Open Payment Initiative

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Open Payment Initiative , abbreviated to OPI [ oːpiːaɪ ], stands for the standardization of the application interface between a till application and any solution for cashless payment (EFT / PoS ).

interface

When specifying this interface, the focus was on international and cross-industry aspects. Today the OPI interface forms a de facto standard of European format that is spreading from Germany in trading and mineral oil projects in Europe.

The specifications and reference installations published for the first time in 2003 were based on the POS-EPS specifications of the IFSF (International Forecourt Standards Forum) developed for the petrol station industry, which were expanded to include retail-specific aspects. For the first time it was possible to integrate different EFT / PoS solutions in European checkout projects via the uniform OPI interface.

Versions

version designation Release date
1.2 EFT standard interface for POS applications February 2003
1.2.1 EFT standard interface for POS applications September 2003
1.3 EFT standard interface for POS applications February 2005

Technical solution

The implementation of the OPI interface is independent of the operating system. It is an XML -based interface. Communication takes place via TCP / IP . The XML messages are exchanged via two channels (ports) (1st port: card request / card response, 2nd port: device request / device response).

Example: modular software architecture

The use of the OPI interface ensures that peripheral devices of the cash register of the payment solution are made available during the integration, such as B. POS printers for printing payment receipts, displays for messages to the cashier or the cardholder, magnetic card readers.

Such a decoupling increases the integration flexibility for the user on the one hand and the cash register and payment solution providers on the other hand in an international, solution and industry-specific respect and achieves investment security.

International installations

The OPI interface has been used by various software and EFT / PoS solution providers in many projects in Germany, France, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Denmark since 2003.

literature

  • “Open Payment Initiative” in SOURCE Informationsdienst, No. 3, March 15, 2003 / 10th year, p. 3
  • “Progress with the Open Payment Initiative” in SOURCE Informationsdienst, No. 2, Feb. 15, 2004 / 11th year, p. 6
  • "The profitable inventory loss" in SECURITY SALE magazine for security in the supply chain of the trade, 3/2004 , ISSN  1612-4774 , p. 17
  • “OPI ensures flexible cash registers” in Lebensmittelzeitung, April 16, 2004, p. 30
  • Horst Rüter: Card-based payment systems in retail, results of the 2004 annual survey , Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-87257-274-1 , p. 12
  • Jürgen Manske: "Open Payment Initiative - Cross-Country Interface Standard" in retail technology journal, 3/2004, p. 19
  • Horst Förster: "Card terminals - the next level" in retail technology journal, 1/2005, p. 34f
  • Cetin Acar, Ulrich Spaan: Cash Systems 2006, Status Quo and Perspektiven, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-87257-292-X , p. 25f
  • “Future-proof card payment at Karstadt” in e: view, issue 1/06, February 10, 2006, ISSN  1862-1643 , p. 8f

Web links