#coybench
devout dock
👋 how may I help?
winter atlas
Hi hi! So,
- If I'm using paymentIntents to charge a user for X-month long service (no products), but then later want to charge more, would I be creating a new paymentIntent or can I renew that intent?
Since, it's the same product, wouldn't it be weird to create new payment intent?
^If instead I use subscriptions, the customer wouldn't then be paying upfront (which is a requirement in our case)
devout dock
Intents are a one-time only deal and can't be reused after getting to a terminal state
e.g. paid, canceled
^If instead I use subscriptions, the customer wouldn't then be paying upfront (which is a requirement in our case)
subscriptions can be used with prepaid amounts
could we forget a bit about how to integrate and focus on what is the use case?
this way I can better understand what you're trying to achieve
winter atlas
^Yep absolutely!
devout dock
and help you figure out the best path
winter atlas
Here's my structure: I have users, "services" (online courses), and memberships. Each service, when paid for, creates a "membership", which kinda acts like a gate to allow the user to use the product.
^Each service then has subjects, chapters, and units within them, I want to be able to either the sell the service as a whole, or make it like an in-app (but on web) purchase, where you have access to the service, but you don't need to buy everything together -- you can buy them separately.
Simplified explanation of use-cases:
Each "unit" is the bottom-most layer that can be charged for. Units make up chapters, and chapters make up subjects, and subjects make a course LOL
You can pay for X units, or you can for the whole or multiple chapters if you're stuck on a specific thing; But if that's too costly, you can buy the whole subject etc.
^ The client has access to this for X months (they pay upfront), but after that period goes by and they still need to use it, they can extend that coverage
^Does that kinda make sense so far?
winter atlas
^Lol my thoughts exactly
devout dock
have you considered using Checkout Sessions?
winter atlas
^ I have, and did -- but I think it's oversimplified for this, because beyond the first payment per product, I want to be able to have in-app purchases too, which'll bring me back here
Why do you think Checkout might be better?
devout dock
Payment Intents don't describe the items that are purchased but rather an amount that the customer is intending to pay you
winter atlas
^Interesting, I did notice that
Is there any other way to create "bundles" other than checkout?
devout dock
you either need to use the Invoices API or the Checkout Sessions API
or you can use Payment Intents but you would have to use the metadata to store that information
it all depends on how you're intending to manage your products/prices
winter atlas
^The info. of what's being purchased? i.e. all the sub-products?
Can you elaborate what you mean by how I'm intending to manage the products? What conception did you get so far?
devout dock
Can you elaborate what you mean by how I'm intending to manage the products? Wha...
either through Stripe or in your own code
like you either want to keep track of prices and products in Stripe then Invoices/Checkout Sessions are a better way to go
or in your own code, and then all you need for Stripe to know is the amount your customer needs to pay
winter atlas
^Def. on my own end if I can prefer it. ^Basically my membership has a nested tree of nodes and their children, each of them having the property of "isGated". So I can lock/unlock things on my end. But again, my concern is detected whether that item has been paid for
devout dock
and in that case PaymentIntent is better
winter atlas
^Item and sub-item; which brings me back to bundles again
devout dock
if you prefer to have all this logic within your app, then you can use PaymentIntents
winter atlas
Otherwise Checkout sessions or invoices?
winter atlas
hmm okay! That's def. a good start. I'll give this a think and then follow up 🙂
devout dock
it's also up to you to decide how much time you want to put integrating with Stripe
winter atlas
Thanks so much for your time -- you've been very patient
winter atlas
it's also up to you to decide how much time you want to put integrating with Str...
I tried using the pre-made packages you guys have
devout dock
custom integration (i.e. Payment Intent + Payment Element) needs more time and expertise then low-code solutions such as Checkout Sessions
winter atlas
But then I ran to specific issues: it's all good till a service (everything included) is being sold. It gets problematic when individual items are being selected too
winter atlas
custom integration (i.e. Payment Intent + Payment Element) needs more time and e...
If it helps, I've already implemented all of these so far (custom and pre-built), only to realize that it either didn't work, or I needed something more LOL
e.g. I loved price-tables, exceppt they create a new customer every single time they're used O_O
devout dock
you don't need price-tables because you're not managing susbcriptions
Checkout Sessions I think is the way to go IMO
devout dock
let me know if you need any more help
sweet badgerBOT