CIM vs ARB (again) - double checking the limitations of each

[thaddeusmt]

I haven't yet found in the forums or documentation where this is verified. First, my problem:

I am working on a website that offers a number of different subscription options, and a user can have multiple different subscriptions at the same time, and can add or remove subscriptions at any time in any order.

I thought ARB at first to handle the recurring fees, but it seems like if the user wants to add an additional subscription at a later time they will have to enter their payment information again. So instead of "adding on" a service, they have to "purchase a new one". It seems better to use CIM for this so when they purchase an additional subscription they can choose from amongst previously used payment options and do not have to enter in their information again.

So, to simulate ARB with CIM we have to do our own scheduling, I understand this and it's not a problem. I just want to verify that to do this with CIM, we can just build a duplicate transaction and submit it at the stated subscription interval?

Assuming that we can build the XML transaction without additional user input and that the user has agreed to be "automatically rebilled until cancelled", we can do this? It is less work for us to use ARB, but we can achieve the same effect with CIM? CIM can really replicate automatic rebilling?

Also, just to make sure, we can't create a new subscription based on an old subscription with ARB without asking the user for their payment info again, correct? Becuase if we could do this we could probably still use ARB.

Thanks!

[Qadeer]

And my use case is like i am generating invoice as html and sending a link for the same to 

my customers there i'll be redirecting it to authorize.net's hosted payment form 

before redirecting from customer to authorize.net my customers will have my merchant account details,

i wanted to avoid having my customer access those credentials..

Kindly help..

[RaynorC1emen7]

My question is what if we dont click the link on the hosted receipt page.?

then any code on your page will not get call.

And i have even gone through the silent post method which solves my above question. but, again it needs a URL which is static in my case i cant have a static URL to track done the status,

If you have a URL that get change on every orders, just DO NOT set ANY valid relay response URL on the merchant account.

before redirecting from customer to authorize.net my customers will have my merchant account details,

i wanted to avoid having my customer access those credentials..

Not sure what you mean. how would they have you merchant account credentials/detail?

[Qadeer]

Oh! there's some confusion with ur answer.

Let me clarify,

1. We are on hosted Payment_Form (SIM API)

    - Customer fills in form and clicks submit 

    - before going to reciept page can i get details of transaction made on STATIC address.??

2. on receipt page we can have a redirect buton by clicking it am geting all details accurately..

  - No problem..

[RaynorC1emen7]

1)Not sure about before(could be the same time), but silent post will get call when a transaction is created.

2)Only when silent post works, you might be better off with relay response.

[Qadeer]

Ok,

I just wanted to confirm whether,

i can give silent post url on merchant interface directly, an absolute address like the following..?

http://localhost/ServerIntegration/ServerIntegration/TestingValues.php

As am working on local system..

[TJPride]

The silent post page has to be publicly accessible or Authorize.net can't get to it. Localhost isn't going to work. Get a cheapo hosting account somewhere and set up a page that logs posts. Something like this, if using PHP:

$logfile = "{$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/logs/callback.txt";
$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a');

foreach (array('fields', 'you', 'do', 'not', 'want', 'to', 'log') as $key)
    unset($_POST[$key]);

fwrite($handle, print_r($_POST, true));

[Qadeer]

Thanks Silent Post Worked!

Can i send Silent Post URL via form submit ?

as we do form submit for SIM ( Payment_Form ),

i wanted to add up silent post url with other SIM API hidden elements.

if yes, what are the parameter which i should pass via form submit.?

Regards

Qadeer