docs/html/google/play/billing/api.jd

page.title=In-app Billing API
parent.title=In-app Billing
parent.link=index.html
page.tags="billing, inapp, iap"
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">

  <h2>Topics</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#producttypes">Product Types</a>
       <ol>
       <li><a href="#managed">Managed In-app Products</a></li>
       <li><a href="#subs">Subscriptions</a></li>
       </ol>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#purchase">Purchasing Items</a></li>
    <li><a href="#consume">Consuming In-app Products</a>
       <ol>
       <li><a href="#consumetypes">Non-consumable and Consumable In-app Products</a></li>
       <li><a href="#managingconsumables">Managing Consumable Purchases</a></li>
       </ol>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#caching">Local Caching</a></li>
  </ol>

  <h2>Reference</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_reference.html">In-app Billing
    Reference (V3)</a></li>
  </ol>

 <h2>See also</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/index.html">Selling In-app Products</a></li>
  </ol>
</div>
</div>

<p>
  The In-app Billing Version 3 API makes it easier for you to integrate In-app
  Billing into your applications. The features in this version include improved
  synchronous purchase flow, APIs to let you easily track ownership of
  consumable goods, and local caching of in-app purchase data.
</p>

<h2 id="producttypes">Product Types</h2>

<p>
  You define your products using the Google Play Developer Console, including
  product type, SKU, price, description, and so on. For more information, see
  <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering
  In-app Billing</a>. The Version 3 API supports managed in-app products and
  subscriptions.
</p>

<h3 id="managed">Managed In-app Products</h3>

<p>
  Managed in-app products are items that have their ownership information
  tracked and managed by Google Play. When a user purchases a managed in-app
  item, Google Play stores the purchase information for each item on a per-user
  basis. This enables you to later query Google Play at any time to restore the
  state of the items a specific user has purchased. This information is
  persistent on the Google Play servers even if the user uninstalls the
  application or if they change devices.
</p>

<p>
  If you are using the Version 3 API, you can also consume managed items within
  your application. You would typically implement consumption for items that
  can be purchased multiple times (such as in-game currency, fuel, or magic
  spells). Once purchased, a managed item cannot be purchased again until you
  consume the item, by sending a consumption request to Google Play. To learn
  more about in-app product consumption, see <a href="#consume">Consuming
  Items</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="subs">Subscriptions</h3>

<p>
  A subscription is a product type offered in In-app Billing that lets you sell
  content, services, or features to users from inside your app with recurring
  monthly or annual billing. You can sell subscriptions to almost any type of
  digital content, from any type of app or game. To understand how
  subscriptions work, see <a href=
  "{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html">In-app Billing
  Subscriptions</a>.
</p>

<p>
  With the Version 3 API, you can use the same purchase flow for buying
  subscriptions and retrieving subscription purchase information as with in-app
  products. For a code example, see <a href=
  "{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_integrate.html#Subs">Implementing
  Subscriptions</a>.
</p>

<p class="caution">
  <strong>Important</strong>: Unlike in-app products, subscriptions cannot be
  consumed.
</p>

<h2 id="purchase">Purchasing Items</h2>

<div class="figure" style="width:430px">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/in-app-billing/v3/iab_v3_purchase_flow.png" id="figure1" height="530"/>
<p class="img-caption">
  <strong>Figure 1.</strong> The basic sequence for a purchase request.
</p>
</div>

<p>A typical purchase flow with the Version 3 API is as follows:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Your application sends a {@code isBillingSupported} request to Google
  Play to determine that the target version of the In-app Billing API that you
  are using is supported.
  </li>

  <li>When your application starts or user logs in, it's good practice to check
  with Google Play to determine what items are owned by the user. To query the
  user's in-app purchases, send a {@code getPurchases} request. If the request
  is successful, Google Play returns a {@code Bundle} containing a list of
  product IDs of the purchased items, a list of the individual purchase
  details, and a list of the signatures for the purchases.
  </li>

  <li>Usually, you'll want to inform the user of the products that are
  available for purchase. To query the details of the in-app products that you
  defined in Google Play, your application can send a {@code getSkuDetails}
  request. You must specify a list of product IDs in the query request. If the
  request is successful, Google Play returns a {@code Bundle} containing
  product details including the product’s price, title, description, and the
  purchase type.
  </li>

  <li>If an in-app product is not owned by the user, you can initiate a
  purchase for it. To start a purchase request, your application sends a {@code
  getBuyIntent} request, specifying the product ID of the item to purchase,
  along with other parameters. You should record the product ID when you create
  a new in-app product in the Developer Console.
    <ol type="a">
      <li>Google Play returns a {@code Bundle} that contains a {@code
      PendingIntent} which your application uses to start the checkout UI for
      the purchase.
      </li>

      <li>Your application launches the pending intent by calling the {@code
      startIntentSenderForResult} method.
      </li>

      <li>When the checkout flow finishes (that is, the user successfully
      purchases the item or cancels the purchase), Google Play sends a response
      {@code Intent} to your {@code onActivityResult} method. The result code
      of the {@code onActivityResult} has a result code that indicates whether
      the purchase was successful or canceled. The response {@code Intent}
      contains information about the purchased item, including a {@code
      purchaseToken} String that is generated by Google Play to uniquely
      identify this purchase transaction. The {@code Intent} also contains the
      signature of the purchase, signed with your private developer key.
      </li>
    </ol>
  </li>
</ol>

<p>
  To learn more about the Version 3 API calls and server responses, see
  <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_reference.html">In-app Billing
  Reference</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="consume">Consuming In-app Products</h2>

<p>
  You can use the consumption mechanism to track the user's ownership of in-app
  products.
</p>

<p>
  In Version 3, all in-app products are managed. This means that the user's
  ownership of all in-app item purchases is maintained by Google Play, and your
  application can query the user's purchase information when needed. When the
  user successfully purchases an in-app product, that purchase is recorded in
  Google Play. Once an in-app product is purchased, it is considered to be
  "owned". In-app products in the "owned" state cannot be purchased from Google
  Play. You must send a consumption request for the "owned" in-app product
  before Google Play makes it available for purchase again. Consuming the
  in-app product reverts it to the "unowned" state, and discards the previous
  purchase data.
</p>

<div class="figure" style="width:420px">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/in-app-billing/v3/iab_v3_consumption_flow.png"
    id="figure2" height="300"/>
<p class="img-caption">
  <strong>Figure 2.</strong> The basic sequence for a consumption request.
</p>
</div>

<p>
  To retrieve the list of product's owned by the user, your application sends a
  {@code getPurchases} call to Google Play. Your application can make a
  consumption request by sending a {@code consumePurchase} call. In the request
  argument, you must specify the in-app product's unique {@code purchaseToken}
  String that you obtained from Google Play when it was purchased. Google Play
  returns a status code indicating if the consumption was recorded
  successfully.
</p>

<h3 id="consumetypes">Non-consumable and Consumable In-app Products</h3>

<p>
  It's up to you to decide if you want to handle your in-app products as
  non-consumable or consumable items.
</p>

<dl>
  <dt>
    Non-consumable Items
  </dt>

  <dd>
    Typically, you would not implement consumption for in-app products that can
    only be purchased once in your application and provide a permanent benefit.
    Once purchased, these items will be permanently associated to the user's
    Google account. An example of a non-consumable in-app product is a premium
    upgrade or a level pack.
  </dd>

  <dt>
    Consumable items
  </dt>

  <dd>
    In contrast, you can implement consumption for items that can be made
    available for purchase multiple times. Typically, these items provide
    certain temporary effects. For example, the user's in-game character might
    gain life points or gain extra gold coins in their inventory. Dispensing
    the benefits or effects of the purchased item in your application is called
    <em>provisioning</em> the in-app product. You are responsible for
    controlling and tracking how in-app products are provisioned to the users.
    <p class="note">
      <strong>Important:</strong> Before provisioning the consumable in-app
      product in your application, you must send a consumption request to
      Google Play and receive a successful response indicating that the
      consumption was recorded.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl>

<h3 id="managingconsumables">Managing consumable purchases in your application</h3>
<p>Here is the basic flow for purchasing a consumable in-app product:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Launch a purchase flow with a {@code getBuyIntent} call
  </li>

  <li>Get a response {@code Bundle}from Google Play indicating if the purchase
  completed successfully.
  </li>

  <li>If the purchase was successful, consume the purchase by making a {@code
  consumePurchase} call.
  </li>

  <li>Get a response code from Google Play indicating if the consumption
  completed successfully.
  </li>

  <li>If the consumption was successful, provision the product in your
  application.
  </li>
</ol>

<p>
  Subsequently, when the user starts up or logs in to your application, you
  should check if the user owns any outstanding consumable in-app products; if
  so, make sure to consume and provision those items. Here's the recommended
  application startup flow if you implement consumable in-app products in your
  application:
</p>

<ol>
  <li>Send a {@code getPurchases} request to query the owned in-app products
  for the user.
  </li>

  <li>If there are any consumable in-app products, consume the items by calling
  {@code consumePurchase}. This step is necessary because the application might
  have completed the purchase order for the consumable item, but stopped or got
  disconnected before the application had the chance to send a consumption
  request.
  </li>

  <li>Get a response code from Google Play indicating if the consumption
  completed successfully.
  </li>

  <li>If the consumption was successful, provision the product in your
  application.
  </li>
</ol>

<h2 id="caching">Local Caching</h2>

<p>
  Because the Google Play client now caches In-app Billing information locally
  on the device, you can use the Version 3 API to query for this information
  more frequently, for example through a {@code getPurchases} call. Unlike with
  previous versions of the API, many Version 3 API calls will be serviced
  through cache lookups instead of through a network connection to Google Play,
  which significantly speeds up the API's response time.
</p>