Choosing an API to print and mail checks from can sometimes be very confusing. There are essentially two categories: the online option and the software-based solution. The former is obviously more widely utilized. For example, financial institutions have their own servers that accept requests from banks, credit card companies, online sellers, and others to send verification information about the account or products being requested.
Printing and Mailing API Checks
Once the requests are received, the system would return back the response, usually in a matter of minutes. For printing and mailing API checks, the client-server would connect via the internet to the printing and mailing API software. Once connected, the client-server software would give instructions on how to generate the checks using the request ID that has been provided by the client. This usually happens through the use of the internet interface that is built into the API software. Of course, the printing and mailing services would also work through the use of the internet interface.
The benefits of using an API to print checks are pretty obvious. Printing and mailing API checks are much faster and easier than the manual process. There is no need to run any printing or mailing servers physically. And with the help of online check printing services, clients can also get more checks done at once without any additional costs.
The biggest problem with using an API to create and send checks is the use of blank template variables. Since the printing and mailing services will use the information provided by the client in building the request for the check, the blank variables will automatically be filled in. This means that any information that the client provides such as a social security number or date of birth will automatically be used by the printing software to generate the checks.
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent this type of mishap from happening. You can specify the ‘api-data-url’ when you set up your API to ensure that your clients can have access to the information they’re requesting. For example, you can set up your printing services so that a request comes in containing the URL for your Instagram page. If the Instagram URL is already included in the ‘xxxx’ part of the URL, the printing services will be redirected to the Instagram page.
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way to prevent this from happening. In fact, even if you don’t supply a URL for your Instagram page, you can still use the Instagram print preview to provide a preview of the printed checks. You can do this by creating an extension for your API that extends layout block content. For example, you can create a layout block and then add your own shortcode that extends layout. By setting the Instagram style sheet to match your extension, you can provide a preview of your image urls and the like without printing out the image URLs. However, if you do supply the URL in the shortcode, you’ll be redirected to the Instagram page, which means that your clients could potentially open a link to an incorrect page.
Conclusion
If you’d like to help your clients avoid this problem, it’s a good idea to provide them with an image list. When they create a printing request, they’ll provide their URL. You should include a format string that defines which image formats the client can use, such as JPEG or GIF. If you don’t supply a format string, the printing service will ask you what you want it to be used for. In many cases, you’ll be able to specify the format used, which ensures that the printed checks match the image URLs that were supplied.
In addition to checking printing lists for format settings, you can also check for images that are not published on Instagram. In order to do this, you can set the URL parameters of the API request to include a non-published parameter, which will cause the request to fail if any image is non-publishable. The most common problem with this method is that the printed checks often come out slightly different than they would be displayed on the website, but the difference is so slight that it’s rarely worth the effort of making the change. API to print and ship checks are easy to implement and can help your business, even if only slightly, stay competitive in a highly competitive market.
