# Gift Cards

## Vauchar API: Gift Cards

*A guide to creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting gift card resources with the Vauchar REST API.*

The Vauchar API provides a complete, RESTful interface for integrating gift card functionality into your application. This document focuses specifically on managing **Gift Card** resources.

A Gift Card is the core object representing a stored-value card that can be redeemed over time. You can create new gift cards, update their details, and manage their entire lifecycle programmatically.

#### Quickstart Info

* **Architecture:** RESTful
* **Response Format:** JSON
* **Authentication:** HTTP Basic Auth
* **Base URL:** `https://api.vauchar.com`

#### Authentication

All requests must be authenticated using **HTTP Basic Authentication**. The API expects an `Authorization` header containing a Base64 encoded string of your `<Your_Merchant_Id>:<Your_Api_Key>`.

#### The Gift Card Object

When you retrieve gift card information, you will receive a Gift Card object with the following attributes:

| Attribute        | Type    | Description                                                                              |
| ---------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `id`             | string  | The unique identifier for the gift card.                                                 |
| `gift_card_code` | string  | The code of the gift card used for redemption.                                           |
| `active_status`  | string  | The status of the gift card (e.g., "1" for active).                                      |
| `total_value`    | string  | The initial value of the gift card.                                                      |
| `balance`        | string  | The remaining balance on the gift card.                                                  |
| `currency`       | string  | The currency of the gift card's value (e.g., "USD").                                     |
| `start_time`     | integer | A Unix timestamp for when the gift card becomes valid.                                   |
| `expiry_time`    | integer | A Unix timestamp for when the gift card expires. `0` means no expiration.                |
| `created`        | integer | A Unix timestamp representing when the gift card was created.                            |
| `tag`            | string  | A tag for organizing or categorizing the gift card.                                      |
| `metadata`       | object  | A set of key-value pairs that you can attach to an object (e.g., sender/recipient info). |
| `href`           | string  | The direct URL to this specific gift card resource.                                      |


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