How much data can we put in description field of OrderType when sending data to authorize.net?

[sanjaygir]

hello community,

I am using java sdk for integration since our app is a java app.

In the api there is setOrder method inside 

TransactionRequestType

It accepts OrderType which has two fields 

public class OrderType {
    protected String invoiceNumber;
    protected String description;

 We can use this method to set the description. 

I think information sent will show up in Order Information section of Transaction Detail when we click on the transaction id in the merchant interface. 

I was wondering how much data can be set to description. Recently we had a crash where we lost participant information. So i am thinking of using this field description for all participant information of an invoice. This will include fields such as firstname, lastname, gender, address, email, phone etc of each participant in that invoice.  So if the invoice has 5 participant then there will be values for these fields for each participant. Will that be lot of data to set for description field? is this possible?

I appreciate any guidance. 

Thanks!

[thaymore · Accepted solution]

Based on the API info here: https://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/index.html#payment-transactions-charge-a-credit-card, it can hold up to 255 characters. 

[janitaabney]

Thank you, I'm working on it. I'll let you know

[clearlysurfing]

Thank you I am also having the same problem

[sanjaygir]

thank you. yea, it seems large data cannot be sent to be stored in authorize.net side. ill need to store it in the application side.