Getting Started

Welcome to Overdrive Connect. This guide walks you through integrating your application with our unified payment platform.

What is Overdrive Connect?

Overdrive Connect provides a unified payment API that enables your application to accept payments through multiple payment providers using a single integration.

Instead of integrating directly with each payment provider, your application communicates only with Overdrive Connect. This keeps your payment integration simple, consistent, and future-proof.

Choose an Integration Method

Overdrive Connect supports two integration methods depending on your application's architecture.

Integration Method	Best For
API Checkout	Applications that create payments using the Merchant API and redirect customers using the returned `redirectUrl`.
POST Redirect Checkout	Traditional web applications that submit an HTML form directly to Overdrive Connect.

Unified Payment Flow

Customer
│
▼
Merchant Website
│
Choose Integration Method
│                         │
▼                         ▼
API Checkout              POST Redirect
│                         │
└────────────┬────────────┘
▼
Overdrive Connect
│
▼
Payment Provider
│
▼
Hosted Checkout
│
▼
Customer Pays
│
┌────────────┴────────────┐
▼                         ▼
Browser Redirect        Merchant Callback
│                         │
└────────────┬────────────┘
▼
Merchant Application

Prerequisites

Before integrating, ensure you have received the following from Code Overdrive.

Merchant Account
API Key
API Secret
Callback Signing Secret
Test Environment Access

Payment Lifecycle

Regardless of the integration method, a typical payment follows these steps.

Choose an integration method.
Redirect the customer to the payment page.
The customer completes the payment.
Overdrive Connect processes the payment provider notification.
Your application receives a signed callback containing the final payment status.
Redirect the customer back to your website.

Important Concepts

Concept	Description
Merchant Payment Reference	A unique identifier generated by your application. Used for idempotency and retrieving payments.
Reference Number	A unique payment identifier generated by Overdrive Connect.
Hosted Checkout	The secure page where customers complete their payment.
Merchant Callback	A signed server-to-server notification containing the final payment status.

Recommendation

Treat the merchant callback as the authoritative source of payment status. Browser redirects should only be used to improve the customer experience.

Next Step

Continue to the Authentication guide to learn how to authenticate your API requests before integrating with Overdrive Connect.