Creating webhook-notifications in testing environment

Question

I'm currently trying to create a test webhook-notification as it's shown in the documentation:

HashMap<String, String> sampleNotification = gateway.webhookTesting().sampleNotification(
    WebhookNotification.Kind.SUBSCRIPTION_WENT_PAST_DUE, "my_id"
);

WebhookNotification webhookNotification = gateway.webhookNotification().parse(
    sampleNotification.get("bt_signature"),
    sampleNotification.get("bt_payload")
);

webhookNotification.getSubscription().getId();
// "my_id"

First off I don't know what my_id actually should be. Is it supposed to be a plan ID? Or should it be a Subscription ID?

I've tested all of it. I've set it to an existing billing plan in my vault and I also tried to create a Customer down to an actual Subscription like this:

public class WebhookChargedSuccessfullyLocal {

    private final static BraintreeGateway BT;

    static {
        String btConfig = "C:\\workspaces\\mz\\mz-server\\mz-web-server\\src\\main\\assembly\\dev\\braintree.properties";
        Braintree.initialize(btConfig);
        BT = Braintree.instance();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        WebhookChargedSuccessfullyLocal webhookChargedSuccessfullyLocal = new WebhookChargedSuccessfullyLocal();
        webhookChargedSuccessfullyLocal.post();
    }

    /**
     * 
     */
    public void post() {

        CustomerRequest customerRequest = new CustomerRequest()
                .firstName("Testuser")
                .lastName("Tester");

        Result<Customer> createUserResult = BT.customer().create(customerRequest);

        if(createUserResult.isSuccess() == false) {
            System.err.println("Could not create customer");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        Customer customer = createUserResult.getTarget();

        PaymentMethodRequest paymentMethodRequest = new PaymentMethodRequest()
                .customerId(customer.getId())
                .paymentMethodNonce("fake-valid-visa-nonce");

        Result<? extends PaymentMethod> createPaymentMethodResult = BT.paymentMethod().create(paymentMethodRequest);

        if(createPaymentMethodResult.isSuccess() == false) {
            System.err.println("Could not create payment method");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        if(!(createPaymentMethodResult.getTarget() instanceof CreditCard)) {
            System.err.println("Unexpected error. Result is not a credit card.");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        CreditCard creditCard = (CreditCard) createPaymentMethodResult.getTarget();

        SubscriptionRequest subscriptionRequest = new SubscriptionRequest()
                .paymentMethodToken(creditCard.getToken())
                .planId("mmb2");

        Result<Subscription> createSubscriptionResult = BT.subscription().create(subscriptionRequest);

        if(createSubscriptionResult.isSuccess() == false) {
            System.err.println("Could not create subscription");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        Subscription subscription = createSubscriptionResult.getTarget();

        HashMap<String, String> sampleNotification = BT.webhookTesting()
                .sampleNotification(WebhookNotification.Kind.SUBSCRIPTION_CHARGED_SUCCESSFULLY, subscription.getId());

        WebhookNotification webhookNotification = BT.webhookNotification()
                .parse(
                        sampleNotification.get("bt_signature"),
                        sampleNotification.get("bt_payload")
                        );

        System.out.println(webhookNotification.getSubscription().getId());

    }

}

but all I'm getting is a WebhookNotification instance that has nothing set. Only its ID and the timestamp appears to be set but that's it.

What I expected:

I expected to receive a Subscription object that tells me which customer has subscribed to it as well as e.g. all add-ons which are included in the billing plan.

Is there a way to get such test-notifications in the sandbox mode?

Answer 1

_{Full disclosure: I work at Braintree. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact support.}

webhookNotification.getSubscription().getId(); will return the ID of the subscription associated with sampleNotification, which can be anything for testing purposes, but will be a SubscriptionID in a production environment.

Receiving a dummy object from webhookTesting().sampleNotification() is the expected behavior, and is in place to help you ensure that all kinds of webhooks can be correctly caught. Once that logic is in place, in the Sandbox Gateway under Settings > Webhooks you can specify your endpoint to receive real webhook notifications.

In the case of SUBSCRIPTION_CHARGED_SUCCESSFULLY you will indeed receive a Subscription object containing add-on information as well as an array of Transaction objects containing customer information.