The following sections are general information required for using the Flute API suite.

Flute provides different environments to run endpoints

Sandbox
The sandbox environment is for development and testing. No payments, charges, or invoices will be enforced. It is a fully isolated account that mirrors production behavior.

It is used to validate your integration before going live. You will work with your Flute support team developing workflows and tools.

baseURL: https://sandbox.api.flute.com

Production
Use the production environment for deploying the payment system live to clients. All payments, charges, or invoices will be enforced.

When your product is ready to be deployed live, the Flute support team will work with you to ensure compliance. This compliance follows the production readiness checklist. It ensures the best and optimal developer, client, and customer experience.
For more information and details about the production readiness checklist, see Production Go-Live Guide.

baseURL: https://api.flute.com

Using the baseURL
Use the baseURL instead of the placeholder noted in each endpoint. For example, an endpoint may be described as in the endpoint documentation as:
POST {{baseURL}}/pay-api/v1/customers

To make this call in the sandbox environment, use:
POST https://sandbox.api.flute.com/pay-api/v1/customers

To make this call in the production environment, use:
POST https://api.flute.com/pay-api/v1/customers

1. The customer completes their shopping experience on the merchant's website by selecting the products or services. They navigate to the checkout page on the merchant's website.
2. They enter their personal and payment information. This could include card details, or net banking information.
3. The merchant's website captures these details, formatting the details as needed to conform to Flute payment gateway requirements.
4. This sensitive data is transmitted by a secure connection (HTTPS) to the Flute payment gateway. The Flute payment gateway is a service that makes authorization and sale by cards or ACH (automated clearing house, an electronic network used by financial institutions to process direct deposits).
5. Upon receiving this information, the Flute payment gateway further routes this payment data to the processing center, such as TSYS.
6. This entity communicates with the customer's bank to get authorization or denial for the payment. The processing center determines if the payment is approved, that is, if there are sufficient funds or credit available in the customer's account.

1. After the transaction is processed, the processing center sends back a response to the Flute payment gateway. This response includes details of the transaction, such as whether it was approved or declined.
2. The Flute payment gateway relays this information back to the merchant's website.
3. The merchant's website receives this information and displays a message or signal for the customer. Depending on whether the transaction was approved or declined, the appropriate message is displayed to the customer. For instance:
   If transaction was successful, a confirmation message is shown, usually with a transaction ID and other details.
   If it was declined, the customer is informed and typically asked to try another payment method.

• Diners Club: Card numbers are typically 14 or 16 digits long.
• Discover: Card numbers are typically 16 digits long.
• JCB: Card numbers are typically 16 digits long.
• MasterCard: Card numbers are typically 16 digits long.
• VISA: Card numbers are typically 13 or 16 digits long.