May 14, 2015

What's New with the 12 May Release

This week we have rolled out several important new updates, features, and fixes.

API Updates:


  • Merchants now have the option to select either 4 digit or six digit PINs for employees. This setting is exposed through the REST API from the /v3/merchants/PWPH981CWGAX6/properties  endpoint under the pinLength field.
  • REST API requests with expansion query values that include non-letters will now return 400 Error 'Unable to parse expandedField'.


Dashboard Updates:


  • App package names are now based on the first uploaded package, instead of being set before uploading. Be sure to review the Android documentation as there have been several updates: https://docs.clover.com/build/android-apps/.
  • Android app push notifications are now constrained to alphanumeric characters, underscores and hyphens.


Bug Fixes:


  • New EU developer merchants are no longer automatically assigned a region of en-us.
  • Web app installation redirects now respect app's default response type selection.
  • Fixed bug preventing developers from removing an app's smart receipts URL once it had been entered.



May 01, 2015

What's new with the 27 April Release

Many of you will have noticed we have rolled out a new version of the developer docs this week at https://docs.clover.com. So be sure to keep your eyes out for updates there in the coming weeks.

API Updates:

  • Webhook subscriptions using SSL (strongly recommended) will no longer receive webhook alerts if their SSL certificate is not valid.

Dashboard Updates:

  • The POST v3/merchants/{mId}/shifts/csv endpoint has been replaced by the GET v3/merchants/{mId}/shifts.csv endpoint, which allows up to a 9 week time range.
  • The developer signature file for uploaded APKs must now be named META-INF/CERT.RSAU.

April 24, 2015

What's new with the 22 April Release


With Clover Mobile and Clover Mini rolling out, the team has been hard at work tuning up our platform and building out improvements geared toward helping 3rd party developers succeed in building, testing, launching, and tracking their apps.

API Updates:

  • In order to prevent service delays there are new constraints for certain API calls:
    • Items Reports queries are limited to a 9 week span
    • V3 Tax report queries are limited to a 92 day span
    • Cash log queries without explicit time filters will return results for the last 30 days
  • POST requests to create LineItems will now honor "note" field values

Dashboard Updates:

  • We have improved our systems for validating uploaded APK packages. Please review the updated documentation about creating and naming your APK
  • In order for a developer's test merchant account to allow credit card processing, that merchant must be pointed at a "black hole" payment gateway. This is now done by default on all new test merchant accounts.
  • All apps are now free for sales demo devices
  • The developer Charges table now supports filtering by any column - including status, amount and type:

April 07, 2015

What's New with the 5 April Release


The big news this week is the announcement of Clover Mini (in addition to Clover Mobile) joining the Clover device family:















Be sure to check out the specifications for the new devices in our docs and on our hardware pages:

https://www.clover.com/docs/devices

https://www.clover.com/pos-hardware/mini

https://www.clover.com/pos-hardware/mobile

Dashboard & App Updates:

  • Refunds processed through the Manual Transactions app or the Refunds app were previously called 'Credits'. In order to avoid confusion for merchants, these refunds are now referred to as 'Manual Refunds' in all merchant-facing language.

Note that no changes have been made to the internal data representation of manual refunds, so this change should have no impact on third party apps in terms of integration with the Clover platform. Manual refunds will still be identified as credits internally through our REST API and Android SDK.

We do recommend that third party apps dealing with manual refunds make sure to refer to them as such, in order to provide a more consistent and intuitive user experience to subscribing merchants.

  • Due to the enhanced security offered by the Clover Mobile and Clover Mini devices, it is now necessary for Clover to add an additional secure signature to uploaded APKs before they can be published. This means that the APK approval process now includes one additional stage "Pending signing":
The "Pending signing" status on the manage APKs screen


No additional action is required from developers, but be aware that secure signing is a manual process which can take some time, and take this into account for your launch schedule.

March 31, 2015

Permissions Versus Modules


As a developer, you can think of permissions and modules along similar lines: you should strive to use only the minimum of permissions necessary in order to avoid distrust from merchants, and you should select only those modules that apply to your app in order to let your app reach as many merchants as possible. However, it is important to understand the different roles the two settings play.

Permissions are how a merchant can opt in to allowing your app to read or write to specific categories of their business’ data. If a merchant has downloaded your app, they have approved each of your 'permission' types. We keep track of what permissions your app has been given, and will only allow access where permissions are present. For example, without 'Read Orders' permission, you will be unable to access a merchant’s order information through the SDK or the REST API. 

Modules are part of the upcoming app bundles, available to Clover Mini and Clover Mobile merchants. They are designed to limit your app to merchants with appropriate capabilities. Each module represents a category of resources and data which is available to merchants whose bundles include that module, and are not available to merchants whose bundles exclude it. You should use modules to indicate which features your app needs in order to minimally function. For example, if your app relies on merchant and item data, you will need to select the Merchant and Items modules. Because the Items module is not included in the Terminal Bundle, merchants on that bundle will not be able to install your app.

Note: unlike permissions, we currently do not limit API or SDK calls based on modules.

March 25, 2015

Order API Notice

PLEASE NOTE:


A recent change to the Orders API means that unless otherwise given explicit modifiedTime or createdTime parameters, the endpoint returns only orders with a modified date within the last two weeks. This may have caused some unexpected behavior as the query dropped orders not modified within the last two weeks.


The two week limit will be removed Thursday night. In the meantime, a workaround is to include any valid modifiedTime or createdTime or clientCreatedTime parameters.

March 24, 2015

What's New with the 22 March Release

The entire Clover team is thrilled about the upcoming launch of Clover Mobile, Clover Mini, and our new merchant software plans. In the coming weeks, you can look forward to getting all of the details about these new devices, as well as how you can best utilize our new plans as a developer.

For now, we have a sneak peek of the new system as we prepare with an update to your developer dashboard.

The Developer Dashboard > Your App > Edit App menu now includes a section for setting which modules your application requires:


The new Required Modules menu

















Think of these modules along the same lines as permissions. Select only the categories of data your application will require to operate.

After the upcoming release, merchants using Clover Mobile or Clover Mini will have the opportunity to register for two new kinds of merchant plans as alternatives to the Classic plan, which comes with our current Clover Station. 

Each plan will have access to a different set of modules:


Modules by Merchant Plan






















Although an app's module settings will not take effect until after the coming release, we recommend that you get a head start by selecting only those categories of data needed by your app. This will ensure that your app will target the widest user base possible as we welcome a new community of Clover Mobile and Clover Mini based merchants.

March 16, 2015

What's New with the 9 March Release

With the latest release we have given the developer's Charges panel some great new functionality. It is easier than ever to review your subscription data.

  • The Developer Dashboard > Charges page now supports the export of charge data in CSV format.
The charges export dropdown

























This report includes:

Charge ID
Charge Date
Install Date
Uninstall Date
Merchant ID
Merchant Name
App ID
App Name
Charge Type
Currency
Amount
Status
System Type
Subscription Name

CSV report left side
CSV report right side











































  • The Charges page also now displays monthly totals.


Charges Summary display
































  • Finally, the Charge Date heading on the  Charges page, now includes both the install, and uninstall dates of the charged merchant.



February 25, 2015

What's New with the 24 February Release

With this week's release we have some new tools to help developers stay responsive to their merchant user base.

Remember to keep an eye on the Latest Releases Feed to keep up with merchant facing updates.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING CHANGE:

As of 3/1/15 Clover will be transitioning its billing structure for merchants. Payment will shift from credit card billing through BrainTree to direct deposits from the merchant's bank account. You will notice that the pending period now includes an "In Progress" step after the transaction has started processing.

Under the new system, Clover billing and disbursement will all take place on a monthly basis. Clover will charge a single fee to each merchant's bank account every month. This will include the previous month's per-action charges, new subscriptions (pro-rated), existing subscriptions for the next month and any refunds owed to the merchant.

Dashboard Updates:

  • In preparation for building out our OrderType functionality, and as a teaser of things to come, order types can now be set with a number of new options. (These options will not be honored by Clover apps yet.) You can take a look at the new choices by navigating to Merchant Dashboard > Setup > Order Types and selecting Add Order Type:

The New Order Type dialogue 








New Order Type settings include:

Custom hours

Whether to display the type as an option in the Register app

Which inventory categories are available per order type

Min/Max order amounts

Special fees

Delivery radius and average delivery time

Dashboard Bug Fixes:

  • The main page of App Market now displays the correct "starts at" pricing amounts for logged out users.
  • New subscription tiers and pricing can now be added after an app already has active subscribers.

Webhooks Updates:


  • Merchant webhook will now send UPDATE notifications when a merchant changes properties such as their business hours, phone number, or order types.
  • The Webhooks server will now enforce a back off for clients returning error responses. After a threshold of 5 errors the server will begin to delay it's notifications with sequentially increasing back off times.




February 04, 2015

What's New with the 3 February Release

Time for another round of the latest from the Clover team. Leading the charge in this week's release are several new dashboard updates aimed at helping your app to look its best in the App Market.

Some of you Android developers will be excited to hear we have also increased the APK upload size limit from 10MB to 32MB.

As always, be sure to take a look at the Latest Releases Feed to catch up on all of the merchant-facing changes.

Dashboard Updates:
  • Subscriptions will be ordered by price from least to most expensive on the app's details page.
  • On the App Market main page, apps with multiple subscriptions will now be listed as 'Starts Free' or 'Starts at...' your lowest tier.
  • Uploaded app videos are displayed at a larger size on the app's details page.
Updated pricing style on listings

















New, larger app video




























Dashboard Bug Fixes:
  • App screenshots can now be deleted from the Edit App page

API Updates:
  • The taxRates field is now expandable for the v3/merchants/{mID} endpoint

SDK Updates:
  • The APK size limit for uploading Clover apps has been increased to 32MB
  • The Clover SDK inventoryContract now exposes Item.MODIFIED_TIME

January 21, 2015

What's New with the 19 January Release

Hi all, for those I haven't interacted with yet I am a recent addition to the Clover team, here to help provide useful resources and support to our rapidly expanding community of 3rd party developers.

As a part of that program I will be regularly updating this blog with details about Clover's new releases likely to impact the developer community. (For merchant facing release info, check out the Latest Releases feed here.)

Here are the changes to look out for in the 19 January release:

Updates:

New Features:
  • Subscription rates and metered actions now have separate sub-listings for each country where the app will be available. From the US market, the United States is currently the only country option. The EU market has options for the United Kingdom and Ireland. 

If your pricing status has been approved, you can manage these settings by clicking the 'Add Country' button under the payment type listing. 

Please Note: Setting the price for a country signals availability for that app.

US:

EU:

If you are developing for the EU market and your pricing status has not yet been approved, you can select the countries where you intend to make your app available with the 'Availability' settings on the 'Edit App' screen

EU only:




  • The App Market now supports a 'subscriptionId' URL query string which allows external links to an app with one subscription option pre-selected. (e.g. Charity Checkout's free subscription)
























Deprecations:
  • The "a" route www.clover.com/appmarket/a/[appId] has been deprecated.  Instead use the "apps" route www.clover.com/appmarket/apps/[appId]