I am implementing In-App Purchases first time in my application and new to In-app purchases Store Kit.
I have few doubts regarding In-app purchases:
What happens if a user purchased a subscription and logged out from the application and another user logs in and trying to purchase the same?
Does iTunes allow the second user to use the First user's purchased product?
If it allows how can we handle the second user's subscription?
What details we will get post Successful/Failed transactions from itunes to save in my database?
For a non-renewing subscription then it is entirely up to you to track expiration and determine what content a user has access to and when.
For example, say your subscription gave access to "the word of the day". If the subscription was active for the month of January, then the user would receive access to new words each day in January. The user should continue to be able to see January's words even after the subscription expires, but no new words.
If they resubscribe in March then they would now get new words throughout March.
You need to track all of this on your server against the user account.
Non-renewable subscription IAPs act much like consumable IAPs. The "Restore purchases" Store Kit function does not restore non-renewable IAP items.
To answer your specific questions:
If a new user logs in to your account system in the app (but the same iTunes account is still active on the device) then a second purchase will succeed and you need to update the subscription start and end dates for the new active account on your server.
You also need to cater for the following:
- The original account logs back in; In this case the original subscription entitlements need to be available
- The original or second account log in to another device; Again, the accounts subscription entitlements need to be available.
No, since non-renewing subscriptions are not restorable, the second user cannot "use" the first user's subscription.
You handle each account in your system independently.
Information about the mechanics of the purchase process are described in the In App Purchase Programming Guide
Related
here's my straightforward question:
is it allowed for my iOS application to force users to log into my custom account management system, so I can link them to my backend when they want to purchase a non-renewing subscription?
Here's the backstory:
I have a non-renewing subscription. For a good amount of users I can see that the Apple receipt does not contain information about this subscription; the in_app array is empty. This is correct according to the API:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/Chapters/Products.html
The in-app purchase receipt for a consumable product or non-renewing subscription is added to the receipt when the purchase is made. It is kept in the receipt until your app finishes that transaction. After that point, it is removed from the receipt the next time the receipt is updated—for example, when the user makes another purchase or if your app explicitly refreshes the receipt
For some users, I can still see the purchase in the receipt, but let's consider that a bug from Apple and follow their API documentation to the letter.
(More on why this is a bug here https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/22345)
In order to restore the user's purchase, I'd need something to identify him with. I could create a unique token, store that on the iCloud keychain and use that across the devices to detect the purchase belongs to that Apple account, but since my application supports account creation, I'd rather just use that mechanism. Else I'm using two different methods of purchase detection side by side: iCloud keychain token or a user account.
Thing is, I'm not sure I am allowed to force users to make an account before making a purchase. Is this something Apple would reject the app submission for with a message like "Your users must be able to buy stuff without going through your lengthy account registration process" ?
From Apple :
Non-renewable subscriptions. Subscriptions that don’t involve
delivering episodic content. Examples include access to a database of
historic photos or a collection of flight maps. It’s your app’s
responsibility to make the subscription available on all of the user’s
devices and to let users restore the purchase. This product type is
often used when your users already have an account on your server that
you can use to identify them when restoring content. Expiration and
the duration of the subscription are also left to your app (or your
server) to implement and enforce.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StoreKitGuide/Chapters/Products.html
So its your app's responsibility to check that user has valid subscription or its over and let them purchase it again !
For this you will ask user to first make account or login into app so by this way you can track their subscriptions.
In ios and amazon - we have a subscription family - example if i have purchased a one month subscription, I cannot purchase a six month subscription of the same family. But it appears that this is not the case in google play. For example a user might have a monthly subscription running with a one year subscription also running simultaneously.
Do we have to handle the logic of not allowing a user to purchase a second subscription if he has already subscribed to one subscription?
In iOS the user can change duration for the same subscription family though their iTunes subscription management page. On android you must implement this in the app using the getBuyIntentToReplaceSkus() method:
This method is used to upgrade or downgrade a subscription purchase. The method is similar to getBuyIntent(), except that it takes a list of already-purchased SKUs that are to be replaced with the SKU being purchased. When the user completes the purchase, Google Play cancels the old SKUs and credits the user with the unused value of their subscription time on a pro-rated basis. Google Play applies this credit to the new subscription, and does not begin billing the user for the new subscription until after the credit is used up.
http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_reference.html#upgrade-getBuyIntentToReplaceSkus
I am working an app that has In app purchase function.
And i need some unique user information when they make some purchases in order to store it on my Database for some reason.
So how can i get some info like email,username or userId from the purchased user?
Thanks!
You cannot obtain this information from the Apple purchase flow, so the answer depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
If you are selling a non-consumable item, such as a game unlock, Deepak's solution will work for you -- by providing a "restore" button in you application the user will be able to connect to their iTunes account from any of their devices and re-obtain the item.
If you are selling a consumable item, such as in-game currency, you should have the users register with your backend service and be authenticated when they make their purchase. Once you have verified the purchase you can write it to your database and you will be responsible for restoring their state regardless of the device they log in on.
Note that if you combine these approaches it would be possible, though unlikely, that a user could share a non-consumable purchase by using the same iTunes account but different accounts on your system by performing a Apple restore action. If you are managing your own inventory on a server, I recommend using consumables.
So the short answer is, if you want that information, you have to ask for it from the user.
[Answer is valid if you have users registered with your system]The transactions can be restored based on user who has logged into your system ,please refer to link here then you can map the information from your system to the product you are selling via in-app purchase.
I am first time developing an application which will have licensing to iPhone Application,
Our requirement is to develop an application that will have a license key and a subscription period, say 1 Month, 6 months, 1 Year.. Etc.
Once the subscription period is over user should not be able to reinstall the application without new subscription and license key, even if he/she has uninstalled the application.
How can this be done?
You could use a Non-Renewing Subscription in app purchase, This is the description in iTunes Connect : Non-Renewing Subscriptions allow the sale of services with a limited duration. Non-Renewing Subscriptions must be used for In-App Purchases that offer time-based access to static content. Examples include a one week subscription to voice guidance feature within a navigation app or an annual subscription to online catalog of archived video or audio.
or you could use a Auto-Renewable Subscription:
Auto-renewable Subscriptions allow the user to purchase updating and dynamic content for a set duration of time. Subscriptions renew automatically unless the user opts out, such as magazine subscriptions.
Alternative way:
You have to do the subscription process through some website instead of in-app purchase.
Don't go with license key. Just provide login credentials to the user once he subscribed. User has to subscribe externally to use the application (by getting the login credentials by mail to him). If the subscription period over, then just don't allow him to login and ask him to meet administration using the given generic mail id (user has to subscribe again).
I'm having in-app purchase subscriptions in my app. I'm able to integrate and make subscriptions successfully. There are 3 different subscriptions, monthly, quarter and yearly.
So if user subscribes to monthly user can use that feature for 30 days. There's no server in my case. Only availability of some features will be activated/deactivated according to subscription.
When ever the app starts, i want to check whether user paid for subscription or not. If I'm maintaining some bool value in subscriptions, what if the user has deactivated the subscriptions from settings? How can I detect whether the subscriptions are valid or not?
You can add counter and add that counter value in a database that must be inside your app. Whenever user tries to access subscriptions you can verify from the database.
You have to post the receipt back to apple server and from the response we receive, we can identify the expiry date. Then I'll know whether the subscription is expired or renewed etc.
Visit Apple documentation