue growth. They're just doing smart business.

Member Avatar for wilson2

Best to use a professional company those who are already in market from years like paypal, 2checkout, authorize.net, ChronoPay, Worldpay, Moneybookers.

Member Avatar for stymiee

Authorize.Net is not a payment processor. They are only a payment gateway.

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