Integrating Passport Express Purchase

Microsoft Passport includes a wallet feature that allows a user to provide the data required to make electronic purchases, such as credit card numbers and shipping addresses, to a single, central location: the Passport Web site. Merchants who participate in the Passport program can retrieve this information from the Passport wallet Web site, saving the user from entering the same data every time they make a purchase. Unlike the Passport Single Sign In authentication service, the Passport Express Purchase service does not require any Passport-specific Component Object Model (COM) objects to be installed on the merchant Web server. Merchants can use the Passport Express Purchase service either with or without using Passport Single Sign In for authentication.

Passport Express Purchase Processing Steps

Passport Express Purchase use involves the following steps:

1. A user chooses Passport Express Purchase checkout on a merchant Web site page.
2. The user's browser is re-directed to the Wallet page on the Passport Web site. The re-direction URL includes a query string that contains a return URL, credit card preference, and co-branding data.
3. If not already signed into Passport, the user is asked to supply their standard Passport credentials.
4. On the Wallet page, the user makes choices regarding the credit card to use, the billing and shipping addresses, and so on. The user can enter new credit card information or a different shipping address, or edit entries already in their wallet.
5. The Passport Web site re-directs the user's browser back to the merchant Web site, posting a form that includes the chosen Wallet information, formatted using Electronic Commerce Markup Language (ECML).
6. The merchant Web site makes use of the returned Wallet data to complete the purchase.

Recommended Integration Strategy

The recommended approach for Passport Express Purchase integration involves streamlining the purchase process as much as possible. Since the user has already reviewed their credit card and address data on the wallet page, you should avoid asking the user to explicitly review their personal data again on your Web site. Validate the data returned to you by the Passport wallet site in whatever manner you have chosen, collect any additional information you require, and then display an order summary page on which the user can provide final approval of their order. Information supplied by the Passport wallet site can be displayed again on the summary page (the complete credit card number is a possible exception) for implicit review.

Important

• Avoid using the data returned by the Passport wallet site to do nothing more than provide default information on a form page that the user cannot avoid. This defeats much of the "express purchase" purpose of using Passport in the first place.

You should seriously consider co-branding the Passport pages so that they blend seamlessly into your Web site. When you register with Passport, you can supply the URL of a cascading style sheet (.CSS) file in which you can define the colors and properties of almost all elements on the Passport login, registration, and wallet pages. You can also inject your own content onto most wallet pages, including your own site-specific questions. Using this mechanism, you can collect whatever additional information you require to complete the purchase on the Passport wallet page, which allows your users to go directly to an order summary page when they return to your Web site.

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