Ping Action is unreliable

Questions
1

I use the Ping Action to check if the terminal is online, but I have found it to be unreliable. It almost always happens after restarting the terminal or when the network reconnects.

1, After restarting the terminal, even when the terminal is already displaying the ‘powered by square’ waiting screen, the Ping Action still returns a pending status, making it unable to confirm a normal connection to the terminal. Interestingly, I can create a checkout, and the terminal will display a waiting for payment message. ping action also change to complated after checkout created.

2, The deadline_duration is ineffective. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in Japan, but even if I set the deadline_duration to 3 minutes, it still gives me a notification after the default 5 minutes.
Please check the following log, the terminal is already displaying the ‘powered by square’ waiting screen, but the Ping Action is still being canceled due to a timeout.

terminal.action.created

{
    "merchant_id": "MLH97HP6BN08G",
    "type": "terminal.action.created",
    "event_id": "47cca21d-a33c-3417-b69c-3a80a30a7084",
    "created_at": "2024-03-04T07:41:42.895Z",
    "data": {
        "type": "action",
        "id": "termapia:0rtbENEfwdaiAiCE",
        "object": {
            "action": {
                "app_id": "sq0idp-r8ehAgS7GAw1bS1k65I5xQ",
                "created_at": "2024-03-04T07:41:42.895Z",
                "deadline_duration": "PT3M",
                "device_id": "307CS145B3001491",
                "id": "termapia:0rtbENEfwdaiAiCE",
                "status": "PENDING",
                "type": "PING",
                "updated_at": "2024-03-04T07:41:42.895Z"
            }
        }
    }
}

ping action CANCELED after 5min.

{
    "merchant_id": "MLH97HP6BN08G",
    "type": "terminal.action.updated",
    "event_id": "4bff0838-c228-3b17-b1c4-81be42bdbb14",
    "created_at": "2024-03-04T07:46:58.746Z",
    "data": {
        "type": "action",
        "id": "termapia:0rtbENEfwdaiAiCE",
        "object": {
            "action": {
                "app_id": "sq0idp-r8ehAgS7GAw1bS1k65I5xQ",
                "cancel_reason": "TIMED_OUT",
                "created_at": "2024-03-04T07:41:42.895Z",
                "deadline_duration": "PT3M",
                "device_id": "307CS145B3001491",
                "id": "termapia:0rtbENEfwdaiAiCE",
                "status": "CANCELED",
                "type": "PING",
                "updated_at": "2024-03-04T07:46:58.746Z"
            }
        }
    }
}

I want to make sure the terminal is online before I create checkout, so I can be friendly and prompt you when I know the terminal isn’t connecting. Thank you !

2

:wave: I’m Square Dev AI, here to help answer your question!
Based on the information you’ve provided, the following documentation will help answer your question:

Additional Documentation

Delayed Capture of a Card Payment
Payment APIs and SDKs
Test in the Sandbox

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3

Sorry for the delay. The team is looking into this. :slightly_smiling_face: