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less than a minute read • Updated 12 days ago

Set up gift cards for purchase via the API

How to build custom gift card purchasing beyond the default form — setting up codes, balances, and provisioning rules through the API for more control over the buying experience.

You can enable a gift card for customer purchase and set up its recipient notification email entirely through the API, as an alternative to the admin UI.

Enable the gift card for purchase

When creating a gift card via the API, include a provisioning_config object to allow customers to purchase it:

{
  "name": "Widgets Gift Card",
  "provisioning_config": {
    "allow_autoprovisioning": true,
    "initial_balance_max": 100,
    "initial_balance_min": 10
  },
  "sku": "widgets"
}

  • allow_autoprovisioning — set to false to disallow new gift cards from being purchased by customers

  • initial_balance_min / initial_balance_max — set the minimum and maximum balance a customer can put on the gift card when purchasing

Set up the recipient notification email

  1. 1

    Create a new email template by posting to the email_templates resource, including at minimum a description and subject:

    {
  "description": "Gift Card Template",
  "subject": "You have a gift!"
}

    The API returns the new template’s URL, for example https://.../email_templates/87992.

  2. 2

    Associate the template with the category customers will use when purchasing the gift card. Send a PATCH request to the item_categories resource for that category, setting gift_recipient_email_template_uri to the template’s URL:

    {
  "gift_recipient_email_template_uri": "https://api.foxycart.com/email_templates/{{your_new_email_template_id}}"
}

Notes

  • This covers the API path only. For the equivalent steps in the admin UI, see Allow customers to purchase gift cards on your store.

  • You’ll still need to build a storefront add-to-cart form for customers to purchase the gift card — see the same article for the required fields.

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