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Can I use a card reader on iPad through safari?

I want to use a card reader with a custom website I build.


I can program the custom design into an app or website. [This is a specific app for one-time event not a real store.] But doing this into html seems easier so I'm looking if I can do it as a website, which will be accessed by an iPad, and use the card reader to accept payment only.

 

However, I'm not sure what the capability of Square itself.  From this site: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6166, which talks about "Square Checkout vs. Square's Transactions API," the Square Checkout sounds very wonderful. But, it does not mention how to connect a site to Square Checkout and if it will be able to read a credit/debit card from the reader. Many document state it clearly how to make a payment by filling information of the card in but, I can't do that. This need to be done by swipe the credit card only. 

So What is the best way to do this? If this is a bad place to ask about dev thing. Can you point me to the support forum where I can ask about Square App? Thank you so much. 


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Against my better judgement, I am going to attempt to answer this one. Only because I think some of the hardcore advisores are going to chew you up and spit you out.

 

From my experience;

 

1st Rule: When ever you try to think outside of the box and use your square in an unconventional way. It usually backfires. 

2nd Rule: I am extremely stubborn and rarely do I take the first advise I receive.

 

I think you may be mixing a couple of system together in an attempt to get un unconventional outcome. That does not mean it cannot be done, I just have to understand what and why you are trying to do this.

 

1. Safari to a square link use a chip reader will not work.

2. Safari to your self-programed site with a hyperlink to your square store will work, but it will divert you or your client and it will have to be manually inputed which will cost you more money in processing. [no brainer there]

 

I have a few questions before I can give you a final answer. There is still hope but very little that you can do this.

Q 1: Why are you trying to do this?

Q 2: Is your client accessing your personally programed site with a link to square to process the final purchase?  If so this is OK and it will work -- NO Card Reader only manual input and it makes no sense unless the client is not present. 

Q 3: If the client is in front of you and you are personally closing out with the client.... I am back to Q 1: Why?

 

It is much easier to use the square app to process payments face to face with your clients. I understand there are advantages of programing your own bells and whisles rather than paying a third party approved programer to do something you can obviously do yourself.  Unfortunately that cuts into Squares profits from those third party venders and they are not going to make that easy for you to make this happen.

 

Best Practice:

 

1. If the client is in front of you use the square program as designed.

2. If they are cuducting the transaction on your website without you present, yes you can add the final hyperlink to the square checkout, however, you must creat a store whether you use it or not.  

When square first came out they had a great program that gave you a URL on your iPad when you created an item. You simply copied and pasted the url into a program.  Those days are over, they found out there was too much money turning this feature off and requireing you to pay more for a third-party aproved vender. 

 

Conclusion: Considering all the above, NO -- you cannot "use a card reader on iPad through safari".

 

If I am wrong about my assumption of your set-up, then let me know. I am pretty sure I can confidently say -- been-there, done-that and it does not work. But you never know, I have been wrong before.

 

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Hi,

First of all, "hardcore advisors" made me laugh so much. I know exactly what you're talking about. As I am a self-taught programmer and not came from anywhere mathematic/engineering background, those people... I know very well from my experinces on the Internet's webboard. 

 

Here... I will make my situation more clear so you get that's why I need what I need.

 

1) The UI is the most important part of this creation. The event I'm talking about is a creative event type. I'm not intend to sale any product for real. There is no real brand though people will see this website or application and it has to be real function... meaning that if they want to pay, they can. It's conceptual thing. 😉

2) Hence, It actually doesn't have to go through safari. It can be an app or a mobile web, just NOT the Sqaure app UI can be shown here. It also needs to be on iPad because that is the device I will use. 
3) Actually, after I posted my topic, I found 2 documentation under the dev section on Square website.
_ https://docs.connect.squareup.com/payments/pos/setup-web
_ https://docs.connect.squareup.com/payments/pos/setup-ios
which give me much hope.... or actually proved that it should work. 

I hope this clearify thing on my side more.
I'm only wait for the reader to be arrived and I will test it. 
I will update you when I found what is the result. 
Any suggestion?

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Admin

Hello @tuangt and thank you for your reply @Feedback2016!

 

I escalated this question to our API team and they suggested that you take a look at this Point of Sale API Mobile Web Setup documentation. 😀

 

If you have more detailed questions about this the Square Developer site has a lot of other documentation, as well as links to a Slack workspace for developers and the Stack OverFlow Developer Community.

 

I hope this helps! 

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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@Helen @tuangt It appears there is a new (to me) feature on the vurtual termiminal that allows you to access square through Safari and use your Square Reader. I tried this for the first time yesterday and it worked! However, you are charged 3.54% (3.5% + 15¢). It is not worth it to me when I can scan the card in the square app. Another disapointing feature that would be useful but is not practical because square wants to charge us for the basics.

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I have tried the virual terminal a lil bit but was not be able to buy anything. It's good to know what is your result. Thank you so much! Can I ask if you ever use the card reader and what version?

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Square Champion

Square rolled out the addition of swiping cards on a mac and Chromebook in late August, so it is only like 5 months old or so.  It definitely helped a lot of people that only use the virtual terminal, which a lot of users do simply for processing lump sum payments.  If you use the Square swiper that now works with the virtual terminal on Macs and Chromebooks you only pay the standard fee saving the Square user on each transaction with this added feature compared to paying the manually entered rate.

 

https://squareup.com/townsquare/new-ways-to-take-payments-apple

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Hi,

 

Thank you so much! After I posted this question. I actually slide through those pages and found that this task I want to do should work!
https://docs.connect.squareup.com/payments/pos/setup-web
https://docs.connect.squareup.com/payments/pos/setup-ios

Only to decide which way to try first. 


I have one more question if you be able to answer me here. Is the reader that you give us for free of charge once we sign up the app able to be used with this API?

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Square Champion

@tuangt, here is the documentation for using the Square Checkout API.  https://docs.connect.squareup.com/payments/checkout/overview  I think with the checkout API and your site you can make something that will work well,

 

It will require some fairly good grasp of programming.  but a lot of websites and apps are written using Square's multiple API's that they have made available.  

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