Subscribe!
TL;DR. First a plan is made, then it is subscribed to.
We have two concepts of how a Subscription works; either users can change the thing they're paying to get each month, or they can't. You don't change what you get on your Twitch, Netflix or HBO subscription. You just pay and you get the content. Products or services like these would use our Standard Plans to base their Subscriptions on.
However, we also wanted to let you make a plan that your users can change if they want. Think of a monthly wine delivery service that would let you pick the kinds of wine you want. Your users could pick regions or types of grape that they liked, how many bottles of each and even how often they want it delivered. If, after a few months, they wanted to mix things up, they could change the regions, grapes or number of bottles in their order and the next delivery would reflect those changes. Subscriptions like this are based on Recurring Order Plans.
Below, we walk you through the two types.
As an example, let's say we're making Gamefly, a company that gives you access to video games for a monthly fee. Here's what we'll do:
Create a User
Create a Standard Plan
Create a Subscription
Set up Payment
Gamefly wants to let theirs users sign in online, which will create a user through our API. To just create a new user, call the /v2/users endpoint with a JWT. Thereafter, that will log in the existing user.
Argument | Type | Description |
|
| First name of the user. |
|
| Last name of the user. |
|
| Title of the user. |
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| E-mail of the user. |
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| Phone number of the user. |
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| An |
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| Billing |
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| Biographical note about the user. |
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| List of tags associated with the user. |
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| Additional notes regarding the user. |
POST /v2/users HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibGFzdF9uYW1lIjoiRG9lIiwiZmlyc3RfbmFtZSI6IkpvaG4iLCJpYXQiOjE1MTYyMzkwMjJ9.YEqWlNmcheENbeSTjXhA-LMfULwa7t_Ab71tDmLGUxAX-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"first_name": "John","last_name": "McClane","email": "diehardlover@email.com","mobile_phone_number": "+4712345678","addresses": [{"city":"Danielsen","service":"google","alias":"","country":"Paraguay","zip_code":"0556","state":"Oslo","street_name":"Streetname 7"}]}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"roles": ["user"],"tags": [],"auth0_id": "some-id","mobile_phone_number": "+4712345678","billing_address":{"service": "google","alias": " "},"voucher": {"uuid": "b498e02b-2031-4d84-b55b-b460d22f44b4","consumed": 0,"initial_quantity": 0,"created": {"$date": 1512383756277},"expires": {"$date": 1543919756277}},"_cls": "User","created": {"$date": 1512383756277},"addresses":[{"zip_code": "0556","city": "Danielsen","street_name": "Streetname 7","country": "Paraguay","alias": " ","service": "google"}],"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"email": "diehardlover@email.com","national_id": "1234567890","modified": {"$date": 1512383756279},"avatar": " ","bio": " ","stripe_customer_id": " ","note": " ","first_name": "John","_id": {"$oid": "5a25250cd57ba213edcba515"},"new_customer": true,"last_name": "McClane","last_login": {"$date": 1512383756278},"deleted": false,"voucher": {}}
You create Plans in the dashboard (for now). Under Subscriptions, you'll see Plans. Near the top will be New plan +. Enter the the basic parameters; name, delivery interval, billing interval and price. For Gamefly, maybe the first plan we'd make would be a basic plan. In the plan's details, we can add a description and fill in a few other fields. Easy.
Now that the Plan is created, your users can subscribe to it.
Note: start_now must be set to true for the subscription to start automatically after creation. An associated payment_method must be in the request data.
Argument | Type | Description |
plan | string | ID of the Plan associated with the subscription. |
subscription_method | string | Name of subscription method. Must be |
note | string | A short description. |
start_now | boolean | If |
POST /subscriptions HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer <jwt>X-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"plan": "5931697ed57ba271c0c7de66","subscription_method": "license"}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"active": true,"status": "CREATED","name": "LICENSE","method": "license","_id": {"$oid": "5964a0ead57ba2036750a3b4"},"deleted": false,"prorate_amount": 0.0,"_cls": "SubscriptionMethod.LicenseSubscription","plan": {"$oid": "5931697ed57ba271c0c7de66"},"payments": [],"infinite": false,"created": {"$date": 1499767018360},"user": {"$oid": "57ee9c72d76d431f85111432"},"updated": {"$date": 1499767018360}
The fun part. Check out Payment Methods and Payments for all the parameters and related endpoints, as there are a few parts to getting paid. Here's the gist.
Your user will need to add a payment method, i.e. a credit or debit card, that they want to use to pay for their order.
Attribute | Type | Description |
|
| Must be |
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| Token created with the card details (number, expiration month, expiration year, card verification code) |
POST /payment_methods HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer <jwt>X-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"payment_method": "stripe","token": "tok_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtpWYeGYuy"}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"created": {"$date": 1476118043580},"_id": {"$oid": "<payment-method-id>"},"modified": {"$date": 1476118043580},"deleted": false,"user": {"$oid": "57ee9c72d76d431f85111432"},"method": "stripe","name": "Stripe","customer_id": "cus_CJjTlT4Wci2P0u","token": "tok_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtpWYeGYuy","card": {"object": "card","address_state": null,"fingerprint": "npPw68vQg1usKUWb","metadata": {},"exp_year": 2019,"country": "US","last4": "4242","address_zip_check": null,"address_zip": null,"funding": "credit","cvc_check": "unchecked","id": "card_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtPBVfQ1wZ","tokenization_method": null,"address_line1": null,"exp_month": 12,"brand": "Visa","dynamic_last4": null,"address_country": null,"address_line2": null,"address_line1_check": null,"name": null,"address_city": null}}
And that's it. If the user has a payment method associated with them, it will get charged when the plan they've subscribed to says it should. And they get to game to their heart's content.
Let's use the example of a monthly wine club mentioned above. We can pretend we're the kind of people that would join a wine club. Let's call it Too Many Chardonnays. Check out Orders and Subscriptions for more details on the different ways you can go about making recurring orders, but here's what we'll do:
Create a User
Create a Product
Create a Recurring Order
Create a Subscription
Get Paid
Check out the User object and all the related endpoints you can hit. To just create a new user, call the /v2/users endpoint with a JWT. Thereafter, that will log in the existing user.
Argument | Type | Description |
|
| First name of the user. |
|
| Last name of the user. |
|
| Title of the user. |
|
| E-mail of the user. |
|
| Phone number of the user. |
|
| An |
|
| Billing |
|
| Biographical note about the user. |
|
| List of tags associated with the user. |
|
| Additional notes regarding the user. |
POST /v2/users HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibGFzdF9uYW1lIjoiRG9lIiwiZmlyc3RfbmFtZSI6IkpvaG4iLCJpYXQiOjE1MTYyMzkwMjJ9.YEqWlNmcheENbeSTjXhA-LMfULwa7t_Ab71tDmLGUxAX-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"first_name": "John","last_name": "McClane","email": "diehardlover@email.com","mobile_phone_number": "+4712345678","addresses": [{"city":"Danielsen","service":"google","alias":"","country":"Paraguay","zip_code":"0556","state":"Oslo","street_name":"Streetname 7"}]}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"roles": ["user"],"tags": [],"auth0_id": "some-id","mobile_phone_number": "+4712345678","billing_address":{"service": "google","alias": " "},"voucher": {"uuid": "b498e02b-2031-4d84-b55b-b460d22f44b4","consumed": 0,"initial_quantity": 0,"created": {"$date": 1512383756277},"expires": {"$date": 1543919756277}},"_cls": "User","created": {"$date": 1512383756277},"addresses":[{"zip_code": "0556","city": "Danielsen","street_name": "Streetname 7","country": "Paraguay","alias": " ","service": "google"}],"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"email": "diehardlover@email.com","national_id": "1234567890","modified": {"$date": 1512383756279},"avatar": " ","bio": " ","stripe_customer_id": " ","note": " ","first_name": "John","_id": {"$oid": "5a25250cd57ba213edcba515"},"new_customer": true,"last_name": "McClane","last_login": {"$date": 1512383756278},"deleted": false,"voucher": {}}
You create Products through the dashboard (for now). Under Orders, you'll see Products. Near the top will be Product +. Click that and enter the info required. Check out Products for more info on what else you can do with them.
Too Many Chardonnays isn't just a wine club, they also just sell wine. Their users can fill their wine case with whatever they want, like they're making a regular Order, and then decide they want to make this order a periodic thing that shows up at their house.
You can make an order a 'recurring order' by including these additional body parameters (in addition to the required parameter for a standard order): is_recurring (set to true), interval_unit, and recurring_days. This returns a JSON with order_status defined to CREATED.
When you make your Recurring Order this way, we're creating the Recurring Order Plan and the Recurring Order Subscription for you in the background. And your users just fill in a couple extra fields when they make the order.
Body Parameters | Type | Description |
|
| Default is set to |
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| The frequency that the subscription acts upon. Choices: |
|
| Defines the schedule for the recurring order. See Recurring Day for more info. |
|
| 3 letter ISO currency code as defined by ISO 4217. |
|
|
|
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| Used to store the delivery history for an order. |
|
|
|
|
| See |
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| Expected arrival time for delivery, |
|
| See |
|
| List of |
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| Human readable ID that identifies the order easily, e.g. |
|
| List of |
|
| See |
|
| The |
|
| Extra amount added to |
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| The VAT percentage on the |
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| Amount with two decimals. e.g., 12.34. The amount is automatically calculated based on items in the order. |
|
| Total number of products in an order, e.g. 3 spoons and 2 forks = 5 products. |
|
| Number of unique products in an order, e.g. 3 spoons and 2 forks = 2 product units. |
|
| An accounting reference ID. |
|
| The reference ID from a Stripe charge. |
|
| The reference ID from a Stripe refund. |
|
| Associated |
POST /orders HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer <jwt>X-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"is_recurring": true,"interval_unit": "WEEK","recurring_days": [{"day": 3, "hour": 10, "minute": 30}],"items": [{"product": "5703fce3308714000dea1ff1","quantity": 1,"discount": 0.1},{"product": "5703fcde308714000dea1fe8","quantity": 3}],"delivery_time": 1472022000000,"delivery_address": {"city": "Oslo","geo": [59.9294087,10.7643042],"zip_code": "0557","street_name": "Christies gate 34A","country": "Norway"},"billing_address": {"city": "Oslo","geo": [59.9294087,10.7643042],"zip_code": "0557","street_name": "Christies gate 34A","country": "Norway"},"currency": "NOK","note": "some type of note"}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"created": {"$date": 1488475795244},"company": {"$oid": "586faf7445ed910006373513"},"delivery_address": {"city": "Oslo","geo": [59.9294087,10.7643042],"zip_code": "0557","street_name": "Christies gate 34A","country": "Norway"},"billing_address": {"city": "Oslo","geo": [59.9294087,10.7643042],"zip_code": "0557","street_name": "Christies gate 34A","country": "Norway"},"_id": {"$oid": "58b85693d76d439fdacea41b"},"total_amount": 40.0,"delivery_time": {"$date": 1472022000000},"note": "some type of note","total_quantity": 4,"order_status": "CREATED","items": [{"product": "5703fce3308714000dea1ff1","quantity": 1,"discount": 0.1},{"product": "5703fcde308714000dea1fe8","quantity": 3}],"user": {"$oid": "57ee9c72d76d431f85111432"},"units": 2,"delivery_status": "PENDING","modified": {"$date": 1488475795244},"currency": "NOK"}
Your user will need to add a payment method if they don't have one on file, i.e. a credit or debit card, that they want to use to pay for their order.
Attribute | Type | Description |
|
| Must be “stripe” for triggering a STRIPE payment method |
|
| Token created with the card details (number, expiration month, expiration year, card verification code) |
POST /payment_methods HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer <jwt>X-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"payment_method": "stripe","token": "tok_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtpWYeGYuy"}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"created": {"$date": 1476118043580},"_id": {"$oid": "<payment-method-id>"},"modified": {"$date": 1476118043580},"deleted": false,"user": {"$oid": "57ee9c72d76d431f85111432"},"method": "stripe","name": "Stripe","customer_id": "cus_CJjTlT4Wci2P0u","token": "tok_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtpWYeGYuy","card": {"object": "card","address_state": null,"fingerprint": "npPw68vQg1usKUWb","metadata": {},"exp_year": 2019,"country": "US","last4": "4242","address_zip_check": null,"address_zip": null,"funding": "credit","cvc_check": "unchecked","id": "card_1Bv5yfEeeXxFpLJtPBVfQ1wZ","tokenization_method": null,"address_line1": null,"exp_month": 12,"brand": "Visa","dynamic_last4": null,"address_country": null,"address_line2": null,"address_line1_check": null,"name": null,"address_city": null}}
To pay an order, you're going to hit /payments with the order_id and the payment_method_id. Again, check out Payment Methods and Payments for more info.
Arguments | Type | Description |
|
| List with |
|
| The payment method ID that you want to use. |
POST /payments HTTP/1.1Content-Type: application/jsonAuthorization: Bearer <jwt>X-Builton-Api-Key: <builton-api-key>Host: api.builton.dev{"orders": ["<order-id>"],"payment_method": "<payment-method-id>"}
HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: application/json{"company": {"$oid": "57ee9c71d76d431f8511142f"},"created": {"$date": 1476118043580},"_id": {"$oid": "<payment-id>"},"modified": {"$date": 1476118043580},"deleted": false,"user": {"$oid": "57ee9c72d76d431f85111432"},"amount": 450.2,"metadata": {},"current_state": "created","active": true,"human_id": "51Q4LN","currency": "NOK","subject": "<order-id>","payment_method": "<payment-method-id>","payment_date": {"$date": 147998016470}}
And that's it. If the payment for the order is successful, the order_status will change to SUCCESS. And the user will have a subscription to some yummy wines that'll show up when they want them to.
