OutreachSystems

If you post an event to eCenter Direct that has a fee associated with it, eCenter can be configured to handle online payment from event registrants. If your program has a PayPal account, we strongly recommend using PayPal to receive online payments as eCenter is tightly integrated with PayPal and setup takes only a few moments. However, we do recognize that not all programs use PayPal as their online payment system and so we do allow you to integrate eCenter with other types of payment systems, although this does require additional programming work on your end.

In this FAQ, we'll discuss the following topics:

• Setting up a PayPal account for use with eCenter Direct
• Setting up a payment account other than PayPal for use with eCenter Direct
• Enabling online payment for an event

Setting Up a PayPal Account for Use with eCenter Direct

The steps for setting up one or more PayPal accounts for use with eCenter Direct are outlined next:

1. If you haven't already, create the PayPal account. PayPal offers a number of different services and you should decide the best PayPal service for your operations, keeping in mind that you will need to create a business account, not a personal account.
2. Once a PayPal account is in place, select Manage|eCenter Configuration from WebCATS' left-hand menu. This menu selection is only available to WebCATS administrators.
3. Open the Conferences tab and, from under the "Conference Payees" heading, click the Add button.
4. At the "Add Payee" screen, select "PayPal" from the Type field and enter the e-mail address associated with the PayPal account, as shown in the next graphic.



To avoid errors or even fraud, it is important for WebCATS administrators to carefully manage the conference payee information entered into WebCATS.

5. Enter a description for the PayPal account. This is especially important if you will be configuring multiple PayPal accounts for multiple regions.
6. Click the Add button to complete the addition of the PayPal account.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 to add as many PayPal accounts as necessary.

As discussed in the Enabling Online Payment for an Event section of this FAQ, every PayPal payee account entered into eCenter's configurations is available for selection from the conference record.

Setting Up a PayPal Account Other than PayPal for Use with eCenter Direct

Before an online payment system other than PayPal can be integrated with eCenter Direct, programming work will need to be done on your end to create a custom form page that works with eCenter and WebCATS to pass payment information. The following fields are available to use in a custom form post to your online payment system:

Conference Time	strConfTime=Request.Form("TIME_SPAN")
Conference Full Fee	strConfFee=Request.Form("FEE")
Center ID that conference belongs to	strCenterID=Request.Form("CENTER_ID")
Conference Point of Contact Email	strConfPOCEmail=Request.Form("CONF_POC_EMAIL")
Conference Title	strConfTitle=Request.Form("CONF_TITLE")
Conference Start Date	strConfStartDate=Request.Form("START_DATE")
Conference End Date	strConfEndDate=Request.Form("END_DATE")
Conference Point of Contact Name	strConfPOC=Request.Form("CONF_POC")
Conference Point of Contact Phone	strConfPOCPhone=Request.Form("CONF_POC_PHONE")
Conference Location Street Address	strConfAddress=Request.Form("LOCATION")
Conference Location State	strConfState=Request.Form("LOC_STATE")
Conference Location City	strConfCity=Request.Form("LOC_CITY")
Conference Location Zip	strConfZip=Request.Form("LOC_ZIP")
Attendee Full Name	strContactFullName=Request.Form("CONTACT_FullName")
Attendee Last Name	strContactLast=Request.Form("CONTACT_LAST")
Attendee First Name	strContactFirst=Request.Form("CONTACT_FIRST")
Attendee Middle Initial	strContactMI=Request.Form("CONTACT_MI")
Attendee Phone Number	strContactPhone=Request.Form("CONTACT_PHONE")
Attendee Fax Number	strContactFax = Request.Form("CONTACT_FAX")
Attendee Mobile Phone	strContactMobile = Request.Form("CONTACT_MOBILE")
Attendee Email Address	strContactEmail = Request.Form("CONTACT_EMAIL")
Attendee Street Address	strContactMailAddress = Request.Form("CONTACT_MAILADDR")
Attendee City	strContactMailCity = Request.Form("CONTACT_MAILCITY")
Attendee State	strContactMailState = Request.Form("CONTACT_MAILST")
Attendee Zip Code	strContactMailZip = Request.Form("CONTACT_MAILZIP")

Once the custom programming is complete, follow the steps outlined next to set up your online payment system in WebCATS.

1. Select Manage|eCenter Configuration from WebCATS' left-hand menu. This menu selection is only available to WebCATS administrators.
2. Under "Conference Payees," click the Add button.
3. At the "Add Payee" screen, select "Other Web site" from the Type field.
4. In the Web site field, enter the URL for the form post associated with the payment system.

To avoid errors or even fraud, it is important for WebCATS administrators to carefully manage the conference payee information entered into WebCATS.

5. Enter a description for the payment account. This is especially important if you will be configuring multiple accounts for multiple regions.
6. Click the Add button to complete the configuration of the payment system.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 to add as many payment URLs as necessary.

As discussed in the next section, every payment account entered into eCenter's configurations is available for selection from the conference record.

Enabling Online Payment for an Event

When you create an event in WebCATS (i.e. a conference record) and want to accept online payment for that event, you will need to indicate a payee. To do this, select the appropriate payment account from the Online Payment field found on the eCenter tab of a conference record, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: In addition to adding the payment system account, a conference record must have the following attributes in order for attendees to pay online: (1) it must have a status of open and (2) its fee must be exposed on eCenter. If the event is full and you allow a waitlist, waitlisted users will not be presented with the online payment option.

Note: There is an eCenter global configuration titled Accept Online Payment from Non-logged-in Users? that pertains to online payments. Learn more about it here.

For more information on publishing an event to eCenter Direct, see the FAQ titled How do I publish a conference or other training event on eCenter Direct?.

Want more? Browse our extensive list of WebCATS FAQs.