Private app for webhooks

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dwoods asked Jan 4, '20 parquet76 edited Dec 12, '23

Private app for webhooks

I am trying to create an app in the production environment (not sandbox) for the purpose of using the webhooks. I have successfully created the same app in sandbox and was able to click the "Preview in App Market" to install it to my test merchant.

However, in production once the app is created, clicking the "Preview in App Market" takes me to a page where it says "Not Found" for the app. How can I do this same process in production?

Also second question that is related. I am trying to install this app without having to "Publish" as I was hoping for it to be private to only my merchants. I assume the way to do this is not to go through the publish process and install via the "Preview" like i mentioned above. Is this correct?

Please help me get these roadblocks figured out.

Let me know if any more info is needed in order to help resolve

App Market Webhooks

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Answer 1 · 2020-01-04T13:23:42Z

David Marginian Deactivated answered Jan 4, '20 David Marginian Deactivated edited Jan 4, '20

Please search this community forum, the question of private apps has come up many times before - in short, they are not currently supported.

Your application uses Clover APIs to access merchant data. In order to protect our merchants they must explicitly choose to give your application access to their data and that is done when they install your application via the app market.

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Answer 2 · 2020-01-04T17:05:03Z

dwoods answered Jan 4, '20 David Marginian Deactivated commented Jan 4, '20

@David Marginian I don't think your security concern is completely valid for this scenario as I am still talking about installing an app. I would be fine if only the merchant owner could do this. However, I don't think that needing to have to go through all the effort of submitting an app just so that my one business can use it and no other is worth it. I don't think there is any security concern here as it is just that "private", the whole point would be that it would only be part of your merchant/business and if you are the owner why would there be any security concern? I would think that clover would be open to helping its customers with features like this. I think that this is a big gap in functionality since there is so much info needed to submit an app.

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David Marginian ♦♦ commented · Jan 04, 2020 at 05:12 PM

We don't currently have a private app market. I do believe at some point it was being discussed but I am not sure if any progress has been made.

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Answer 3 · 2020-01-04T17:07:07Z

dwoods answered Jan 4, '20

Also if security is the concern, how is this any different than using an api token generated in your merchant account and pulling/pushing data? You don't have to go through any install process for this. I think web hooks should be no different.

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Answer 4 · 2020-01-10T02:13:58Z

cloveruser808 answered Jan 10, '20 hergy80 edited Jan 14, '20

I honestly think Clover hasn't figured out a way to monetize private apps, and that's their hold up.

I work for a restaurant. In order for me to add functionality to our Clover environment, that's entirely unique to us, I have to go through a huge process of becoming an approved developer, AND I have to make an app that's available to anyone. It's nonsensical.

The reasoning/logic that it's for security falls apart because the only affected merchant is the merchant that is trying to develop their own app, for their own purpose. Not to mention that even with an OAuth process, we're still granted an API token that can be lost or stolen or abused.

I'd be happier if Clover came out and said "We need to monetize private apps". At least then it would make sense.

There are many options for them to allow us to have private apps and for them to make money, too. Make developers with private apps pay a fee. Charge developers an API usage fee, like AWS. Force private apps to have a minimum dollar value to be installed. The list goes on.

I've been loving Clover. Some aspects of the API definitely can use improvement. And the documentation area can be incomplete in places. But still. I can see my data and pull it to my own database. That's great.

But this hate toward private apps is useless. My restaurant doesn't make millions a month, but we aren't small either. We generate minimum $20K a day. To be told that we can't make a private app unique to us is maddening.

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hergy80 commented · Jan 14, 2020 at 04:49 PM

It should be something they provide. They make money by having these merchants locked into their payment system. Clover is owned by First Data, or whatever they just merged to. So by offering in house options, they are generating revenue from the transaction fees. Unfortunately I've been waiting for 4 months for my in house app to be approved now and it seems like clover can't get their crap together. Every time I email to follow up, I get a list of new forms to fill out. Why weren't these included to begin with? Then I get ghosted until I follow up again, and the cycle repeats. I've been in talks now with Square who appears to have a developer api solution that will work for us, with less expensive hardware. So because clover is so unresponsive to their developers, their parent co will soon lose money from the payment processing.

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Answer 5 · 2020-01-14T02:03:17Z

Bryanne Vega answered Jan 14, '20 parquet76 edited Dec 12, '23

Don't know what's the fuzz about, but you *can* use a private app without publishing on the app market.

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cloveruser808 commented · Jan 14, 2020 at 02:05 AM

Hi Bryanne. Could you elaborate on how? Thanks

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orangerocketdesign commented · Dec 12, 2023 at 12:48 AM

And how would one go about doing so, Bryanne? Any details would be helpful for those of us not receiving the direction we need from Clover to do so.

Thank you!

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parquet76 orangerocketdesign commented · Dec 12, 2023 at 12:51 AM

It has to be approved and it is a process - https://docs.clover.com/docs/private-apps. I don't think it is something that can get done in less than a month, and that is probably even pushing it. Per your other posts, you want to use webhooks. What is your use case, is it possible to achieve what you need without webhooks?

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