hidden form fields or server side code

[Larry Kleinman <larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We are using Net.Data to develop an e-commerce website and have hit the
following problem:

The "buy" button on the shopping cart page links to a secure site (HTTPS)
provided by our bank that asks for credit card info, then charges the
customer and credits our account.  The bank software requires that we pass
it our log on info (user and password provided by them) and their manual
shows examples of putting this into a hidden form field in HTML and then
POSTing it to the bank's site.  The problem is that this info is visible to
anyone who displays the source of the shopping cart page in their browser.
The bank's manual says:

   "Although our simple examples in the document show this as a method for
   passing data to Virtual Merchant, we do not recommend this for your
   production Website. All sensitive merchant data, including transaction
   amount and your Virtual Merchant credentials, should be placed in server
   side code, rather than of just hidden value fields on an HTML form"

How do I do that?

Larry Kleinman
Kleinman Associates, Inc.
212-949-6469
203-255-4100