Once Clover reviews and approves your Partner Intake form, a support analyst sets up a Technical Discovery meeting to learn more about your business needs and the merchants you support. The support analyst is an engineer with expertise on the software development kits (SDKs) and other tools to develop an integrated application.

Discovery for semi-integrations

Semi-integrations are for developers who need to process card-based transactions while controlling all other aspects of the merchant experience using an external point of sale (POS). If your needs extend beyond a semi-integration and into more of Clover’s platform, discussion with the support analyst reveals the best way Clover can support your needs.
During the discovery meeting, you’ll discuss the:

1. Architecture and your planned application:

• Clover Remote Pay SDK to use—Windows, Android, iOS, or cloud
• Connection app to use; see Pay Display Apps
• Your application’s architecture and how it will interact with the SDK
• Clover architecture and how it impacts software design decisions
• Region-specific features and limitations of the SDKs
• Clover REST API, if your application will use it

2. Scope of your application and the remaining phases in the integration lifecycle.

Discovery for native integrations

Native integrations are for developers who want to use Clover hardware and develop their own POS software to run on the device. During the discovery meeting, you’ll discuss the:

1. Architecture and your planned application:

• Your application’s architecture and how it will interact with the Payment Connector SDK
• Clover architecture and how it impacts software design decisions
• Region-specific features and limitations of the SDK
• Clover REST API (if your application will use it)

2. Scope of your application and the remaining phases in the integration lifecycle.

Architectural considerations

Before you start any major development using a Clover SDK, you need to understand several technical details of the Clover platform. A Clover engineer explains these items to your engineering team and helps ensure only compliant code is written:

• Asynchronous design and impacts
• One-to-one relationship between a Clover device and the POS system, example: the POS should not attempt to connect to more than one Clover device
• Connecting to and disconnecting from a Clover device
• Partial authorizations
• Application reporting or reconciliation
• Remote app ID requirements