We've completed the implementation for Google Play Subscriptions v3 in our app and we are now testing with Alpha Builds on Play Store. Everything works perfectly, apart from the orderId, which is not returned as part of the Google Play API JSON response on the device. The token is returned as expected though. Is this happening because we are testing using Alpha Testing, or is it another issue? If so, shouldn't the orderId still be sent by the Google Play API as the token already is?
So apparently this is the expected behaviour when doing pre-release testing of Subscriptions with testing account licences, the Google Play API won't send out orderIds because no actual real life purchase is being made, so Google Wallet doesn't create any order. Which translates into no orderId being received by the app.
The official response from a Google Play Developer Support representative on the matter:
Currently, test subscriptions will not appear in your Google Wallet Merchant Center because they are not actually assigned valid order IDs. I'm sorry for the confusion.
To manage test subscriptions, you will instead need to use the Developer API to refund, defer, cancel, or revoke test subscriptions. To take any of these actions, you will simply need the app's package name, the subscription ID, and the purchase token.
and when asked what not actually assigned valid order IDs means,
As per your concern, since it's test purchase, there won't be any order ID. The order ID will however only exists when you move to production.