Signing deep links

A signed deep link is a URL that hands a specific customer to Topiic’s hosted checkout. Topiic verifies the signature, creates a checkout session, and serves the page.

https://portal.topiic.com.au/c?d=<base64url(payload)>&s=<base64url(HMAC-SHA256(secret, d))>

Payload schema

The payload is a JSON object. Field names are short to keep the URL compact; don’t rename them.

Field	Type	Required	Notes
akid	UUID string	✓	Your API key id. Find it in Settings → API keys (column “Id”).
mid	UUID string	✓	Your merchant id. Must match the API key’s merchant.
plan	UUID string	✓	Plan id the user will be enrolled in. Must be active and belong to mid.
ref	string	✓	Your internal id for this customer. Echoed in webhook payloads as externalRef. ≤200 chars.
contact	object		Prefill for the contact step. All children optional.
contact.fn	string		First name.
contact.ln	string		Last name.
contact.em	string		Email.
contact.ph	string		Phone.
ret	URL string	✓	Where the user is redirected after success/cancel. ?status=ok or ?status=cancelled is appended.
evts	string[]	✓	Webhook event types to deliver for this session. Typically ["checkout.completed", "checkout.failed"].
nonce	string	✓	Single-use random token (≥16 bytes, hex or base64url). DB-unique. Replay protection.
exp	int	✓	Unix seconds expiry. Recommended: ≤30 minutes from now. Topiic rejects links past exp with 410 Gone.
pur	int		Purpose of the checkout. 0 (or omitted) = enrol a new member in plan — the default flow. 1 = update payment method for an existing member (see below).
mem	UUID string		Required when pur is 1: the existing member whose default payment method you’re replacing. Must belong to mid. Ignored when pur is 0.

Example payload

{
  "akid": "9b5d4d80-0e1a-4b3a-9a4f-2b1c6c8a9d0e",
  "mid":  "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "plan": "b6a8a5b8-7b3c-4d1e-9c2a-1f9e8d7c6b5a",
  "ref":  "cust_42",
  "contact": { "fn": "Jane", "ln": "Smith", "em": "jane@example.com", "ph": "+61 400 000 000" },
  "ret":  "https://your-app.example.com/subscribed?customer=42",
  "evts": ["checkout.completed", "checkout.failed"],
  "nonce": "7c2d4f8a1b3e9c6d5a8f2b7e4c1d9a3b",
  "exp":  1769472000
}

Updating a payment method

The same signed-link mechanism can send an existing member back through the hosted card-capture form to replace their default payment method — no new subscription is created. Set pur to 1 and put the member’s Topiic id in mem; plan is ignored for this purpose.

{
  "akid": "9b5d4d80-0e1a-4b3a-9a4f-2b1c6c8a9d0e",
  "mid":  "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "plan": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "ref":  "cust_42",
  "pur":  1,
  "mem":  "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-7a8b-9c0d-1e2f3a4b5c6d",
  "ret":  "https://your-app.example.com/card-updated?customer=42",
  "evts": ["payment_method.updated"],
  "nonce": "b1946ac92492d2347c6235b4d2611184",
  "exp":  1769472000
}

On completion Topiic fires payment_method.updated (to the originating API key) rather than checkout.completed. Resolve-time validation is the same as the enrol flow, with two differences: a missing/empty mem is rejected as 401, and a mem that doesn’t exist for mid is rejected as 404.

Algorithm

1. Serialise the payload to compact JSON (no whitespace). Field order doesn’t matter — Topiic deserialises by name.
2. Base64url-encode the JSON bytes — the standard “URL-safe alphabet” base64 (- and _ instead of + and /) with trailing = padding stripped. Call this d.
3. HMAC-SHA256 the ASCII bytes of d using the plaintext signing secret (tss_…) as the key. Base64url-encode the 32-byte digest. Call this s.
4. Build the URL: https://portal.topiic.com.au/c?d=<d>&s=<s>.

Caution

Sign the base64url-encoded d, not the raw JSON. Some HMAC libraries default to hex output — use the raw bytes, then base64url-encode them yourself.

Reference implementations

Node.js

import crypto from 'node:crypto';

function b64url(bytes) {
  return Buffer.from(bytes).toString('base64')
    .replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_').replace(/=+$/, '');
}

export function buildDeepLink(payload, signingSecret, base = 'https://portal.topiic.com.au') {
  const d = b64url(JSON.stringify(payload));
  const sig = crypto.createHmac('sha256', signingSecret).update(d).digest();
  const s = b64url(sig);
  return `${base}/c?d=${d}&s=${s}`;
}

Python

import base64, hmac, hashlib, json

def b64url(b: bytes) -> str:
  return base64.urlsafe_b64encode(b).decode().rstrip('=')

def build_deep_link(payload: dict, signing_secret: str, base: str = 'https://portal.topiic.com.au') -> str:
  d = b64url(json.dumps(payload, separators=(',', ':')).encode())
  sig = hmac.new(signing_secret.encode(), d.encode(), hashlib.sha256).digest()
  s = b64url(sig)
  return f'{base}/c?d={d}&s={s}'

PHP

<?php
function b64url(string $bytes): string {
  return rtrim(strtr(base64_encode($bytes), '+/', '-_'), '=');
}

function build_deep_link(array $payload, string $signingSecret, string $base = 'https://portal.topiic.com.au'): string {
  $d = b64url(json_encode($payload, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES));
  $sig = hash_hmac('sha256', $d, $signingSecret, true);
  $s = b64url($sig);
  return "{$base}/c?d={$d}&s={$s}";
}

Go

package topiic

import (
  "crypto/hmac"
  "crypto/sha256"
  "encoding/base64"
  "encoding/json"
  "fmt"
)

func b64url(b []byte) string {
  return base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(b)
}

func BuildDeepLink(payload any, signingSecret, base string) (string, error) {
  j, err := json.Marshal(payload)
  if err != nil {
    return "", err
  }
  d := b64url(j)
  mac := hmac.New(sha256.New, []byte(signingSecret))
  mac.Write([]byte(d))
  s := b64url(mac.Sum(nil))
  return fmt.Sprintf("%s/c?d=%s&s=%s", base, d, s), nil
}

Error responses from resolve

HTTP status	Meaning	What to do
200	Link resolved; session JWT issued.	(Topiic handles this — your server isn’t called.)
400	Missing d or s.	Bug in your URL builder.
401	Invalid signature, or mid doesn’t match akid.	Re-check that you signed the exact bytes of d with the right secret.
404	API key not found, revoked, or the referenced plan doesn’t exist.	Check the API key is still active in the portal; confirm plan is a valid id.
409	Nonce already used.	Generate a fresh nonce per link.
410	Link expired (exp in the past).	Reissue with a future exp.

The user sees a friendly Topiic-branded error page; your server is not notified.

Operational tips

• Generate links on-demand, not in advance. If you pre-generate hundreds with the same exp, they all expire at the same time.
• Pin exp to 15–30 minutes. Long-lived links increase the window an attacker has to grind nonces.
• Don’t put PII in the nonce. It’s random opaque bytes, not a customer id.
• Log the ref alongside the link so support can trace “Jane clicked subscribe at 10:14 — did the link resolve?” against Topiic’s session history.
• Rotate the signing secret by minting a new API key, dual-running both for a grace period, then revoking the old one. There’s no in-place rotation.

Verifying the signature locally (for tests)

Useful in CI:

const expected = b64url(crypto.createHmac('sha256', secret).update(d).digest());
assert.strictEqual(expected, s, 'signature mismatch');

Constant-time comparison is required server-side (where attacker timing matters). For your own test fixtures, plain === is fine.