iOS Tutorial iStore - In App Purchases

Erel · Jan 12, 2015

The iStore library allows you to use the store In-App Purchases features inside your app.
You can let the user purchase digital products from inside your app.

(Unsurprisingly) the configuration required is a bit tedious.

In order to test this feature (and later release it) you need to create an app in iTunes Connect and create one or more in-app products. You don't need to actually upload the app binary file however you do need to fill all the fields and prepare the app. Later you can change them as needed.

After you've created an app placeholder in iTunes you need to carefully follow these instructions:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/technotes/tn2259/_index.html

The main steps:

iOS Paid Applications contract should appear under "contracts in effect".
You need to create an explicit App Id (without wildcards) and download a new provision file.
You can use #ProvisionFile to tell the IDE which provision file should be used.
Create a test account as explained in the tech note. Later you will sign out of the store from the Settings app. Note that you should not sign in to the store with the test account from the Settings app. The test account should only be used inside your app.
Create one or more in-app products and make sure not to upload a screenshot during development.

iStore library supports two types of products: consumable and non-consumable products.
Consumable - The user can purchase these products multiple times. For example in a game a user can purchase extra health or coins.
Non-consumable - The user can purchase such products once. For example the user can use such product to permanently remove ads from the app. If you are selling such products then you need to allow the user to restore such products if the user switches to a different device (with a "restore transactions" button).

Code

The code is quite simple.
First you initialize a Store object and check whether the device supports this feature:

B4X:

Dim MyStore As Store 'declare it in Process Globals
...
MyStore.Initialize("MyStore")
If MyStore.CanMakePayments = False Then ...

Later you can request a payment and then handle the PurchaseCompleted event:

B4X:

MyStore.RequestPayment("product.id")

Sub MyStore_PurchaseCompleted (Success As Boolean, Product As Purchase)
   Log("Purchase completed")
   If Product.IsInitialized Then
     Log("Product: " & Product.ProductIdentifier & ", date=" & DateTime.Time(Product.TransactionDate) & _
       ", Transaction identifier=" & Product.TransactionIdentifier)
   End If
   Log("Success = " & Success)
End Sub

The user will be asked to log in to his store account (use the test account here) and approve the purchase.

Restoring non-consumable purchases

As noted above, if you are selling such products then you are expected to provide a way for the user to restore completed transaction.
Once the user requests to restore transactions you need to call MyStore.RestoreTransactions. The PurchaseCompleted event will be raised for each previous purchase of non-consumable products.
The TransactionsRestored event will be raised at the end.

Note that the user might be asked to log in to his account, therefore you shouldn't call this method when the apps starts to find existing purchases (unlike the Android library).

tufanv · Feb 3, 2015

Erel , does Sub MyStore_PurchaseCompleted trggered only after a successful payment or it is always triggered ? I mean do i have to add" if sucess then unlock all levels" under purchase completed ?

Erel said:
See this link about the screenshots: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4802810/iphone-in-app-purchase-screen-shot

ilan · Feb 3, 2015

tufanv said:
Erel , does Sub MyStore_PurchaseCompleted trggered only after a successful payment or it is always triggered ? I mean do i have to add" if sucess then unlock all levels" under purchase completed ?

yes you will need to tell your app what happen when the purchase was successful

in this sub:

B4X:

Sub MyStore_PurchaseCompleted (Success As Boolean, Product As Purchase)
   Log("Purchase completed")
   If Product.IsInitialized Then
     Log("Product: " & Product.ProductIdentifier & ", date=" & DateTime.Time(Product.TransactionDate) & _
       ", Transaction identifier=" & Product.TransactionIdentifier)
   End If
   Log("Success = " & Success)

     if success = true then purchasedstuff(Product.ProductIdentifier)
End Sub

sub purchasedstuff (p as string)

if p = "alllevels" then 'alllevels is your product id for unlocking all levels...
   level4.enable = true
   '....
   'save a file that tells your app that all levels are unlocked
end if

end sub

and because this product is a non-consumable product (you will need only once to unlock all levels, right?!)
so you better save a file that tells you user has purchased all levels and on app start just ask for this file and if exists then
unlock all levels again... because you cannot ask on every app start to check if product has been purchased because this will ask user to enter his passwod to get to the app store and thats not a good way..

you may also add a button: Restore Purchases that will check if user has purchased any product (thats for someone that has uninstall your app after he has purchased a product from you and he wants to restore again the old purchases...)

tufanv · Feb 3, 2015

Yes Ilan Thank you. I was trying it and saw that altough user was canceling the transaction it was unlocking all levels what a mess

Now i added if success . Works perfectly

Thank you

Eumel · Feb 21, 2015

If i store a file (or other way) that a user has buyed some in-app products, and check this first.
What is, if an user cancel a transaction after buying it ?

-------------
Eumel

ilan · Feb 21, 2015

Eumel said:
If i store a file (or other way) that a user has buyed some in-app products, and check this first.
What is, if an user cancel a transaction after buying it ?

-------------
Eumel

create the file only if purchase was successfully...

(i dont think its possible to cancel a purchase after it was successfull...)

Eumel · Feb 22, 2015

An user must have an option to refund his sell, i think.

"The iTunes App store sales policy clearly says that you cannot cancel a purchase or receive a refund for a purchase but they are known to make exceptions if you have a valid reason."

So it is possible to refund, and i need a way to check this ?

-----------------
Eumel

Erel · Feb 22, 2015

You cannot make a refund from your code. You will need to manually do it from the developer console.

No notification is sent when a refund is made. The product will not appear when you call restore transactions.

Eumel · Feb 22, 2015

so, an user can buy a "pro" version, refund later (1-2 days), and can use the pro until he uninstall the app.
Or i call the productlist every start, but this is unconfortable for the user ..

Apple-RuleZ

Erel · Feb 22, 2015

That's correct. RestoreTransactions is not a good solution as the user might be asked to log-in to his account when you call it.

ilan · Mar 15, 2015

i put a new purchase for my app (Noadd) so a non-consumable purchase

i also put a button to restore old purchases, everything is ok but the TransactionsRestored event is not fired

i get in the logs the purchase complete was successful but after that the TransactionsRestored will not called
am i doing something wrong??

B4X:

    Sub MyStore_TransactionsRestored (Success As Boolean)
        Log(Success)
        If File.Exists(File.DirDocuments, "noads.txt") = False Then
            File.WriteString(File.DirDocuments, "noads.txt","1") 'save file
        End If
        Log("called")
    End Sub

Erel · Mar 15, 2015

Is the PurchaseCompleted event raised when you call RestoreTransaction?

ilan · Mar 15, 2015

Erel said:
Is the PurchaseCompleted event raised when you call RestoreTransaction?

Yes and success = true

ilan · Mar 15, 2015

i have one more question if i try to make a purchase without any internet connection should i get an error?
because i tried it and nothing happens, the app keep trying to make the purchase ...

Erel · Mar 16, 2015

Not sure why the TransactionsRestored event is not raised. It is raised here when I test it. Though the more important event is the PurchaseCompleted event.

ilan said:
because i tried it and nothing happens, the app keep trying to make the purchase

What exactly happens?

ilan · Mar 16, 2015

The "purchasecomplete" event is raised and i get success = true thats it

For me its enough just wanna let you know that the trans. Restore event is not raised

jai · Mar 31, 2015

How do you consume a consumable purchase?

In B4A it is manager.ConsumeProduct(ProductName), what is its equivalent in B4i?

Erel · Apr 1, 2015

You cannot consume a non-consumable item. Consumable items are consumed automatically.

tufanv · Jun 19, 2015

I have a problem here. in the app when i click buy button payment request which asks for password or confirms the purchase is not shown but in logs i see success and transaction complete ? what am i doing wrong

edit: Solved: Becuase I had logged in from the settings.

tufanv · Jun 19, 2015

I have the same problem Ilan Has. TransactionsRestored event is not firing. Is there any solution for this ?

Erel · Jun 20, 2015

Does the PurchaseCompleted event fire when you restore transactions?

iOS Tutorial iStore - In App Purchases

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