Character Set
The GMCIF file should be constructed and delivered to the Elavon processing systems using the ASCII character set (and only CAPITAL LETTERS have to be used in alphanumeric fields).
File Structure
The GMCIF has been designed to be as flexible as possible; therefore there are many different ways of constructing the file for processing. The following table shows a typical GMCIF record structure sequence.
|
Record Name |
Abbreviation |
Comments |
|---|---|---|
|
File Header Record |
FHR |
One per file. |
|
Settlement Batch Record |
SBR |
|
|
Transaction Currency Header Record |
THR |
|
|
Transaction Detail Record |
TDR |
One per transaction. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
TAR |
One per TDR |
|
Second Auxiliary Record |
SAR |
One per TDR |
|
Airline Auxiliary Record |
AAR |
One per TDR where required. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
CRR |
One per TDR where required – Diners text fields and/or Diners Airline Invoice Number. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
HAR |
One per TDR where required – additional hotel data. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
EXD |
Max. 9999 per TDR where required. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
PAR |
One per TDR where required. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
PIR |
One, max ten per PAR where PAR is present. |
|
Auxiliary Record |
APM |
One per TDR where required. |
|
Transaction Currency Trailer Record |
TTR |
One per Transaction Currency Header Record (THR). |
|
File Trailer Record |
FTR |
One per file. |
At the end of the document there is a diagram of a typical file structure.
File Record Length
The GMCIF file supports a fixed record length of 450 bytes per record, terminated by the standard ASCII end of line and carriage return characters (hexadecimal characters codes 0D 0A).
Optional or Conditional Fields must be padded with spaces (if alphanumeric) or zeros (if numeric) where not populated (unless otherwise stated).
Since the file format is expected in ASCII characters, every line/record of the file has to be delimited from the other by the ASCII characters “Carriage return” (CR) and “Line feed” (LF). Hexadecimal representation is 0D0A.
Amount and Value Fields
It should be noted that the GMCIF format when processed by Elavon will set all amount and value fields contained in the file to 2 decimal places (unless otherwise stated), therefore any currencies that support more than 2 decimal places should be rounded.
Note: All the amount values should be presented as absolute values, without “+” or “-“signs.
Examples:
- USD $1,170.45 should be represented as 117045
- GBP 27 should be represented as 2700
- JPY 1000 should be represented as 100000
File Format and Status Descriptions
Contained within each record there is a format and status indicator for each field, this indicates the validation criteria for the file as well as the format of each field, it is important that the status for each field is used as validation is carried out on these fields and will therefore reduce the chance of file rejections. The following key displays the format of the status and format fields.
|
Format |
Description |
Comments |
|---|---|---|
|
N |
Numeric Field |
Right Justified, Leading Zeros. |
|
A |
Alphanumeric Field |
Left Justified, Trailing Spaces. |
|
M |
Mandatory Field |
Must be populated, validated by Elavon. |
|
O |
Optional Field |
Optional field, not validated by Elavon. |
|
C |
Conditional Field |
Must be populated by some merchants/processors. |
|
Cx |
Conditional Field |
Must be populated in conjunction with other conditional fields. |
Key for Record Tables
|
Column Heading |
Description |
|---|---|
|
L |
Length |
|
F |
Format (Numeric / Alphanumeric) |
|
S |
Status (Mandatory / Optional / Conditional) |