Charges

Learn about what a charge is, how it's created, and how captures, cancels, and refunds work
A charge represents a payment authorization. The charge creation process is handled by Digital River. Throughout a charge's lifecycle, the object can contain one or more captures, cancels, and refunds.
How a charge is created
Whether you're using Prebuilt Checkout or Direct Integrations, the payment authorization process remains the same. 
At the time of order creation, Digital River creates a charge whose amount is equal to the associated source's amount and then submits an authorization request that gets routed to the appropriate payment provider. 
For example, as you build a Direct Integrations' checkout, customers might provide credit card information during the payment collection stage. This information is then used to create a primary source that you associate with the checkout. After you convert the checkout to an order, Digital River creates a charge and then sends an authorization request to a payment processor who forwards it to a payment provider. If the request is approved by the payment provider, then Digital River moves the charge's  state to capturable and creates an order.charge.capturable event. 
Once a provider authorizes payment, the charge on a credit card typically remains capturable for seven days.
A charge's amount represents the initial authorization on a customer's payment method. But it's ultimately all the captures, cancellations, and refunds during an order's lifecycle that determines how much a customer pays.
Order
{
    "id": "178727320336",
    ...
    "state": "accepted",
    ...
    "payment": {
        "charges": [
            {
                "id": "b469adb4-d9d1-4baa-80b1-e55c26feb4e8",
                "createdTime": "2020-07-02T20:10:47Z",
                "currency": "USD",
                "amount": 145.16,
                "state": "capturable",
                "captured": false,
                "refunded": false,
                "sourceId": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8"
            }
        ],
        ...
    }
    ...
}
How captures, cancels, and refunds work
An order's payment.charges[] contains an enduring record of all the captures[], cancels[], and refunds[] that occur during that order's lifecycle.
Order
{
    "id": "178728710336",
    "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:43:28Z",
    ...
    "payment": {
        "charges": [
            {
                "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
                "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:43:30Z",
                "currency": "USD",
                "amount": 145.16,
                "state": "complete",
                "captured": true,
                "captures": [
                    {
                        "id": "075224cd-0d07-440f-9c16-a17f16cb9692",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:50:35Z",
                        "amount": 64.52,
                        "state": "complete"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "966387d3-3693-4d35-bf8e-9f190b58e2a8",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:50:35Z",
                        "amount": 24.2,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                "refunded": true,
                "refunds": [
                    {
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T22:39:00Z",
                        "amount": 53.77,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                "cancels": [
                    {
                        "id": "5c13a17a-8c30-4550-be27-ddd84894b45e",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:54:51Z",
                        "amount": 32.26,
                        "state": "complete"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "58d9ff72-d043-4e00-9552-fb6dd8144a6c",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:54:51Z",
                        "amount": 24.18,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                "sourceId": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8",
                "type": "customer_initiated"
            }
        ],
    ...
}
All captures, cancels, and refunds have an initial state of pending and then either transition to complete or failed. With each of these state transitions, a corresponding event is created.
For example, when you initiate the payment cancellation process, Digital River creates an order.charge.cancel.pending event. This is eventually followed either by order.charge.cancel.complete or order.charge.cancel.failed.
During an order's lifecycle, an order's totalAmount and each of its payment.charges[].amount(s) remain unaltered. The actual amount a payment method is debited or credited is reflected by capturedAmount and refundedAmount, respectively.
Order
{
    "id": "178728710336",
    ...
    "totalAmount": 145.16,
    ...
    "refundedAmount": 53.77,
    "state": "complete",
    ...
    "charges": [
        {
            "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
            "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:43:30Z",
            "currency": "USD",
            "amount": 145.16,
            "state": "processing",
            "captured": true,
            "captures": [
                ...
            ],
            "refunded": true,
            "refunds": [
                {
                    "createdTime": "2020-07-02T22:39:00Z",
                    "amount": 53.77,
                    "state": "complete"
                }
            ],
            "cancels": [
                ...
            ],
            "sourceId": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8"
        }
    ],
    ...
    "capturedAmount": 88.72,
    "cancelledAmount": 56.44,
    "availableToRefundAmount": 34.94,
    ...
}
Captures
A capture represents the settling of an authorization. In other words, how much a customer's payment method is debited. Some payment methods require that a charge's full amount be captured all at once, while others permit multiple captures.
When you submit a POST/fulfillments that specifies an items[].quantity, Digital River attempts to capture payment. 
For more details, refer to the Capturing and cancelling payment charges page. 
The following POST/fulfillments seeks to partially capture payment on an order. 
POST/fulfillments
curl --location --request POST 'https://api.digitalriver.com/fulfillments' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
...
  "orderId": "178728710336",
  "items": [
    {
      "itemId": "98014170336",
      "quantity": 1
    },
    {
      "itemId": "98014180336",
      "quantity": 2
    }
  ]
}'
Once submitted, you can be notified that the capture process has begun by listening for the order.charge.capture.pending event.
In the above example, the POST/fulfillments informed our payment services that two line items were fulfilled. As a result, the order contains two captures[], each with a unique id and a captured amount. As more goods are fulfilled, and you respond by submitting additional POST/fulfillments, an order's capturedAmount provides a running total of how much has been settled.
Order
{
    "id": "178728710336",
    ...
    "payment": {
        "charges": [
            {
                "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
                "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:43:30Z",
                "currency": "USD",
                "amount": 145.16,
                "state": "complete",
                "captured": true,
                "captures": [
                    {
                        "id": "075224cd-0d07-440f-9c16-a17f16cb9692",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:50:35Z",
                        "amount": 64.52,
                        "state": "complete"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "966387d3-3693-4d35-bf8e-9f190b58e2a8",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:50:35Z",
                        "amount": 24.2,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                ...
                "sourceId": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8",
                "type": "customer_initiated"
            }
        ],
        "sources": [
            {
                "id": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8",
                "type": "creditCard",
                "amount": 145.16,
                ...
                },
                "creditCard": {
                    "brand": "Visa",
                    "expirationMonth": 7,
                    "expirationYear": 2027,
                    "lastFourDigits": "1111"
                }
            }
        ],
        ...
    },
    ...
    "capturedAmount": 88.72,
    ...
}
In this example, since the order's primary payment source has a type of creditCard, each captures[] will (typically) briefly transition to a state of pending before becoming complete. Once a capture moves into this state, Digital River creates an order.charge.capture.complete event.
Cancels
A cancel negates all or part of a payment authorization. Cancels don't result in the debiting or crediting of a customer's payment method. That same underlying payment method determines whether a charge can be partially cancelled or only supports full cancellations.
When you send a POST/fulfillments that specifies an items[].cancelQuantity, Digital River attempts to cancel payment.
For more details, refer to the Capturing and cancelling payment charges page. 
POST/fulfillments
curl --location --request POST 'https://api.digitalriver.com/fulfillments' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
...
--data-raw '{
  "orderId": "178728710336",
  "items": [
    {
      "itemId": "98014170336",
      "cancelQuantity": 1
    },
    {
      "itemId": "98014180336",
      "cancelQuantity": 1
    }
  ]
}'
Once submitted, you can be notified that the cancellation process has begun by listening for the order.charge.cancel.pending event.
In the above example, the POST/fulfillments informed our payment services that two line items were cancelled. As a result, the order contains two cancels[], each with a unique id and a cancelled amount.
In this particular example, since all of the order's charges[] are either captured or cancelled, the order's state moves to complete and an order.complete event is triggered. 
Order
{
    "id": "178728710336",
    ...
    "totalAmount": 145.16,
    ...
    "state": "complete",
    ...
    "payment": {
        "charges": [
            {
                "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
                "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:43:30Z",
                "currency": "USD",
                "amount": 145.16,
                "state": "processing",
                "captured": true,
                "captures": [
                    ...
                ],
                "refunded": false,
                "cancels": [
                    {
                        "id": "5c13a17a-8c30-4550-be27-ddd84894b45e",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:54:51Z",
                        "amount": 32.26,
                        "state": "complete"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "58d9ff72-d043-4e00-9552-fb6dd8144a6c",
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T21:54:51Z",
                        "amount": 24.18,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                "sourceId": "9d9cff59-2b43-4b0a-a171-f49a243e5ea8"
            }
        ],
    ...
    }
    "capturedAmount": 88.72,
    "cancelledAmount": 56.44,
    "availableToRefundAmount": 88.71,
    ...
}
Refunds
A refund represents funds returned to a customer. Once funds have been captured, all or part of the captured amount can be refunded. All the refunds on a particular charge are contained in its refunds[] array.
You should be aware however that refunds[] in charges are not the same object as refunds you create when submitting POST/refunds. This is because, for batch processing purposes, Digital River often aggregates charge refunds[].
For details on how to create refunds, refer to the Issuing refunds page. 
The following attempts to demonstrate this distinction:
Refunds
Order
Charge
The following GET/refunds request is searching for all the refunds created by a client system that are associated with a specific order. 
curl --location --request GET 'https://api.digitalriver.com/refunds?orderId=178728710336' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
In the response, data[] lists these refunds. In this particular example, only a single refund has been created by a client system.
Refunds
{
    "hasMore": false,
    "data": [
        {
            "id": "re_40af9cbd-0f38-4362-9e24-c6338f3795c4",
            ...
            "items": [
                {
                    "amount": 21.51,
                    "quantity": 1,
                    "refundedAmount": 21.51,
                    ...
                },
                {
                    "amount": 32.26,
                    "quantity": 1,
                    "refundedAmount": 32.26,
                    ...
                }
            ],
            "orderId": "178728710336",
            ...
            "refundedAmount": 53.769999999999996,
            ...
        }
    ]
}
The following GET/orders/{id} request retrieves the same order.
curl --location --request GET 'https://api.digitalriver.com/orders/178728710336' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
The order's payment.charges[].refunds[] array contains a single element. But, despite being associated with the same order and despite have nearly identical amount values, this charge-level refund is not the same object as the refund created by the client system.
{
    "id": "178728710336",
    ...
    "payment": {
        "charges": [
            {
                "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
                ...
                "refunds": [
                    {
                        "createdTime": "2020-07-02T22:39:00Z",
                        "amount": 53.77,
                        "state": "complete"
                    }
                ],
                ...    
            }
        ],
    ...
    "refundedAmount": 53.77,
    ...
}
The following GET/charges/{id} request passes the charge identifier from the order as a a path parameter.
curl --location --request GET 'https://api.digitalriver.com/charges/c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
The response contains an array of charge refunds[], each with a unique id. Note that the id of the charge-level refund is not the same as the id of the client system created refund.
{
    "id": "c23d5317-3410-4abb-af86-8c8570b9dc90",
    ...
    "orderId": "178728710336",
    ...
    "refunded": true,
    "refunds": [
        {
            "id": "5e32af54-aff5-49a8-b72e-37aa8e3d03af",
            "createdTime": "2020-07-02T22:39:00Z",
            "amount": 53.77,
            "state": "complete"
        }
    ],
    ...
}
Handling charge failures
When a payment authorization request fails, the charge's state becomes failed. The same is true for failed captures, cancels, and refunds.
Each of these objects contains a failureMessage and failureCode that you may be able to use to pinpoint a reason for the failure.
For more information, refer to authorization declines and handling rejected orders.
The charge lifecycle
A charge's state can be pending, capturable, processing, complete, cancelled, or failed.
When a charge's state changes, Digital River creates a corresponding event. For example, when the charge's state changes from pending to capturable an order.charge.capturable event is emitted.
The state values for a successful charge (i.e. the happy path) are pending > capturable > processing > complete .
The following table lists the possible states of a charge and their corresponding events:
1) When the charge...
(2) its state transitions to...
(3) and an...event is emitted.
...is awaiting authorization, typically because additional customer action is required
pending
order.charge.pending
...is authorized by the payment provider
capturable
order.charge.capturable
...is being processed by the payment provider
processing
order.charge.processing
...is captured in full (or captured in part with the remainder cancelled) and there are no pending charge operations.
complete
order.charge.complete
...is cancelled in full and there are no pending charge operations.
cancelled
order.charge.cancelled
fails to authorize
failed
order.charge.failed
For different success and error scenarios, you can create tests to determine whether your integration returns the expected state value.
1) When the charge...	(2) its state transitions to...	(3) and an...event is emitted.
...is awaiting authorization, typically because additional customer action is required	`pending`	`order.charge.pending`
...is authorized by the payment provider	`capturable`	`order.charge.capturable`
...is being processed by the payment provider	`processing`	`order.charge.processing`
...is captured in full (or captured in part with the remainder cancelled) and there are no pending charge operations.	`complete`	`order.charge.complete`
...is cancelled in full and there are no pending charge operations.	`cancelled`	`order.charge.cancelled`
fails to authorize	`failed`	`order.charge.failed`
The order lifecycle
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