Paypal-checkout-components: Billing Agreements Deprecated but cannot execute subscriptions via Checkout

[thomasplevy]

Not exactly a bug report but I cannot find any way to get this question answered by anyone at PayPal!

Per documentation at https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/payments.billing-agreements/v1/ Billing Agreements have been deprecated and replaced with subscriptions (https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/)

However, I cannot figure out how to integrate these replacements into checkout.

I've tried returning the ba_token from subscription creation but there's no way to execute that.

Are there plans to upgrade Checkout to allow usage/execution of the new subscriptions?

Thanks

[bluepnume]

Yes, support is planned. @ravishekhar can provide some more details.

[ravishekhar]

@thomasplevy Yes, The Recurring Payments API https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/payments.billing-agreements/v1/ is deprecated.

You can read more about next generation Subscriptions APIs in these docs.
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/subscriptions/
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/catalog-products/v1/
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/subscriptions/v1/

The support for Subscriptions in the PayPal Checkout Buttons will be available in next few weeks. I will keep you posted.

[thomasplevy]

Thanks @bluepnume & @ravishekhar

Is #1100 what we're talking about here? Should I be waiting for updates in documentation or would it be "safe" to start using the methods merged in that pr?

[ravishekhar]

Yes #1100 is the PR. Presently waiting for one of API dependencies to go live before anyone can use the feature. I will update and close this issue once its live.

[thomasplevy]

Thanks @ravishekhar

[eduardo0099]

Hi @ravishekhar , I checked that #1100 is already merged in the 5.0.30 version. Is there now a way to use new subscriptions via Checkout?

[invative]

Is there any way to workaround this limitation today? I have attempted using the createBillingAgreement callback and returning the billing agreements token ( "BA-..." ) from the subscriptions api through my server's endpoint, but that does not seem to work either.

[ravishekhar]

At present it is not possible to use createBillingAgreement to create subscription id. We are working on introducing subscription related callbacks in button. I will update this issue once the feature is live, in a week or two.

[davvblack]

Any update on this? We are eagerly looking to integrate with checkout.js and subscriptions. I can see that there's a significant amount of subscription code already in the library.

[ravishekhar]

This feature is now live. Please feel to try it out while we are getting the Developer Docs updated.
Sample code

<script src="https://www.paypal.com/sdk/js?client-id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&vault=true"></script>

<div class="paypal-button" id="paypal-button-container"></div>

paypal.Buttons({
  createSubscription: function(data, actions) {
    return actions.subscription.create({
      'plan_id': 'P-YOUR_PLAN_ID'
    });
  },

  onApprove: function(data, actions) {
    alert('You have successfully created subscription ' + data.subscriptionID);
  }

}).render('#paypal-button-container');

Closing this issue. Please let me know in case of any issues.

It will appreciable if you can share any feedback or suggestions.

[blinder]

@ravishekhar following your example, i'm unclear how a subscription would be created in the case of a recurring donation, where the amount (aka plan) is essentially "dynamic" (the amount and the possibility of an end-date are determined by the payer). Using this new feature, how would one go about creating a plan "on the fly"? Is that even the correct approach?

[ravishekhar]

Unfortunately dynamic amounts is not supported in this Subscriptions product. You can take a look at WPS variation https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/Appx-websitestandard-htmlvariables/#recurring-payment-variables

[thomasplevy]

@blinder

I'm creating "dynamic" plans but just creating a new plan on the fly whenever one is needed via an additional AJAX call to my server. I pass in the required information, create the plan, pass the plan id back and then use that to create the subscription.

Additionally I'm saving plan information in a local database so that if a "dynamic plan" already exists I don't have to recreate a duplicate one.

Hope that helps

[blinder]

@thomasplevy that's an interesting approach. I think that's what I'll end up doing. It was either that or creating 3 "canned" plans but that just felt really awkward, especially given the fact that our system is for collecting gifts. Thanks for this!

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