#Timmy-Checkout-Sessions
tight heron
Hi! Checkout sessions are active for 24 hours before they automatically expire if they aren't actioned. However, the point here is that you should store Checkout Sessions in your database alongside with your customer info to authenticate your customer and provision access to the Billing Portal.
wooden hearth
So I need the session info to allow the customer to access the Customer Portal
What if the user wants to access the Customer Portal 24h after he subscribed to my service?
tight heron
In the quickstart guide the Checkout Session ID is just used to access the Customer ID that you are providing access to the Customer Portal
The Session itself isn't relevant other than to access the corresponding Customer ID
However this is usually done via storing Customer data in your database and however you want to authenticate the customer.
It is really up to you... using the Checkout Session to grab the Customer ID is just an example of a route you could go
wooden hearth
Interesting, what route should I go though? I guess I could just store the Stripe Customer Id in my user table right?
tight heron
Yeah usually people store that data in their own database, and then you retrieve the data from your database when you authenticate the customer that is visiting your site
wooden hearth
Using only the Stripe customer id doesn't cause any security threads right?
tight heron
No that ID can only be used with your key
tight heron
Checkout will create a customer automatically if you don't pass one to the Checkout Session (see: https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-customer)
So it is up to you for whether you want to create the Customer ahead of time, or if it is a Customer that is returning to purchase again you will want to pass their Customer ID.
wooden hearth
So I should store the Stripe Customer Id to my database once the user initates a checkout right?
tight heron
I would store it if they successfully complete a Checkout Session
wooden hearth
So once a certain event gets triggered?
tight heron
Yeah. When Checkout.Session.Completed hits your webhook endpoint
That is the recommended route
wooden hearth
Awesome thanks
okay so
- Customer Sings up -> logs in
- Customer initiates checkout process
- Stripe creates a customer
- Payment went through (Customer actually subscribed)
- I store the Stripe Customer Id to my db
tight heron
Yeah. Only clarification is that Stripe only creates the Customer if the Session is successful.
So 3/4 essentially happen in tandem
But yeah that flow is correct
tight heron
Yes if the Session is successfully completed. This doesn't necessary mean payment as you could start a trial subscription for instance
wooden hearth
I see
Okay so once Checkout.Session.Completed gets triggered I basically store the Stripe customer id in my db and
set a db value to true (for example) so the user actually has access to what he paid for
tight heron
Yep
wooden hearth
I store the Stripe Customer Id so the user can later access the Customer portal for example
wooden hearth
You want to track the Subscription status to provision your product
Using the other events right?
So if the user cancels the subscriptions an event will trigger and call my webhook
tight heron
Yep
wooden hearth
Awesome thanks, I understand Stripe much better now 😄
Is there a way for me to save this conversation and somehow archive it?
tight heron
The thread will get archived and you can come back to it. I'm not actually sure how long it is retained tbh
tight heron
No just a random name lol
tight heron
👍
wooden hearth
Hey sorry to disturb you, I have one more question 😅
so I am trying to write the Stripe Customer Id to my db once the Checkout.Session.Completed even triggers
How do I know to which User (in my db) the Stripe customer id belongs to
Do I need to save the Session Id of the checkout process and then find a user that has that session id once Checkout.Session.Completed gets triggered
and then assign the Stripe user id to that db user?
To summarize: How do I map the info I get in the Checkout.Session.Completed event to a specific user in my database
raw quarry
Hi there, jumping in to help 🙂
Usually, when the customers log into your website, you would find the relative Stripe Customer id associated with them from your database.
If this is a new customer, create a new id for them [0].
Then call the create Session API providing this in the customer field [1].
[0] https://stripe.com/docs/api/customers/create
[1] https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-customer
wooden hearth
Thanks for getting back to me ^^
So the new stripe user gets created once I open a new checkout session without providing a customer right?
I don’t create the user manually right now
Based on the documentation I am supposed to associate the stripe user with my user once Checkout.Session.Completed gets triggered
So should I just associate my stripe user with my user once the person creates a new checkout session?
median isle
@wooden hearth If the Checkout Session is in payment or subscription mode, Checkout will create a new customer object based on information provided https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/object#checkout_session_object-customer
wooden hearth
Yes that is what’s currently happening
Now I just need to assign that stripe user is to my user (in my db)
Which I am supposed to do using the Checkout.Session.Completed event
median isle
Yes, you can get the customer from customer property of the session object.
wooden hearth
But that event only knows the stripe user id
median isle
I think you mean customer ID. you can get the customer object by using the retrieve API https://stripe.com/docs/api/customers/retrieve
wooden hearth
Yeah sorry I mean the customer id
So how am I supposed to map the stripe customer id to a user in my db in the Checkout.Session.Completed event?
median isle
How do you store the customer object in your DB?
wooden hearth
I am not 100% sure what you mean but:
The user creates an account
Signs in
Pays using stripe
Every user in my db has a property called ‘StripeCustomerId’
Also I just saw that the checkout session object has a property called ‘client_reference_id’
Should I use that? (do I have access to that in the Checkout.Session.Completed event?
Also please excuse my bad writing I am on my phone right now 😅
median isle
No worries, I'd suggest you to use the customer.id, which is a unique key, to map the Stripe customer to your DB.
wooden hearth
I have the stripe customer id but I don’t know which of my user it belongs to
The event doesn’t give me any information
median isle
Do you have an event ID that I can take a look?
median isle
No worries, I'll keep this thread open so feel free to come back and either my colleague or I will continue helping you