Paypal Subscription Setup - html

Question

I am trying to setup my three subscriptions using curl and im making sure the values are correct. Trying to do a request and get a response but my curl is not functioning corectly.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#plans_create
My intention:
3 Plans to choose from: Elite (149 PHP/MONTH), Premium (349 PHP/MONTH), Luxury (549 PHP/MONTH)
1 month is 30 days as paypal said
id like to set it to auto renew monthly until the customer chooses to cancel it.
only one will be active at a time, if a user chooses another of the three while one is running, they will automatically be stopped getting billed and will be charged with the new one chosen. (eg: currently elite149, the subscription and renewal will change to 549luxury once chosen).
curl -v -X POST https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Basic account_clientid:account_secretcode" \
-H "PayPal-Request-Id: EPL-25012019-001" \
-d '{
"product_id": "MWC-2019EPL",
"name": "My White Card Subscription Plans",
"description": "MyWhiteCard Membership Levels",
"status": "ACTIVE",
"billing_cycles": [
{
"frequency": {
"interval_unit": "MONTH",
"interval_count": 1
},
"tenure_type": "REGULAR",
"sequence": 1,
"total_cycles": 999,
"pricing_scheme": {
"fixed_price": {
"value": "149",
"currency_code": "PHP"
}
}
},
{
"frequency": {
"interval_unit": "MONTH",
"interval_count": 1
},
"tenure_type": "REGULAR",
"sequence": 2,
"total_cycles": 999,
"pricing_scheme": {
"fixed_price": {
"value": "349",
"currency_code": "PHP"
}
}
},
{
"frequency": {
"interval_unit": "MONTH",
"interval_count": 1
},
"tenure_type": "REGULAR",
"sequence": 3,
"total_cycles": 999,
"pricing_scheme": {
"fixed_price": {
"value": "549",
"currency_code": "PHP"
}
}
}
],
"payment_preferences": {
"auto_bill_outstanding": true,
"setup_fee": {
"value": "0",
"currency_code": "PHP"
},
"setup_fee_failure_action": "CONTINUE",
"payment_failure_threshold": 3
},
"taxes": {
"percentage": "10",
"inclusive": false
}
}'
I just took out my account's client_id:secret
Live credentials are being used
My questions and concerns:
In the access token, do I need to put the "access_token$production$" and then the code given?
Can I manually create the Paypal request id and the product id?
Will the billing cycles be all on the same command or do I have to trigger this three times?
Is the setup fee the charge if a customer subscribes? I first assumed that is the case and set it to 0.
My intention is to have the monthly subscription (30 Days) auto renew until the user unsubscribes. I set my example to 12 but will "total_cycles": NEVER be the correct input?
I am not sure how the tax part works, why am I the one that gets to modify it?
Additional Concerns:
The document does not show the live equivalent of the link https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans is it just simply https://api.live.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans?
I tried to add the above code using git bash and curl but as I run it it shows 1008{"error":"invalid_client","error_description":"Client credentials are missing"}
Do I try to run the curl code in Git bash and not change my directory? I just start git and run the curl here:
Any help will be appreciated. I just making sure everything is what needs to be because these three subscriptions will go to a live website. I have to be certain only one subscription runs at a time.
UPDATE: I tried making it to curl -v -X POST https://api.production.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans and this one is not functionning either.
UPDATE: Can anyone show an example of a working curl sample request?
UPDATE: at the -H "Authorization: Basic account_clientid:account_secretcode", just to be clear I took out my id code there since I cant just show it in public. An example that I placed there is
-H "Authorization: Basic JAKRc85nJy2eMLq3aIV:01PvLC934xMAwLHqU4JqA89as4N"
UPDATE I tried to run this curl in git after reading the answers so far and somehow I still get and error. I made sure that the api is in api.paypal.com and the client id and secret id is the live version.
curl -v -X POST https://api.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Basic AR7nnwwotKOt4YdcGHZc0P2RVsRT67_Gf2hyrKyDl3ZgCKsikeKbXdQ9Fj-_21v4RulkXsgAASe7_VKv:EKwsdDo1ehtOOOSZCGMu1C9903qr4cQOOZI2rgFYhvugh2SO1V04q9MWY9SXwa352zBt1mGglLuWgR4D" \
-H "PayPal-Request-Id: MWC-2501E-001" \
-d '{
"product_id": "ELITE-2501149",
"name": "Elite Membership",
"description": "Elite Membership Monthly Plan",
"status": "ACTIVE",
"billing_cycles": [
{
"frequency": {
"interval_unit": "MONTH",
"interval_count": 1
},
"tenure_type": "REGULAR",
"sequence": 1,
"total_cycles": 999,
"pricing_scheme": {
"fixed_price": {
"value": "149",
"currency_code": "PHP"
}
}
}
],
"payment_preferences": {
"auto_bill_outstanding": true,
"setup_fee": {
"value": "0",
"currency_code": "PHP"
},
"setup_fee_failure_action": "CONTINUE",
"payment_failure_threshold": 3
},
"taxes": {
"percentage": "12",
"inclusive": false
}
}'
I get this error:
100 921 100 159 100 762 99 478 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 578{"name":"INTERNAL_SERVICE_ERROR","debug_id":"1975a4fe9232","links":[{"href":"https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/overview/#error","rel":"information_link"}]}
UPDATE
Read all the links and followed the steps, I think this is the only issue left
{"name":"NOT_AUTHORIZED","message":"Authorization failed due to insufficient permissions.","debug_id":"484a9d7460069","details":[{"issue":"PERMISSION_DENIED","description":"You do not have permission to access or perform operations on this resource"}],"links":[{"href":"https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/v1/billing/subscriptions#NOT_AUTHORIZED","rel":"information_link","method":"GET"}]}
I checked the Paypal help center and it seems that I need someone from Paypal itself to authorize my REST.

Answer 1

Q1 - In the access token, do I need to put the "access_token$production$" and then the code given?
In your example, you are using Basic authentication scheme. You can use:
-H "Authorization: Bearer Access-Token" \
But to answer your question, no you don't need to specifically include the access_token text string.
Q2 - Can I manually create the Paypal request id and the product id?
Yes, request id is used so you can retry your API calls.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/reference/api-requests/#http-request-headers
HOWEVER product_id should come from https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/catalog-products/v1/#products_create
so you will need to do it first. See my update at the bottom part of this answer.
Q3 - Will the billing cycles be all on the same command or do I have to trigger this three times?
You will need to call each plan configuration to create three subscription plans. Basically, in the API doc example, it shows you it has a billing cycle created for a Trial period and the regular plan it self. It also says:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#plans_create
An array of billing cycles for trial and regular billing. A plan can
have multiple billing cycles but only one regular billing cycle.
You also mentioned:
only one will be active at a time, if a user chooses another of the
three while one is running, they will automatically be stopped getting
billed and will be charged with the new one chosen. (eg: currently
elite149, the subscription and renewal will change to 549luxury once
chosen).
You'll need to do this programmatically on your end.
If a user unsubscribes to a plan, then you will need to cancel his subscription by calling:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#subscriptions_cancel
If you plan to change subscription, then first you need to cancel existing, then subscribe the user to the new subscription plan using: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#subscriptions_create
Q4 - Is the setup fee the charge if a customer subscribes? I first assumed that is the case and set it to 0.
The setup fee is just an add-on fee you can charge your customers. You will need to manually declare this or make it optional by making setup fee value 0.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#definition-payment_preferences
Q5 - My intention is to have the monthly subscription (30 Days) auto renew until the user unsubscribes. I set my example to 12 but will "total_cycles": NEVER be the correct input?
The maximum value is 999. It only accepts integer.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#definition-billing_cycle
Q6 - I am not sure how the tax part works, why am I the one that gets to modify it?
Because tax is dependent on what region or country you are in. You are using PHP or Philippine Peso as currency so it could mean that you are in the Philippines. You will need to setup your tax percentage as 12% as that is what is used for taxing goods and services
Source: https://www.full-suite.com/blog/whats-difference-vat-percentage-tax/
Paypal tax object definition: https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#definition-taxes
Q7 - The document does not show the live equivalent of the link https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans is it just simply https://api.live.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans?
You can find the addresses here:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/overview/#get-an-access-token
It says:
Sandbox: https://api.sandbox.paypal.com
Live: https://api.paypal.com
Q8 - I tried to add the above code using git bash and curl but as I run it it shows 1008{"error":"invalid_client","error_description":"Client credentials are missing"}
It could mean either mean that you are passing invalid credentials. Make sure that you are sending them via the headers using
Bearer <Access-Token>
or
Basic <client_id>:<secret>
And verify that your string input represents the actual values.
Also, make sure you are using Sandbox credentials as it has a different set of credentials from the production or live
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/lifecycle/sb-create-accounts/#create-a-sandbox-account
Q9 - Do I try to run the curl code in Git bash and not change my directory? I just start git and run the curl here:
Do not misinterpret Git Bash as the command line interface, it is simply a versioning tool for your projects. However the Git Package for windows has built-in components that should allow you to run CURL. Since Curl is installed in the Bin directory, you should be able to run it on any directory.
You can run the curl command using different tools ideally using a scripting or programming language like PHP, Phyton, Java or even Node which has better support for curl and should allow you to write and test your program easier in a neater way.
UPDATE
I've investigated on this further. I thought I'd share it with you because it seems you haven't read the whole API document yet.
You are creating Subscription plans however you'll need to Create the products first. (I have updated my answer to Question #2)
First - Create the Product
This will create the product_id you need to create your subscription plans.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/catalog-products/v1/#products_create
To go back and check the product you created an get its product id, you can use this api call:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/catalog-products/v1/#products_list
Then - Create The Subscription Plan
After you have created your products, you can then create multiple subscription plans for it.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/#plans_create
Moving forward, if you want to subscribe / unsubscribe users you'll need to programatically do it as per my answer to Question #3.
About your problem with invalid credentials
Try getting the access token first. To do that follow instructions here:
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/get-an-access-token-curl/
curl -v https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/oauth2/token \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Accept-Language: en_US" \
-u "client_id:secret" \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials"
Then get the token returned and use that to make your api calls.
It will return something like this:
{
"scope": "scope",
"access_token": "Access-Token",
"token_type": "Bearer",
"app_id": "APP-80W284485P519543T",
"expires_in": 31349,
"nonce": "nonce"
}
Here is a modified version of your code that I used to test, notice it uses Bearer token instead basic client_id:secret
curl -v -X POST https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/billing/plans \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer Access-Token-goeshere" \
-H "PayPal-Request-Id: MWC-helper" \
-d '{
"product_id": "PROD-ELITETEST", //<---- this product id should be taken from the real product id when you created your product through product_create api.
"name": "Elite Membership",
"description": "Elite Membership Monthly Plan",
"status": "ACTIVE",
"billing_cycles": [
{
"frequency": {
"interval_unit": "MONTH",
"interval_count": 1
},
"tenure_type": "REGULAR",
"sequence": 1,
"total_cycles": 999,
"pricing_scheme": {
"fixed_price": {
"value": "149",
"currency_code": "PHP"
}
}
}
],
"payment_preferences": {
"auto_bill_outstanding": true,
"setup_fee": {
"value": "0",
"currency_code": "PHP"
},
"setup_fee_failure_action": "CONTINUE",
"payment_failure_threshold": 3
},
"taxes": {
"percentage": "12",
"inclusive": false
}
}'
It worked for me!