Understanding VerifyPurchases for "Non-Consumables"
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Hi there,
I have a mobile application that I am planning to release on both Android and iOS. My monetization strategy is to have a virtual currency and then a cosmetic store where the user can unlock items via VC. The user earns VC via gameplay and also upon watching ads. I also allow the user to purchase VC via IAP (which I can use VerifyPurchases on brain cloud to award to the user). I was also going to sell a coin boost that is not purchasable via VC (IAP only).
I am seeing that VerifyPurchases automatically will award VC to my server-side VC balance upon a successful verify. What happens with Non-Consumable products (like my coin booster) upon successful verification? I don't see anything in the available APIs to read if a product was successfully purchased. Is it now up to the client to then save more data on braincloud to log this purchase, or to use a post hook on verifyPurchases to record this purchase? I am currently keeping track of my unlocks in player statistics. What's the best practice here?
Thanks,
Davis -
Hi Davis,
As with most things brainCloud - there are a few ways that you could approach this.
You could certainly use player statistics - as you are for your other unlocks.
brainCloud allows you to attach "extra data" to a product - they are essentially key+value pairs, that get returned as a simple JSON map in the VerifyPurchase response.
You could catch that response on the client, or for more security, do it from the server - either via a cloud code script that wraps the VerifyPurchase() call itself, or as you said, a post-hook on the VerifyPurchase call. Just update the named "statistic" based on the "extra data" portion of the VerifyPurchase response.
There is one other way of doing this - which is to have a special currency for your "coin booster". <- brainCloud allows you to have as many as you want.
To use it, simply create a currency called "coinBooster" - and allow the customer to buy one of them. Voila - no custom code!
Hope that helps!
Paul.
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Thanks Paul that all makes sense. I will likely go with wrapping the Verify call in a cloud script to be consistent with my other purchase code.
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Happy to help!
