# Cdv Purchase Plugin
> Native Capacitor and Cordova Plugin for In-App Purchases
---
Need professional help and support? [Contact Me](mailto:hoelt@fovea.cc).
## Summary
This plugin allows **In-App Purchases** to be made from **Capacitor**, **Cordova** and **Ionic** applications.
It lets you handle in-app purchases on many platforms with a single codebase. The plugin provides **native implementations** for both Capacitor and Cordova — no compatibility layer needed.
This plugin provides an easy and flexible way to integrate **in-app purchases** into your mobile applications. You can easily add support for in-app purchases of digital content, such as subscriptions, consumables, and non-consumables, using the store-specific purchase APIs provided by the major mobile platforms. The plugin also supports requesting payments through popular payment providers such as **Braintree**, allowing you to easily accept payments from your users.
The plugin is designed to be easy to use and provides a consistent API across all supported platforms, so you can focus on building your app without worrying about platform-specific differences. Whether you are building a subscription-based app, a freemium app, or any other app that requires in-app purchases, this plugin can help you get started quickly and easily.
### Features
| | AppStore (iOS / macOS) | Google Play | Braintree (iOS / Android) |
|--|--|--|--|
| consumables | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| multi-quantity consumables | | ✅ | |
| non consumables | ✅ | ✅ | |
| subscriptions | ✅ | ✅ | |
| restore purchases | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| payment requests | | | ✅ |
| [receipt validation](https://www.iaptic.com) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
## Installation
### Capacitor
```sh
npm install capacitor-plugin-cdv-purchase
npx cap sync
```
```ts
import { store, ProductType, Platform } from 'capacitor-plugin-cdv-purchase';
```
The full `CdvPurchase` namespace and convenience exports are available:
```ts
import { CdvPurchase, store, Store, ProductType, Platform, LogLevel, ErrorCode, Iaptic } from 'capacitor-plugin-cdv-purchase';
```
### Cordova
```sh
cordova plugin add "cordova-plugin-purchase"
```
```ts
// The CdvPurchase namespace is available globally after plugin install
const store = CdvPurchase.store;
```
### Recommended Cordova plugins
Install cordova-plugin-network-information (click for details).
Sometimes, the plugin cannot connect to the app store because it has no network connection. It will then retry either:
* periodically after a certain amount of time;
* when the device fires an ['online'](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/online) event.
The [cordova-plugin-network-information](https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-network-information) plugin is required in order for the `'online'` event to be properly received in the Cordova application. Without it, this plugin will only be able to use the periodic check to determine if the device is back online.
Install cordova-plugin-advanced-http (click for details).
When making receipt validation requests, the purchase plugin uses, by default, the browser's ajax capabilities. This sometime causes issues with CORS restriction. CORS also imposes an extra back-and-forth with the server (the CORS preflight request) to ensure the server allows for such request to be made. By installing the [advanced-http plugin](https://github.com/silkimen/cordova-plugin-advanced-http), you get rid of those issue and benefit from the extra feature of the the plugin, like advanced authentication option. Read the [advanced-http](https://github.com/silkimen/cordova-plugin-advanced-http) plugin documentation for details.
### Note for ionic 3
Since version 13 of the plugin, it should be used **without** `@ionic-native/in-app-purchase-2`.
ionic 3 doesn't support recent typescript notations, but the plugin can be used without typings by just declaring it:
```ts
declare var CdvPurchase: any
```
### Setup your Application
See [Setup iOS Applications](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase/wiki/Setup-for-iOS-and-macOS#setup-ios-applications) and [Setup Android Applications](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase/wiki/Setup-for-Android-Google-Play#setup-android-applications).
## Getting Started
### Learning about In-App Purchases
If you wish to learn more about In-App Purchases (IAP), you'll find a good overview on the subject from the various platforms documentation:
* Apple:
* [In-App Purchase Introduction](https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/)
* [Auto-Renewable Subscriptions](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/subscriptions)
* Google:
* [In-App Purchases Best Practices](https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/earn/in-app-purchases)
* [Billing Overview](https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_overview)
* Microsoft
* [Monetize with In-App Purchases](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/monetize/in-app-purchases-and-trials)
All platforms share the same concepts, so they are a good reads in all cases.
### Using the Plugin
To ease the beginning of your journey into the intimidating world of In-App Purchase with Cordova, we wrote a guide which hopefully will help you get things done:
* [Guide: Cordova In-App Purchase Plugin - v13.0](https://purchase.cordova.fovea.cc/v/v13.0/)
You'll have two main tasks to accomplish:
1. Setup your application and In-App Products on AppStore, Play, Braintree or Azure platforms using their respective web interfaces.
2. Add In-App Purchase code to your application.
For platform setup, the [wiki](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase/wiki/Home) is a good starting point.
There's a specific page for the [version 13](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase/wiki/Version-13).
**API documentation** can be found here: [cordova-plugin-purchase API](https://www.iaptic.com/documentation/cordova-plugin-api/)
### Upgrading to Version 13
There's been some changes to the API with version 13 of the plugin. This document should help existing apps with the migration: [Migrate to version 13](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase/wiki/HOWTO:-Migrate-to-v13).
### Receipt Validation
The plugin supports two modes of operation for managing product ownership:
1. **With Receipt Validation (Recommended)**
- Products ownership status is determined by validating receipts with a server
- `product.owned` reflects the validated ownership status
- Works reliably across all environments (TestFlight, AppStore)
- Can be setup using [Iaptic's receipt validation service](https://www.iaptic.com)
2. **Without Receipt Validation**
- Relies only on local device data
- `product.owned` will initially be false
- Use `store.owned(productId)` to check ownership status
- Limited functionality in test environments
For proper subscription support, receipt validation is strongly recommended. You can:
- Implement your own validation server
- Use [Iaptic's receipt validation service](https://www.iaptic.com)
See our [receipt validation guide](https://purchase.cordova.fovea.cc/v/v13.0/advanced/receipt-validation) for more details.
### Subscription Example
Here's a complete example showing how to implement subscriptions with the plugin:
```typescript
class SubscriptionService {
constructor(store: CdvPurchase.Store) {
// Setup receipt validation (recommended)
store.validator = "https://validator.iaptic.com/v1/validate?appName=demo&apiKey=12345678";
// Register products
store.register([{
id: 'subscription1',
platform: CdvPurchase.Platform.APPLE_APPSTORE,
type: CdvPurchase.ProductType.PAID_SUBSCRIPTION,
}]);
// Setup event handlers
store.when()
.productUpdated(() => {
console.log('Products loaded from the store:', store.products);
updateProductsUI(); //
})
.approved(transaction => {
console.log('Purchase approved:', transaction);
transaction.verify();
})
.verified(receipt => {
console.log('Purchase verified:', receipt);
receipt.finish();
updateActiveSubscriptionUI();
});
// Initialize the store
store.initialize([{
platform: CdvPurchase.Platform.APPLE_APPSTORE,
options: {
needAppReceipt: true,
}
}]);
}
/** Purchase a subscription */
subscribe(productId: string) {
const product = store.get(productId);
if (!product) {
console.log('Product not found');
return;
}
product.getOffer()?.order()
.then(error => {
if (error) {
if (error.code === CdvPurchase.ErrorCode.PAYMENT_CANCELLED) {
console.log('Payment cancelled by user');
}
else {
console.log('Failed to subscribe:', error);
}
}
});
}
/** Check if user has an active subscription */
hasActiveSubscription(): boolean {
return store.owned('subscription1');
}
}
```
For a more complete example with a backend integration, check:
- Client: https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-subscription-example
- Server: https://github.com/iaptic/iaptic-example-nodejs-backend
## Extra Resources
### For iOS
- [In-App Purchase Configuration Guide for AppStore Connect](https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store-connect/)
- Learn how to set up and manage In-App Purchases with AppStore Connect.
### Extensions
- [StoreKit 2](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase-storekit2)
- Enable StoreKit 2 on iOS 15+. When installed, the Apple AppStore adapter automatically upgrades from StoreKit 1 to StoreKit 2 — no code changes needed.
- Requires cordova-ios 7+ (tested with cordova-ios 8).
- `cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-purchase-storekit2`
- [Braintree SDK](https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-plugin-purchase-braintree)
- Add the Braintree SDK to your application, enable Braintree on iOS and Android.
### Subscriptions
For proper subscription support, you need a receipt validation server. You can
implement your own or use [Iaptic's receipt validation service](https://www.iaptic.com).
Here is a full example of a cordova application implementing subscriptions, with and without a backend server:
- Client: https://github.com/j3k0/cordova-subscription-example
- Server: https://github.com/iaptic/iaptic-example-nodejs-backend
# Contribute
### Contributors:
*  [Jean-Christophe Hoelt](https://github.com/j3k0), Author
*  [Josef Fröhle](https://github.com/Dexus), Support
* Guillaume Charhon, (now defunct) v1 for android
* Matt Kane, initial iOS code
* Mohammad Naghavi, original unification attempt
* Dave Alden [@dpa99c](https://github.com/dpa99c) (Apple-hosted IAPs for iOS)
## Sponsors
* 
For sponsoring most of JC's work on the plugin.
* 
Ionic Framework Team (http://ionicframework.com/)
* 
For sponsoring the UWP platform.
* Maxwell C. Moore ([MCM Consulting, LLC](http://mcmconsulting.biz))
* Justin Noel [@calendee](https://github.com/calendee)
* [Those guys](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/phonegap-cordova-in-app-purchase-ios-and-android#pledges)
## Licence
The MIT License
Copyright (c) 2014-, Jean-Christophe HOELT and contributors
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
```
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.
```