Some 'new guy' questions

[mmcdonald]

Hi all,

I am using the ARB service to sell my SaaS application, the monthly subscription works well for the SaaS billing. Unfortunately, I have some questions that I can't seem to find answers too in what has generally been quite good documentation.

1) The initial payment seems to take quite a few hours, if not a day, to complete. Rather than leave my potential customers sitting there like plums is there a way to initiate the first payment of an ARB subscription immediately? I'm currently running the risk of allowing people into the software before their payment is actually taken (because of the large delay) and then the payment failing, and then administrative/support overheads etc.

2) The documentation states "Suspended subscriptions must be reactivated before the next scheduled transaction occurs. Otherwise, the subscription will be terminated.". How do customers reactive their subscriptions? Do I simply get them to submit a duplicate subscription request? Will they have to come to authorize.net? Some clarification here would be lovely.

3) With all other payment gateways I can pull down transaction records, history and in-depth information. It seems here, with ARB at least, I can only get the subscription ID and status? Is there no other way to get detailed transaction records using the ARB API? Do I use the ‘Transaction Details API’ alongside the ARB API to collect transaction records or does that not even work?

Thanks for assistance in this matter, I was keen to using AuthorizeNET due to the ARB capabilities, but I'm not worried that this isn't the right solution for me.

Thank you,

Michael

[RaynorC1emen7 · Accepted solution]

1)Use AIM for the first transaction, ARB only run once a day.

2)The customer have to update their credit card info.

They don't do it at authorize.net, they do it on your website and you use the ARBUpdateSubscription

3)You could use the ‘Transaction Details API’ alongside the ARB API to collect transaction records.

It a new feature

http://community.developer.authorize.net/t5/The-Authorize-Net-Developer-Blog/ARB-Subscription-IDs-Av...

Although still can't search with a subscription id.

If you have SSL, you could also just use CIM and do your own scheduling too.

http://community.developer.authorize.net/t5/The-Authorize-Net-Developer-Blog/Choosing-a-Recurring-Bi...

[mmcdonald]

Sorry, just one more question.

I've processed the creation of a customer profile, payment profile and a payment, and it all went perfectly with no errors reported. I found the new customer profile in my sandbox account, but can't find any record of a transaction anywhere?

I followed the guide you posted word for word. Why didn't this transaction take place? If it did, what possible reasons could exist for me not finding it?

This seems to be a recurring theme for me, I've previously been unable to find any record of a transaction until it's fully processed, but I thought CIM transactions were instant? Where do I find 'pending' and 'complete' transactions in my control panel?

I sound like a complete payment gateway virgin but I'm actually quite the opposite - this is what's concerning me.

From step 12 of that guide, and the use of the PHP SDK, I get 'something else' back from:

if($transactionResponse->approved){
echo "approved.";
} elseif ($transactionResponse->declined) {
echo "declined.";
} elseif ($transactionResponse->held) {
echo "held.";
} else {
echo "something else";
}

Thanks,

Michael

[RaynorC1emen7]

Did it return a transactionID?

If it zero, it mean the account or you might have ran the payment as testmode which would not create a transaction.

If it did return a non-zero transactionID, did you check the unsettled transactions?

Not sure about php, but did you try echo out the full $transactionResponse and see what in it?

[danr]

If you use AIM to process the first transaction, won't ARB then process a second charge?

[RichardH]

Hello @danr

Using AIM for the first transaction allows you to accept an immediate payment and then schedule subsequent payments using ARB.

Richard