An API (Application Programmer Interface) specifies how software components should interact with each other. It is defined with common web conventions and protocols so that any programming language may be used (PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, etc). BlueFire offers a series of API endpoints in order to give our clients the ability to build their own online giving and payment solutions on top of the BlueFire system. Note that this is an advanced topic and you will most likely need to work with a web developer to use the BlueFire API.
Looking for something that’s not here? Let us know! We’re always interested in how our clients use the API and what things they’d like to do in the future.
Important!! We are currently transitioning our domain name (read more). This documentation has not yet been updated. Be sure you are using our new hostname api.gobluefire.com in place of api.bluefire-secure.com, wherever it appears in the following documentation.
Documentation
- Checkout – The Checkout Integration provides a way to direct a user to the BlueFire site for checkout, returning them to your own site after successful payment. Contrasts with the Sale API in that the payment information is taken on BlueFire’s site and the user is returned afterwards. This is perfect solution for integration with 3rd party shopping carts (like this plugin for WooCommerce).
- Sale – The Sale API endpoint provides a way to submit and process new donations and payments with donor information. It accepts both ACH and Credit/Debit and the client-side public-key encryption for credit card numbers allows our clients to spend much less time thinking about security and PCI compliance.
- Reporting – The Reporting API endpoint provides a way to retrieve a listing of all past donations and payments. The start and enddates for the report may be specified if a certain date range is needed. The returned data includes all donor contact information as well as amounts and fund designations.
- Form – The Form API endpoint provides a way to create a new donation or payment form or retrieve the settings for a particular form. It is usefull for determining what fields and options are available on a form, such as titles, recurring transactions and security codes.
- Funds – The Funds API endpoint provides a way to create a new fund, delete an existing fund or retrieve all available funds. It is usefull for managing an account’s available funds.
- oAuth 2.0 – The oAuth 2.0 integration provides a way for users of your web application to login and use their payment information (stored in BlueFire) during their checkout. It’s a great way to quickly and securely add the user-account feature to your own web application. It is meant to be used in conjunction with the Sale API.
- User – The User API endpoint provides a way to to retrieve a user’s (i.e., donor’s) payment information (stored in BlueFire). It is used during the oAuth 2.0 porcess and allows you to retrieve the user’s information (like name, address, phone and email), pre-fill their billing information and even submit transactions against their credit, debit or ACH payment method.