We are trying to use Apple's subscription status url.
We have setup our server to accept the url we provided in the app page and made sure the server is compatible with ATS requirements.
A post test with Postman works. (we see the request and a test json received on our end)
However we are still not receiving any notifications updates from Apple upon renewal (not even initial_buy).
Seen some questions from last year but no valid solution. Does anyone had this problem lately and solved it?
I can't make a comment, and it's hard to see if this is the case here without knowing if you are actually receiving NOTHING at your script, or just receiving no data in $_POST.
If the latter, this should work:
$data = file_get_contents('php://input');
Then you should be able to work with the data by calling json_decode or doing whatever you want with it.
I ran into the same problem. I thought that Apple would call our webhook whenever a new subscription charge is processed (similar to how Paypal, Stripe, Android etc work). But that's a mistake. According to this technical note:
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2413/_index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40016228-CH1-SUBSCRIPTIONS-MY_SERVER_PROCESS_RARELY_RECEIVES_RENEWAL_NOTICES_WHEN_THE_AUTO_RENEWING_SUBSCRIPTION_RENEWS_
The App Store attempts to charge the user account 24 hours before an auto-renewing subscription expires. If the renewal is successful, there is no server-to server notification because the auto-renewing subscription did not enter into the expired state.
So Apple will only notify this endpoint when
a new subscription is created (at least that's the case for us, but we have a trial offer)
the subscription status changes from active to expired, or vice-versa.
So you have to keep track of the subscription receipts when the customer signs up. When the subscription is about to expire/has expired, call Apple's receipt validation endpoint to fetch the new receipt. If the receipt says the subscription expired, your webhook should be notified when the user reactivates it.
Related
Good day! I'm trying to implement notifications for auto-renew subscriptions and some parts of the whole system are not clear for me. Could you please help?
First of all, when user creates a subscription I get a receipt from user's device, verify it and create a record in database with all needed information. Now, the notifications are coming to server.
INITIAL_BUY notification - When does it come and why? I just got a receipt from device, verified it and I'm happy. Why do I need it?
Correct me if I'm wrong, this part is unclear for me, When user UPGRADES subscription level I get CANCEL notification for oldSubscription and a receipt with a new purchase for newSubscription, right?
So theoretical question is - if on my server side content available in oldSubscription and content available in newSubscription are different entities than when I get CANCEL for oldSubscription I just deny user's access to oldSubscription content and when I get receipt from client I create newSubscription with access to new content, right?
DOWNGRADE and CROSSGRADE. As far as I see I get DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_PREF or DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS. So I will get auto_renew_status in notification for this subscription and when payed period will expire I will get a receipt from user device with info about new purchase? Or I have to figure out how to handle DOWNGRADE and CROSSGRADE only by DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_PREF and DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_STATUS notifications?
Thank you
The problem with server receipt validation is that there is not only one way. There are endless possibility to implement this and it depends on your use case of the usage of subscriptions and how you want the communication between your app and server to happen.
In your second paragraph is the first example of those possibilities: your server will get the receipt from the device only if you implemented it that way. Also, maybe you update your database solely based on the notifications instead of the send receipt. You see, it is all up to you ;-)
Regarding you questions:
1)
Occurs at the user’s initial purchase of the subscription.
See documentation
Theoretically this is correct, but your described use case isn't an upgrade. Would be odd, if the better subscription wouldn't contain the content of the lower one.
There isn't much to handle with down- or crossgrade. The notifications only tell you that there will be a change with the next auto-renewal. Because, the user is still eligible to access the better content until the next auto-renewal. After the better subscription expired you will receive a normal DID_RENEW with the down- or crsssgrade product id.
I'm finding it hard to retrieve a cancellation date (or check if someone's canceled at all) for an auto-renewable IAP subscription.
I'm doing receipt validation, but cancellation_date_ms never seems to be in the receipts response. I've tested this myself by creating a live subscription in production and canceling it myself, still no luck.
I've also tried using Apple's Subscription Status URL webhook, but they don't seem to send anything useful other than when somebody first subscribes or their subscription is renewed.
I'm running out of ideas!
We have got a problem with auto renewable subscription.
First, I would like to tell you my case from the beginning to understand my problem totally.
So, I have an app that contains auto renewable subscription. I managed to buy a product from my app, but I would like to validate the receipt from my server. If I understand it well, then I should send the receipt data to my server that will send the receipt data to Apple and verify that receipt.
First question is that, do I know it right that verification means that we send a request to https://sandbox.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt ?
Secondly, what happens if I cannot send the receipt data for the server? I mean, in this case should I save the receipt data locally and try to send it again in a different time (my app can be used after registration so I have to send the user id with receipt data to my server)?
Furthermore, there is a subscription status URL for auto renewable subscription in iTunes connect. We set up an URL for this but we do not get any notification from Apple's server. We configured the server as explained in Apple's documentation (protocols, etc.) but we still don't get any notification. Do you have any suggestion why is it?
Do I know it well, that the notifications should be sent automatically if any status update change happens? If not then what should I do in my app or on my server? (e.g. how to detect if user cancels a subscription?)
Do I have to implement both logic for the best user experience?
To validate the receipt you can send it on apple servers, "can" because you can validate the receipt also in app. In this case is not fully safe, because someone can attack you app and tamper your validation code.
Apple has 2 different kind of servers test and production, when you are debugging you send receipt to the test servers, that also means that auto renewable subscription have shorter time, if I remember well a month in test is 5 minutes.
This is documented very well in apple documentation.
A receipt is always present in your app even if it's free. It's up to you how to manage those kind of situation, in my opinion a receipt should aways be valid from the beginning until the server responds in a different way.
The third question is not clear. There is a system to refresh a subscription but this should be done with user permission as far as I know, the subscription itself seems to be already updated automatically from time to time by the purchase mechanism.
You must implement all the logic to manage a subscription, cancellation, revocation etc.
I'm creating a service which allows users to register on any number of devices (web, Android, Roku, iOS, Apple TV), and then purchase a monthly subscription to watch video content. The subscription provides access to the entire catalog. I have my own subscription management API running on a server which I'd like to leverage as the source of truth so users can purchase a subscription on their iPad, login to the app on Roku, and continue watching where they left off.
Basically, Netflix.
Here are my options as far as I can tell:
Auto-renewing subscriptions: this is what Netflix uses today, but Apple doesn't provide an API or any set of webhooks around their payment platform, so I don't know how this option could work. My back-end service will have no idea when Apple automatically renews the subscription each month or if a user cancels their subscriptions.
Non-renewing subscriptions: users purchase the subscription inside
the app though IAP. Once purchase is complete, the app sync’s the
subscription to my back-end system. The app interfaces with my
back-end any time an entitlement check is required. When a user’s
subscription is about to expire, the app must present purchase
workflow again.
Import iTunes reports: won't work because it's not realtime (pull, not push) and doesn't tell me anything about cancelled subscriptions. I can only generate reports of new subscribers.
Receipt validation & push receipts to my service: won't work because it depends on the user actually using my app. Users could theoretically subscribe in my app, switch to Roku, and never open it again.
Skip IAP altogether and require users to subscribe via web.
Am I missing something? I'm really curious how Netflix is pulling this off.
For the initial subscription purchase:
User initiates a purchase on the iDevice
Device contacts Apple, Apple issues a receipt and sends it back to the device
The device sends the receipt to my server
The server validates that the receipt is legit through Apple's receipt validation API
Once the receipt is validated, the server stores it in my DB
The server responds to the app saying it's all good
To keep the server in sync with the iTunes subscription:
Setup a cron job to retrieve expiring receipts from the DB on a daily basis or something
Validate each receipt with Apple
Apple will respond with an updated version of the receipt that contains details regarding whether or not the subscription was canceled/renewed/etc.
Server replaces the original receipt with this updated version in the DB
Now if someone logs into their account on a Roku or some other device, the subscription can be honored because my DB is the source of truth.
I know this is old, but Apple recently introduced Status Update Notifactions which accomplishes what the OP asked for via webhooks:
Configure Apple to send notifications to your specified endpoint. (Apple's small guide)
Handle the JSON object that's sent via HTTP POST from the App Store and validate latest receipt.
Update/save data to your database.
Respond with a 200 status code to report a success.
You'll be able to handle the following notification types: INITIAL_BUY, CANCEL, RENEWAL, INTERACTIVE_RENEWAL, DID_CHANGE_RENEWAL_PREFERENCE
The documentation in the link above explains implementation and types in more detail.
I am trying to implement an auto-renewable subscription in an app, it works like this:
The user buys a subscription.
The app gets the receipt and sends it to my webService.
My webService verifies the receipt, changes the role of the user from Free to VIP and also records the receipt.
Now the question: When the expiration date comes, should I verify the receipt at my webService or in the app?
If it is on the webService, should I attempt to verify the old receipt (stored) and Apple returns to me the latest one if renewed or cancelled?
If it is on the app how should I proceed? Is there some kind of notification from storeKit when the subscription is renewed or cancelled?
If the right approach is the second (App), since my webService controls whether the role of the user is Free or VIP, every time a renewal happens I will have to send the latest receipt to my webService, so, it can manage the user's role properly. That's why I need to know how and when to get the latest receipt to send.
The more useful approach is the first one - through your web Service.
When you will attempt to verify the old receipt (stored) and Apple may respond in one of the following two ways:
If user has not cancelled the subscription, you will get the latest receipt with the expiration date extended.
If user has cancelled the subscription, you will get the receipt with the old expiration date only.
So based on the expiration date you can create your logic to whether extend the VIP membership or not.
Additionally, you can configure your authentication call on app side to re-authenticate user every 12 hours or 24 hours so you will get the updated membership status as well.