How to know when a customer charged for his subscription in Chargify

Question

I am using Chargify API (https://github.com/jforrest/Chargify-PHP-Client/), we have customers in thousands with monthly subscription, so they charged on their specific dates, i am using a cron which checks subscriptions on daily basis

Problem is we miss a subscription if it could not charged on date which suppose to be charged. Some time customer card could not charged due to no funds in their account or any reason happened with their cards which causes few days delay.

I want to know when a customer card charged in chargify so i can generate a new order that time, i have used above PHP Library but could not found a function which get me info.

Can any one help for this or any other solution to fix this ?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can setup by webhook and get all the information immediately once customer charged and for that you need to setup webhook url on your server and then add it to chargify account, after login go to Settings -> Webhooks -> Add url for example:

http://www.domain.com/webhooks/

Create index.php file under "webhooks" directory and you will be getting an array from chargify like this:

Array
(
    [id] => 29660474
    [event] => renewal_success
    [payload] => Array
        (
            [subscription] => Array
                (
                    [activated_at] => 2014-12-12 06:11:51 -0500
                    [balance_in_cents] => 1900
                    [cancel_at_end_of_period] => false
                    [canceled_at] => 
                    [cancellation_message] => 
                    [created_at] => 2014-12-12 06:11:40 -0500
                    [current_period_ends_at] => 2015-02-12 06:11:40 -0500
                    [expires_at] => 
                    [id] => 7231335
                    [next_assessment_at] => 2015-02-12 06:11:40 -0500
                    [payment_collection_method] => automatic
                    [snap_day] => 
                    [state] => active
                    [trial_ended_at] => 
                    [trial_started_at] => 
                    [updated_at] => 2015-01-12 06:22:21 -0500
                    [current_period_started_at] => 2015-01-12 06:11:40 -0500
                    [previous_state] => active
                    [signup_payment_id] => 78110242
                    [signup_revenue] => 19.00
                    [delayed_cancel_at] => 
                    [coupon_code] => 
                    [total_revenue_in_cents] => 1900
                    [product_price_in_cents] => 1900
                    [product_version_number] => 6
                    [payment_type] => credit_card
                    [customer] => Array
                        (
                            [address] => xx xxxx place Success
                            [address_2] => 
                            [city] => Perth
                            [country] => AU
                            [created_at] => 2014-12-12 06:11:39 -0500
                            [email] => xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
                            [first_name] => Jay
                            [id] => 7093037
                            [last_name] => Gable
                            [organization] => Large
                            [phone] => xxxxxxxx
                            [portal_customer_created_at] => 2014-12-12 06:11:52 -0500
                            [portal_invite_last_accepted_at] => 
                            [portal_invite_last_sent_at] => 
                            [reference] => 548acd6a8ef3a
                            [state] => WA
                            [updated_at] => 2014-12-12 06:11:52 -0500
                            [verified] => false
                            [zip] => 6164
                        )
                    [product] => Array
                        (
                            [accounting_code] => 
                            [archived_at] => 
                            [created_at] => 2014-08-11 03:27:20 -0400
                            [description] => xxxx
                            [expiration_interval] => 
                            [expiration_interval_unit] => never
                            [handle] => monthly-subscription
                            [id] => 3493985
                            [initial_charge_in_cents] => 
                            [interval] => 1
                            [interval_unit] => month
                            [name] => 1 Pair Monthly
                            [price_in_cents] => 1900
                            [request_credit_card] => true
                            [require_credit_card] => true
                            [return_params] => 
                            [return_url] => 
                            [taxable] => false
                            [trial_interval] => 
                            [trial_interval_unit] => month
                            [trial_price_in_cents] => 
                            [update_return_url] => 
                            [updated_at] => 2014-12-11 17:09:41 -0500
                            [product_family] => Array
                                (
                                    [accounting_code] => 
                                    [description] => Standard Monthly Subscriptions
                                    [handle] => monthly-subscription
                                    [id] => 421701
                                    [name] => Australia
                                )
                            [public_signup_pages] => Array
                                (
                                    [id] => 100806
                                    [url] => xx
                                )
                        )
                    [credit_card] => Array
                        (
                            [billing_address] => xxxxx Success
                            [billing_address_2] => 
                            [billing_city] => Perth
                            [billing_country] => AU
                            [billing_state] => WA
                            [billing_zip] => 6164
                            [card_type] => master
                            [current_vault] => braintree_blue
                            [customer_id] => 7093037
                            [customer_vault_token] => 
                            [expiration_month] => 2
                            [expiration_year] => 2015
                            [first_name] => XXXX
                            [id] => 4693476
                            [last_name] => Gable
                            [masked_card_number] => XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-xxxx
                            [vault_token] => xxxxxx
                            [payment_type] => credit_card
                        )
                )
            [site] => Array
                (
                    [id] => xxxxx
                    [subdomain] => xxxxx
                )
        )
)

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Chargify has a feature specifically this called "Webhooks" (just like Paypal, Stripe, etc). Whenever there is activity on a customer's subscription (like a monthly renewal), Chargify will send a POST request directly to your server to alert you to it.

The specific documentation is here: https://docs.chargify.io/webhooks

No cron job necessary!

Answer 3

Easiest way would be to store last successful transaction date in DB and check frequently if a month has passed since last update with cron or mysql events scheduler, never used chargify but paypal api can communicate with your server and return status of transaction, which you can use on your site to update DB