Sending Requests

All requests to the Web API must be sent as an XML or JSON document within the body of a POST request sent to:

https://www.billandpay.com/webservices/service.php

Sample XML Request

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<request>
  <response>
    <type>xml</type>
  </response>
  <biller>
    <authenticate>
      <id>sample_id</id>
      <password>sample_password</password>
    </authenticate>
    <customerinfo />
  </biller>
</request>

Sample JSON Request

{
  "request": {
    "response": {
      "type": "json"
    },
    "biller": {
      "authenticate": {
        "id": "sample_id",
        "password": "sample_password"
      },
      "customerinfo": {
      }
    }
  }
}

All requests must be contained within a request sub-object. Within the request sub-object you can specify how the Web API response will be returned to you using the response sub-object. Within the response sub-object you can use the type property to choose the format of the response from among the following:

XML	The response is returned as an XML document.
JSON	The response is returned as JSON which is easily processed by JavaScript.
PHP	The response is a serialized PHP array variable. Use the unserialize() PHP function to transform the response back into a PHP array containing the response.

Request Classes

The Web API is divided into requests classes. A class is a discrete portion of the Bill & Pay system. There are three request classes: biller, reseller, and developer. The biller class handles all Web API interactions with a specific biller account. The request must contain the authentication credentials for a specific biller or a Developer App. The reseller class handles all Web API interactions with a specific reseller account. The request must contain the authentication credentials for a specific reseller.

In the example above the biller sub-object specifies that the request is to be processed by the biller class. Within the biller sub-object is the authenticate sub-object which contains the biller credentials. Also within the biller sub-object is the customerinfo sub-object which is the method of the biller class to call.

You can only reference a single Web API class within a single call to the server. So you can not, for example, place two sets of <biller> and </biller> tags, or a set of <biller> tags and a set of <reseller> tags, in the same server call.

Encryption

All requests must be made over HTTPS using the TLS 1.2 or higher encryption method.

Multiple API Calls In a Single Request

You can call multiple API methods for a single API class within a single call to the server. For example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<request>
  <response>
    <type>xml</type>
  </response>
  <biller>
    <authenticate>
      <id>sample_id</id>
      <password>sample_password</password>
    </authenticate>
    <billerinfo />
    <customerinfo />
  </biller>
</request>

This sample will call both the biller.billerinfo API method as well as the biller.customerinfo API method in a single request to the server. You can add an <apicallid> tag to each API method call and it will be returned in the response for each API method. For example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<request>
  <response>
    <type>xml</type>
  </response>
  <biller>
    <authenticate>
      <id>sample_id</id>
      <password>sample_password</password>
    </authenticate>
    <billerinfo>
      <apicallid>1</apicallid>
    </billerinfo>
    <customerinfo>
      <apicallid>2</apicallid>
    </customerinfo>
  </biller>
</request>