Overview

Netcash offers a web service called ‘NIWS_NIF’ used to send batched Debit Order files to a Netcash account and then the National Payment System

See the service overview here.

Web Service Methods

The list of Netcash web service methods can be found here

QuickStart Guides

We have developed some Quick Start Guides to help you understand this service and to help you get started.

Programmers Guide

To start, refer our Programmers guide for more detail on how to apply the required methodology in this document.
Please ensure that the settings for Developers are correctly set before you proceed with the implementation below specification.

Technical Information

NIWS_NIF is an asynchronous web service which exposes multiple methods. The method BatchFileUpload allows an external system to submit a batch file of Debit orders (Same day / Two day) for processing.

Netcash is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and does therefore not accept or store Credit Card numbers. Only tokens representing the card details and masked credit card numbers (for tracing purposes) may be submitted in this file. The system will reject any file which contains unmasked credit card numbers.

Credit Card Tokenization File Specification

Click here for the Netcash Credit Card Debit Order Tokenization format. The Tokenization file format is used to encrypt credit card details so that your host system may store PCI compliant credit card information for recurring billing.

Compact Upload File Specification

Click here for the Netcash Compact Debit Order upload file format. The compact file format is used where large number of transaction records are UPDATED for processing of a Debit Order batch. New line items can not be loaded with the Compact Debit Order upload file format.

Electronic Debit Order Mandates

Click here for the Netcash Electronic Debit Order upload file format. e-Mandate request is a web service that allows a remote system to send electronic requests to the Netcash system for electronic debit order mandate requests to end users. The web service is used to send batched mandate request files to the debtor for acceptance/electronic signature.

The Service

Once you have built the file call:

• Web service: https://ws.netcash.co.za/NIWS/niws_nif.svc
• Method: BatchFileUpload
• Service key: Debit order service key

Input

Requests to the web service are sent as strings

The BatchFileUpload method requires two parameters: –

• Service key (to authenticate the method call)
• File (the batch file containing the debit order instructions)

Example

public string BatchFileUpload(string ServiceKey, string File)
        {
            //initialise client 
            NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient client = new NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient();

            //call the BatchFileUpload method equal to a string variable
            string Request = client.BatchFileUpload(ServiceKey, File);

            //close client after response is received
            client.Close();

            switch (Request)
            {
                case "100"://Authentication failure
                    break;
                case "102"://Parameter error
                    break;
                case "200"://General code exception. 
                    break;
                default: //successful
                    return Request;
            }

            //use response to call RequestFileUploadReport method
            return Request;
        }

Output

Successful request

If the method call was successful and the file is being processed, the web service will return a file token which is used to retrieve the load report

Example: 20000000.2550236530.0483.2.2

Unsuccessful request

If the method call fails, the web service will return an error code:

Unpaid reason codes

Click here for a complete list of unpaid transaction codes

Input File Structure

The file is a tab delimited text file and has the following mandatory records:

H – Header record identifies the upload and passes instructions to the Netcash server to determine the purpose of the file.
K – Key record must follow the header record. The key record describes the transaction records which follow. The format defined in the key record is used to validate the record structure and content.
T – Transaction records follow the key record. The fields in the transaction records must conform to the layout defined in the key.
F – Footer record must be the last record in the file and confirms that the file is complete.

Header record (H)

Every file must contain a header record as the first record in the file.

Field explanations

Example

H C74EXXX5-5499-4663-85FB-2A6XXXXFB9EF 1 TwoDay My Test Batch 20100331 24ade73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3080

Key Record (K)

• The key record is mandatory and must appear in the file between the header record and the transaction records.
• The key defines the content, order and length of the transactions records in the file. It can be likened to the column headings in a spreadsheet.
• The key lists all the possible fields contained in the subsequent transaction records, even if not every transaction record contains data in all the fields.
• While the file is customizable, it is recommended that keys are listed in ascending numerical order for ease of debugging and support.

Example

K 101 102 131 132 133 134 135 136 162

Transaction Record (T)

• There must be at least one transaction record in the file.
• The transaction records must conform to the order of the fields as described in the key record.
  (In the example above, the account reference (field id 101) is defined as the first field in the record therefore every transaction record MUST have the account reference as the first field or it will fail validation)
• Every transaction record must have the same number of fields as defined in the key record (K).
• Empty fields should be replaced by a blank tab or a default value, where one has been defined. Where fields are left empty, the Netcash system will assume spaces or zeroes for fields defined in the key record.

Example

T Acc001 AccName001 1 BankAccountName001 1 470010 0 25000000000 100

Mandatory field

The fields indicated by  are mandatory for the specified instruction.

^{See the full API key legend for value requirements}

• * Field 137 is mandatory for any file which contains debit against credit cards. The field should be present but left blank for records containing normal bank account numbers.
• ** Field 509 is not a mandatory field.
  If the 509 key record is included in a file (Batch upload or Master file update) the field content will be validated and MUST contain 0 or 1. No other values are permitted.
  The debit order Masterfile will be updated according to the value in the field. If the 509 key record is not included in an upload file, no action will be taken on existing Master file records. See field 509 note below.

IMPORTANT
Any masterfile records included in a batch file upload instruction will automatically be marked as “Active” on the relevant masterfile.

Optional fields

If the optional fields are to be included in the transaction records, they must be specified in the key record (K).

Footer record (F)

The footer record indicates that the complete file has been received. It must be the last record in the file. If the record is not present, the system will fail the file without processing any transaction records.

Structure

Field explanations

Examples

F 2 0 9999

Example of input file

Example of input file

H  C74EXXX5-5499-4663-85FB-2A6XXXXFB9EF 1  TwoDay   My Test Batch  20131204  24ade73c-98cf-XXXX-XXXX-cc7b867b3080
K  101   102   131   132   133   134   135   136   162
T  CUS001    A Customer  1  AB Customer    1  632005  0    40600000004 110200
T  CUS002    X Customer  1  X Customer  2  198765  0    2060000001   200000
F  2  310200  9999

Example of string file (C#)

string fl = "H\C74EXXX5-5499-4663-85FB-2A6XXXXFB9EF\t1\tTwoDay\tMy Test Batch\t20131204\t24ade73c-98cf-XXXX-XXXX-cc7b867b3080" + Environment.NewLine +
"K\t101\t102\t103\t104\t131\t132\t133\t134\t135\t136\t161\t162\t302" + Environment.NewLine +
"T\tUniqueRef1\tAccountName\t1\t0\t1\tJoe Bloggs\t2\t632005\t0\t9091111334\t10000\t10000\tExtra2" + Environment.NewLine +
"T\tUniqueRef2\tAccountName2\t1\t0\t1\tSam Smith\t1\t250655\t0\t4011111193\t10000\t10000\tExtra2" + Environment.NewLine +
"T\tUniqueRef3\tAccountName3\t1\t0\t1\ John Jones \t2\t03\t2017\t25ayz73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3121 /t4208000000003456\t10000\t10000\tExtra2" + Environment.NewLine +
"F\t3\t30000\t9999";
string FileToken = BatchFileUpload("xx34x5802-xxxx-abcd-c7xxxxz1ad9q", fl);

Processing deadlines

• All times in 24HR format.
• The action date is the date the transaction is processed to the recipient’s bank account.
• ^{TIP: See request action date web service}
• Business days are the days between -and including Monday to Friday but does not include public holidays and/or weekends.

Retrieving the Load Report

Postback option
If you have activated the postback option in your NetConnector profile, the load report is automatically posted back to the URL you supplied.

Polling option
If you have not activated the postback option, you will need to request the load report using the file token received from the BatchFileUpload method call.

Using the file token, call:

• Web service: https://ws.netcash.co.za/NIWS/niws_nif.svc
• Method: RequestFileUploadReport
• Service key: Debit Order Service key

Requests to the web service are sent as strings

Example

public string RequestFileUploadReport(string ServiceKey, string FileToken)
        {
            //initialise client 
            NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient client = new NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient();

            //call the RequestFileUploadReport method equal to a string variable
            //the same service key used for the bactch file upload
            string Request = client.RequestFileUploadReport(ServiceKey, FileToken);

            //close client after response is received
            client.Close();

            //use response to output to UI
            //service will respond with the result of the file uploaded
            return Request;
        }

Output file

File content

Only errors are reported in the file. If all the entries in the file are successfully validated, the Load report header will contain “SUCCESSFUL” and there will be no detail messages.

File structure

The report is tab delimited with a linefeed character as line terminator.

Load report header (occurs once at the start of each load report)

Load report message (occurs multiple times – once per error record)

Load report trailer (occurs once – the last line in the report)

Upload report example (successful):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH SUCCESSFUL 01:59 PM R1.00 20160410
###END 01:59 PM

Upload report example (successful with errors):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH SUCCESSFUL WITH ERRORS 01:29 PM R1.00 20160410
Acc Ref :XI5 Line :3 Account details could not be validated. Please check the fields Bank account type, Branch code and Account number.
Acc Ref :XI5 Line :3 Bank account number has incorrect length (min 4, max 11 characters)
Acc Ref :HCOS1 Line :5 Beneficiary statement reference has incorrect length (min 4, max 20 characters)
Acc Ref :HCOZ1 Line :6 Beneficiary statement reference has incorrect length (min 4, max 20 characters)
###END 01:29 PM

Upload report example (unsuccessful):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH UNSUCCESSFUL 01:23 PM R1.00 20160410
###ERROR: A system error occurred. Please contact Netcash R0.00 20160410
###END 01:23 PM

Testing

See Testing section for more details. If you require any integration assistance contact our technical support team