Gateways

Gateways (Admin → Gateways) connect your school to an SMS provider and one or more payment providers. This is how SMS messages and online payments actually go out.

Administrator only

The Gateways screen is administrator-only. It also respects the SMS and payments feature flags — if the super administrator has disabled one of those features, the corresponding gateway section shows a “feature not enabled” message.

How gateways work (in one paragraph)

You paste the URL of a gateway adapter. ApexityEdu calls that URL to discover the gateway’s name and which parameters it needs (e.g. an API key, a sender ID, a store ID). You then fill in the values, which are stored encrypted. That’s all you need to do — no code.

Connecting an SMS gateway

1. Open Gateways.
2. In the SMS section, paste the gateway URL.
3. Click Fetch params — ApexityEdu discovers the fields (e.g. API Key, Sender ID).
4. Fill in the values.
5. Save.

Connecting a payment gateway

1. Open Gateways → Payments.
2. Paste the gateway URL and Fetch params.
3. Fill in the values (e.g. Store ID, Secret).
4. Save.

Multiple payment gateways

A school can run multiple active payment gateways at once. Each configured payment gateway can be toggled active/inactive independently. At checkout:

• One active → students pay with it directly.
• Several active → students see a “Pay with…” picker.
• None active → students see “pay at the school office”.

(Only one SMS gateway is supported at a time — one SMS provider per school is enough.)

Testing a gateway

No provider account? Use the built-in fake gateway

This site ships a fake payment gateway so you can test the entire payment loop — initiate, hosted checkout, webhook, verification, refund — without a real provider. In Gateways → Payments → Add payment gateway, click Use test gateway (or paste https://<your-site>/api/fake-payment-gateway). Its checkout page has Pay / Simulate failure / Cancel buttons; every choice notifies ApexityEdu and returns the payer to the school page, where the payment is verified server-side and the ledger settled. No credentials are required and no money moves.

If a payment ever shows “still being confirmed by the gateway”, the banner now includes the gateway’s own last error (for example an unreachable URL) — that is the first place to look.

The Test button

Each gateway has a Test button:

1. For SMS, enter a number; ApexityEdu sends a test message.
2. For payment, ApexityEdu initiates a 1-unit test payment (dry run).

The result is shown as a toast, and the gateway records when it was last tested and whether the test succeeded. The test uses the same path as real dispatches, so a passing test means real messages/payments will work.

Gateway display names

Payment and SMS gateway display names are editable in the Gateways screen, so you can label them clearly for yourself and your students (e.g. “bKash — main” vs “bKash — backup”).

Troubleshooting

• Fetch params fails — check the URL is correct and reachable.
• Test fails — check the credentials you entered (wrong API key/secret is the usual cause).
• No “Pay now” for students — no active payment gateway, or the payments feature is disabled for the school.

Get the gateway URL

Your gateway provider (or your super administrator/developer) supplies the gateway URL. It is specific to the SMS/payment service you use.