API server and method of usage thereof

1. A method of providing interactions with multiple different hosts, the method comprising:

installing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in a common messaging interface on a payments API server in a dedicated controller, the APIs configured to interact with payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads, the loyalty hosts configured to provide loyalty rewards to a user for at least one of use of a particular transactional device or for a transaction involving a particular store or item, the common messaging interface being a Payment Messaging Interface (PMI);

receiving HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests from point of sale (POS) terminals, Island Card Readers (ICRs) and computers at the payments API server;

in response to receiving an HTTP request from one of the POS terminals, ICRs or computers, handling, by the dedicated controller, interactions associated with eXtensible Markup Language (XML) requests to, and responses from, the PMI and using an appropriate one of the APIs to interact with at least one of the payment hosts, loyalty hosts, or a POS cache interface of a POS terminal to communicate with the pinpads, wherein handling further includes directing at least one response to a particular POS cache interface of a particular POS terminal to communicate with a particular pinpad; and

after interacting with the at least one of the payment hosts, loyalty hosts or pinpads, providing an HTTP response to the one of the POS terminals, ICRs or computers based on the interaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PMI is a standard language-independent interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the APIs in the PMI are Representational State Transfer (REST)ful APIs.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the APIs in the PMI are associated with an epsilon interface to process transactions and interact with the payment hosts, a sigma interface to process loyalty transactions and interact with the loyalty hosts, and a POSCache interface to interact with the pinpads.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

receiving test HTTP requests to test the APIs prior to receiving the HTTP request from the one of the POS terminals, ICRs or computers;

in response to receiving the test HTTP requests, use the APIs to interact with the payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads;

determining whether appropriate responses are obtained from the payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads in response to the test HTTP requests; and

fixing issues with the APIs and reinstalling the APIs in response to determining that at least one response from the payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads is not appropriate.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:

the test HTTP requests are generated using a web-based automation tool and without the use of a custom simulator.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein:

the payments API server interacts with different payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads using different protocols, and

the method further comprises:

receiving an indication of particular ones of the payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads with which a customer is to implement services to interact with the PMI; and

exposing only APIs associated with the particular ones of the payment hosts, loyalty hosts and pinpads to the customer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the loyalty hosts are configured to provide loyalty rewards to the user for use of the particular transactional device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the payments API server is deployed local to the transaction.