Introduction

The Secure Electronic Transaction Draft Reference Implementation (SETREF) is a reference implementation of the SET protocol. The services SETREF provides include the following:

ASN.1/DER encoding and decoding
X.509v3 certificate processing
PKCS-7 message processing
SET-specific protocol processing

These services, which are available to the application programmer, are generically referred to as the "SET protocol layer." The services that programmers must add to build a fully-formed SET application are generically referred to as the "application layer," although sometimes the terms "user layer," "payment layer," or "registration layer" are used. The application programmer is often referred to as the "user."

This Implementor's Guide describes each of the protocol-layer services, as well as other aspects of SETREF. For an introductory overview, please see the Theory of Operation. For API details, please see the API Reference Guide.