About Subscriptions-paypal.php

[Stanyy]

Hi,
There are numerous functions in this file with descriptive comments above them. A few comments are not clear to me:
//Is this a subscription?
and
//Is this a normal payment?

My question is, what's the difference between 'subscription' and 'normal payment'? I may be wrong but isn't everything done inside smf paid subscriptions supposed to be a 'subscription'? since the user would be paying for something which would last for the specified number of days.

[Illori]

i have not looked at the code but i believe a subscription would be an auto renewal, and a payment would be a one time thing.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I believe Illori's correct.  The PayPal API calls a recurring payment 'subscription', and posts two ipn's to subscriptions.php when a member subscribes with recurring payment checked.  PayPal treats it as two separate transactions, the first creates the subscription, the second confirms first payment.  A web_accept is a one time payment with recurring payment unchecked (or disabled in Paid Subs settings). 

[Stanyy]

Ok. Thanks for the explanation. Maybe "recurring payment" would have been a more descriptive comment for people like me trying to integrate their own gateway.

Concerning my gateway, I have been able to change the values in the file to match that of my gateway, but after payment, the subscription does not take effect. I get an error report in my email saying: Unknown paod subscriptions transaction type.
The thing is my gateway does not have this value and I don't intend to use recurring subscriptions. Is there a way I can eliminate the code that handles transaction type? Will paid subs work without it?

Thanks in advance.

[Kindred]

so, you changed values/variables in the SMF source file?    That is a particularly poor idea....
There are ways to integrate SMF without changing things that are likely (and apparently) used elsewhere...

(and moving this to coding, since it is not actually a support request)

[Stanyy]

so, you changed values/variables in the SMF source file?    That is a particularly poor idea....
There are ways to integrate SMF without changing things that are likely (and apparently) used elsewhere...

(and moving this to coding, since it is not actually a support request)

Pardon me for not mentioning that I actually made a new copy of the file which then became Subscriptions-mygateway.php
Thanks for moving the topic.

[Kindred]

hrm....    still - you are attempting to use standard SMF coding, which you have changed...

why not just tie into the EXISTING code and leave the variable names, etc alone?  I swear we have hooks for that sort of tie-in

[Illori]

as far as i know SMF supports out of the box other payment systems if the files exist. you dont need to use hooks to add a new payment system.

[Kindred]

I don't think he is looking to add new payment systems -- from his writing, I believe he is looking to link the SMF subscription system into an existing/external script...

or maybe we're both misunderstanding his use of the term "gateway"

[Stanyy]

I am trying to add a new payment system. SMF describes payment systems as "gateway".

From Subscriptions-PayPal.php

Code Select Expand

// This won't be dedicated without this - this must exist in each gateway!
// SMF Payment Gateway: paypal

[Kindred]

Sorry, my misunderstanding of terminology....

Ok...  so, adding a new gateway --

Which gateway/service?
What is the expected send to trigger a payment?
What is the expected receive when a payment is confirmed?

If your gateway does not have a specific argument, then you may have to pass a defined/fixed value in the code (e.g. "1")

[Sir Osis of Liver]

The txn_type parameter is sent by the gateway, and Paid Subs must conform to the gateway API.  Subscriptions-PayPal.php is built around the data posted by the PayPal ipn.  If you use a different gateway, you'd have to rewrite the code to accept and process the specific data posted by the gateway so that it validates payment and activates subscription.  PayPal calls a recurring payment 'subscription', which would be confusing in SMF, that's why the code/comment is written the way it is.  Just a matter of different terminology.

[Stanyy]

The txn_type parameter is sent by the gateway, and Paid Subs must conform to the gateway API.  Subscriptions-PayPal.php is built around the data posted by the PayPal ipn.  If you use a different gateway, you'd have to rewrite the code to accept and process the specific data posted by the gateway so that it validates payment and activates subscription.  PayPal calls a recurring payment 'subscription', which would be confusing in SMF, that's why the code/comment is written the way it is.  Just a matter of different terminology.

True.
The thing is, my gateway seems to only do one off payments and does not have a transaction type or anything that could stand for txn_type. They do have a payment_status which returns "Approved", not sure if they're related.
Looking at the code, it seems txn_type is only used for recurring subscriptions (which I am not interested in). My concern is whether removing that part of the code will stop the error or if it is required for smf paid subs to work.
Thank you.

Sorry, my misunderstanding of terminology....

Ok...  so, adding a new gateway --

Which gateway/service?
What is the expected send to trigger a payment?
What is the expected receive when a payment is confirmed?

If your gateway does not have a specific argument, then you may have to pass a defined/fixed value in the code (e.g. "1")

It's a local gateway for my country.
If i understand, i think i already have this working
I think a payment_status that returns 'Approved'
How do i do this? "you may have to pass a defined/fixed value in the code (e.g. "1")"
Thank you.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

PayPal API includes many transaction types, SMF only recognizes the couple it needs to process a member subscription.  Sounds like all you need is payment_status to confirm that payment was successful.

Code Select Expand



// Is this a normal payment?
public function isPayment()
{
if ($_POST['payment_status'] == 'Completed' && $_POST['txn_type'] == 'web_accept')
return true;
else
return false;
}



You should be able to eliminate txn_type, and just change 'Completed' to 'Approved', or whatever your gateway returns when payment is completed.  You want it to return true when payment is received, so subscription will be activated.