Payment and Services

Following a successful workshop on Web payments in 2014 and discussions on use cases and priorities for Web payments in the Web Payment Interest Group, W3C chartered a Web Payments Working Group to develop browser APIs to facilitate payment operations in Web applications:

• The Payment Request API defines an API to allow merchants (i.e. web sites selling physical or digital goods) to utilize one or more payment methods with minimal integration. In this model, browsers facilitate the payment flow between merchant and user.
• The Payment Method Identifiers specification defines payment method identifiers and how they are validated, and, where applicable, minted and formally registered with the W3C.
• The Payment Method Manifest specification defines a machine-readable manifest file that describes default payment applications that are associated with a given payment method, as well as the list of origins that are permitted to provide payment applications for this payment method.
• The Payment Method: Basic Card specification describes data structures that enable the use of debit, credit, or prepaid cards in the Payment Request API.
• The Payment Handler API defines a standard way to initiate payment requests from Web pages and applications.