Getting Started
The checkout is an essential part of the ecommerce flow. Use the Bold Checkout APIs to customize your store's checkout experience to include everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Use this guide to get started using the Bold Checkout APIs.
Install Bold Checkout
To call the Checkout APIs, you must have the Bold Commerce app installed on your store. The installation process varies slightly based on your store's platform. Refer to the following articles in the Help Center for more information and instructions.
Bold Checkout is called Bold Cashier on Shopify. Bold Cashier is only available to merchants who installed the app prior to January 20, 2020. New enterprise customers can submit a request to Shopify to use Bold Cashier. Please reach out to our Partners Team for more information.
Submit a support request
You may need to manually provide some information to Bold via a support request. Refer to the following sections for more information.
Development store status
Bold Checkout uses Spreedly to provide a test payment gateway. For most other gateways, including those in development mode, Bold Checkout requires that you provide a credit card to collect transaction fees.
If your store will be used exclusively for development, submit a support request to request that the credit card requirement is waived for your store.
(Shopify only) Shopify development store information
If you create a password-protected development store on Shopify, you must also include the storefront password in your support request. Production stores do not require this step.
Create an API access token
An API access token gives you access to the Bold APIs. The process to generate this token depends on the type of integration you build:
- For private integrations, which are installed on a single store and are not available in the Integrations Marketplace, create your API access token through the Bold Account Center. Complete the steps in the Quick Start guide to generate this token and make your first API calls.
- For public integrations, which can be made available in the Integrations Marketplace, create your API access token through an OAuth 2.0 flow. Complete the steps in the Building Public Integrations guide to generate this token and make your first API calls.
When prompted to specify the scopes of your API access token, select the following scopes:
| Category | Scope | Permissions |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Customers | Read & Write |
| Core | Orders | Read & Write |
| Core | Shop Settings | Read & Write |
| Core | Shops | Read |
| Checkout | Payments | Write |
Find the shop identifier
Find the shop_identifier for your store by calling the Get Info endpoint. This identifies your store to the API and is required for all Checkout endpoints, so it may be wise to store it somewhere easily accessible.
The following example shows retrieving the shop_identifier using the API access token you previously created:
curl --request GET 'https://api.boldcommerce.com/shops/v1/info' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_access_token}' \
--header 'Bold-API-Version-Date: 2022-05-01'
A successful API call returns a JSON object with information about your shop. The shop_identifier value is required for the following step.
Add all domains to CORS allowlist
The Bold Checkout APIs are protected by a restrictive Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policy, which blocks frontend JavaScript code from calling the APIs.
You must register each development or production store that will be calling the Bold Checkout APIs to the CORS allowlist. Add each domain using the Add Domain to CORS Allowlist endpoint.
Use this endpoint if you are self-hosting your checkout or using a custom domain for your checkout page. This endpoint is also required to enable self-hosted development stores to call the Bold Checkout APIs. Failing to do so causes in errors from your browser or a failure of your browser to load the checkout frontend.
Next steps
Create a Custom Checkout Flow has instructions for creating your first custom flow.
Payments are processed through a Payment Isolation Gateway Interface (PIGI) iframe. Refer to the Payment Interface page for information on setting up the PIGI.