I've been working on a project for over 2 years and I am finally ready to launch, but first I have to integrate a subscription based payment option so I can actually make some money off of this thing. I've been trying to integrate paypal subscriptions for like 2 months now and it's a major hold up. Also, this is causing me to go bald. Please help!
I think it would be really helpful to have a kind of overview explanation describing the definate process that I need to follow in order to accept subscription based payments. The level of detail would include where each of the steps should occure; frontend or backend (server), and any intermediate steps necessary to understand what data is flowing where. Second to that, the actual code for the smart button with some comments indicating what part of the process the code is addressing. Maybe that's a lot to ask, but it would be greatly appreciated and I believe a great resource for others looking to do the same as I am currently.
At the moment, my primary issue is that when I set the URL pointing to the paypal SDK in my script take to include &intent=authorize, I am told in the error message that I need to set intent=capture, but when I set intent=capture I'm told I need to set intent=authorize. So now I'm confused as to what I am supposed to do; authorize the transaction or capture the transaction. I've been provided links to 2 different guides on the paypal developer website from paypal technical support which seem to contradict each other - the first link said nothing about capture or authorizing payments, the 2nd link does. But I don't understand the context on the second link. The first link is all client side, the second link is on client side and server side. Why would these intent=ca[ture/authorize be needed? I thought that once someone agrees to and completes signing up for a subscription, and I've captured their subscription id, that I don't need to do anything else in order to receive funds on the monthly basis setup in my plan, I would only have to query the paypal APIs to find out if they've paid up upon the customer signing in to my service.
I have setup a sandbox account and I've created a product and a plan. I've got the smart button rendering with my plan ID after the customer logs in.
If I set intent=capture in the paypal SDK script URL, the paypal window opens, you select payment and agree, and then I get this error in my console:
env: "sandbox"
err: "Error: Use intent=authorize to use client-side authorize"
referer: "localhost:88"
timestamp: "1589939180937"
uid: "fad5852fa3_mde6ndq6mdu"
But if I set intent=authorize, I click the smart button, the paypal window shows up and disappears quickly and then I get this error:
buttonSessionID: "e3bf3c6c3d_mdi6mdi6mzq"
env: "sandbox"
err: "Uncaught Error: Expected intent from order api call to be authorize, got capture. Please ensure you are passing intent=capture to the sdk url"
referer: "www.sandbox.paypal.com"
sessionID: "fad5852fa3_mde6ndq6mdu"
timestamp: "1589940160835"
Here is my code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<!-- Add meta tags for mobile and IE -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
</head>
<body>
<!-- Set up a container element for the button -->
<div id="paypal-button-container"></div>
<!-- Include the PayPal JavaScript SDK -->
<script
src="https://www.paypal.com/sdk/js?client-id=CLIENT-ID-HERE¤cy=USD&vault=true&intent=capture"></script>
<script>
let planid = 'P-48A5110983270751ML2P5NVI';
// Render the PayPal button into #paypal-button-container
paypal.Buttons({
// Set up the transaction
createSubscription: function (data, actions) {
// Create Subscription
return actions.subscription.create({ "plan_id": planid });
},
onApprove: function (data, actions) {
// Authorize the transaction
actions.order.authorize().then(function (authorization) {
// Get the authorization id
var authorizationID = authorization.purchase_units[0]
.payments.authorizations[0].id
// Call your server to validate and capture the transaction
return fetch('/api/company/paypal-transaction-complete', {
method: 'post',
headers: {
'content-type': 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify({
orderID: data.orderID,
authorizationID: authorizationID,
data: data,
authorization: authorization
})
});
});
}
// Finalize the transaction? Which one do I want, to authorize or to finalize??
// onApprove: function (data, actions) {
// let result = actions.subscription.get();
// return actions.order.capture().then(function(details) {
// // Do I need to send something to my server here?
// // Show a success message to the buyer
// alert('Transaction completed by ' + details.payer.name.given_name + '!');
// });
// }
}).render('#paypal-button-container');
</script>
</body>
Thanks in advance for your help. This has been a most frustrating project.
Why are you using intent=authorize / intent=capture in the URL with subscriptions?
Why are you using actions.order.authorize() with subscriptions?
Who told you to do either of these things with subscriptions?
Please see the Subscriptions Integration guide, which does not include any mention of those things.