3_customers.md

Customers

Every payment processor has a Customer object that keeps track of your customers by email. Pay keeps track of these Customers with the Pay::Customer model.

Setting the Payment Processor

Before you can process payments, you need to assign a payment processor for the user.

@user.set_payment_processor :stripe
@user.set_payment_processor :braintree
@user.set_payment_processor :paddle
@user.set_payment_processor :fake_processor, allow_fake: true

This creates a Pay::Customer record in the database that keeps track of the payment processor's ID and allows you to interact with the API to charge and subscribe this customer.

The fake_processor is restricted by default so users can't give themselves free access to your application.

Alternatively, you can set a default processor for all users.

class User < ApplicationRecord
  pay_customer default_payment_processor: :stripe
end

Payment Processor Associations

After setting the payment processor, your model will have a payment_processor they can use to create charges, subscriptions, etc.

@user.payment_processor
#=> #<Pay::Customer processor: "stripe", processor_id: "cus_1000">

This record keeps track of payment processor that is active and the ID for the customer on the API. It also is associated with all Charges, Subscriptions, and Payment Methods.

A user might switch between payment processors. For example, they might initially subscribe using Braintree, cancel after a while, and resubscribe using Stripe later on.

Pay keeps track of these with a has_many :pay_customers association.

@user.pay_customers
#=> [#<Pay::Customer>, #<Pay::Customer>]

Only one Pay::Customer can be the default which is used for payment_processor.

Retrieving a Customer object from the Payment Processor

If you need to access the API object directly from the payment processor like the Stripe::Customer. You can retrieve the object with:

@user.payment_processor.customer
#=> #<Stripe::Customer>

Paddle:

It is currently not possible to retrieve a Customer object through the Paddle API.

Next

See Payment Methods