Introduction

Status Inquiry is the mechanism used by the SIBS Payment Gateway (SPG) to allow the merchant system to retrieve the current state of a transaction on demand.

It enables a pull-based communication model, allowing the merchant to query SPG at any time and obtain a consistent and up-to-date view of the transaction lifecycle.

This capability is essential in scenarios where transaction outcomes are not immediately available or where asynchronous processing is involved, such as user interaction flows or external authorization steps.

Status Inquiry complements the webhook mechanism by providing a deterministic and synchronous way to validate transaction state, independently of notification timing or delivery guarantees.

Purpose

The purpose of Status Inquiry is to:

• Provide an authoritative view of the current transaction state
• Enable explicit validation of transaction outcomes
• Support monitoring of transactions in non-final states
• Act as a fallback mechanism in case of missing or delayed webhook notifications
• Ensure consistency in asynchronous and distributed transaction flows

Status Inquiry must be considered the source of truth for transaction state.

Webhook notifications, while essential for real-time updates, should not be used as the sole basis for business-critical decisions. Final transaction outcomes must always be confirmed using the Status Inquiry mechanism.

Scope of This Section

This section introduces the Status Inquiry mechanism and defines a structured approach to understanding and implementing it within an SPG integration.

The detailed documentation is organized to progressively cover:

• The role of Status Inquiry within the transaction lifecycle
• The technical interface and request model
• The structure and interpretation of response data
• The semantics of transaction states and their operational meaning
• The interaction between synchronous queries and asynchronous webhook events
• The recommended strategies for polling, reconciliation, and consistency handling
• The handling of errors, edge cases, and failure scenarios
• A complete end-to-end example illustrating the full integration flow

This structure ensures a clear separation between conceptual understanding and implementation details, enabling integrators to build robust, reliable, and production-ready transaction state management logic.