Weekly update – 2 October 2020

[ryan]

This week I’ve been working on updates for ProcessWire 3.0.168 as well as a new Stripe payments module for FormBuilder. In the core, the ProcessPageView module that handles all requests got a pretty significant refactoring. While it was largely focused on optimization, I also just like to go in every few years and rewrite stuff in high traffic modules like this to keep the module fresh, as well as keep my mind fresh on how it all works. I find there’s often room to do something better. The ProcessLogin module also got some upgrades this week that are primarily focused on maintaining the contents of a request URL in the admin between guest and admin user states. Now it can retain most query strings in a request URL after login. There’s still more to do in 3.0.168 so the version bump isn’t being made this week but may be ready next week. So far there are also a couple of GitHub issue resolutions and $sanitizer method improvements as well. 

On the FormBuilder side, we have the Stripe payments Inputfield, but since that module has been built, Stripe has released new APIs to handle SCA payments (soon required for EU transactions). With these types of payments, as I understand it, a multi-factor type process takes place where the user confirms the transaction with their credit provider. So it changes the payment flow quite a bit… enough that I’ve found the current Stripe payments module can’t really be adapted for it, at least not in a reliable way. That’s because the new API requires that the payment take place interactively before the form is submitted, since the user has to manually confirm it outside the form. So this will inevitably lead to cases where a payment has been charged but the final form isn’t submitted for one reason or another. Maybe it would work most of the time, but it just doesn’t seem like a reliable transaction flow to me. For this reason, I’m building a separate module for FormBuilder that provides a better alternative for the SCA transactions. With this module, the user submits the form, but FormBuilder saves it as a partial/pending form submission. Following form submission, the user goes through the SCA payment process with Stripe. When that completes, Stripe sends a webhook to FormBuilder that converts the form submission from pending to completed, at which point emails are sent, FormBuilder actions executed, etc. So it's Stripe that submits the final form, rather than the user. I’ve got a lot of work still to do here, but since a few people have contacted me looking for SCA support with Stripe payments, I just wanted to keep you up to date and let you know it’s in progress. The existing InputfieldFormBuilderStripe module will of course continue to be developed as well, as most regions outside the EU do not require SCA. 

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!