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  • Anyone interested in Paypal REST Base Inteface from Aware?

Hi guys;

As you may know, Paypal's primary interface has moved to REST API. And as per previous discussions, support has said, in order for any REST API to be connected to, it requires a custom plugin from Awaresoft.

Now my question is, who is interested in a REST API plugin that we can request from Awaresoft to develop it for a fee?
How should we approach it? Should we pitch in to pay for a custom plugin that support most of the Paypal features or should Awaresoft create that as a standalone product, like Gantt or ,Mobile that can be purchased separately?

Please offer your comments and suggestions or willingness, so we can have support to make a decision how, how much and what they can do.

Thanks!

eagles9999 wrote

I'm in for $100 USD

Me too.
Let's hope to get more more interested people, So support would give it a considerations.

I might also be interested, It depends how/what we can get the plugin to do. A complete integration i.e. the option to add a creditcard to an Aware app which the Aware app then uses to charge clients via PayPal is what I want/need. This can by the way already be achieved today using Braintree (Braintree own PayPal so the wanted functionality might already exist). A better developed Braintree module could possibly be interesting instead i.e. further develop the Braintree module functionality and also possible integrate it directly in Aware IM if possible because having a reliable, working payment system for our apps is crucial? (and no, the current PayPal solution is IMO not good enough).

hpl123 wrote

I might also be interested, It depends how/what we can get the plugin to do. A complete integration i.e. the option to add a creditcard to an Aware app which the Aware app then uses to charge clients via PayPal is what I want/need. This can by the way already be achieved today using Braintree (Braintree own PayPal so the wanted functionality might already exist). A better developed Braintree module could possibly be interesting instead i.e. further develop the Braintree module functionality and also possible integrate it directly in Aware IM if possible because having a reliable, working payment system for our apps is crucial? (and no, the current PayPal solution is IMO not good enough).

So Henrik, are you saying Awaresoft has a plugin for Braintree?
Does Awaresoft charge for that? if yes, how much?
I checked Braintree and says: "2.9% + $.30 per transaction after your first $50K."
But I can't find how they charge BEFORE the first $50K. Any idea?

We really need a solid payment system in Aware,.

Ben
Yes, there already exists an Braintree plugin that basically connects an Aware IM application with an Braintree account. The creditcard info etc. IS NOT stored in the Aware IM app (making it more secure) but rather the Aware IM app sends the creditcard info to the Braintree vault when first registered. The Aware IM app then afterwards make charges to the saved card via the Braintree API.

I have an Braintree account etc. but not charging users yet for the particular app where I use it so can´t give you any details about the usage, performance etc. but it should work nicely. I know there is another developer that actively use it in his app but can´t remember who it was but if you read this please share a comment or two. Awaresoft charges for the plugin and the cost is also determined if I recall correctly to what your requirements in your app is.

Regarding the fees etc. Braintree determines a fee per application and is part of their merchant account application process but it is typically a % per transaction (can´t remember what I pay but a couple of percent somewhere).

Again, having a fully functional payment integration is crucial and having the Braintree plugin further developed is something I would rather chip in on. Examples of further developed functionality might be:

  • Status message integration i.e. enable Aware IM app to get and work with Braintree status messages for example when making transactions, when cards are about to expire etc. etc.
  • Better integration between Aware IM and Braintree i.e. the ability to get more info FROM Braintree when needed (not like today where it´s only possible to send creditcard info and make transactions) and possible also send more info, update cards etc. etc.
  • Integrate the Braintree plugin NATIVELY in Aware IM if possible so all developers can use it and basically only needs an Braintree account to get it up and running.
  • Surely other useful stuff i´m forgetting.
hpl123 wrote

- Integrate the Braintree plugin NATIVELY in Aware IM if possible so all developers can use it and basically only needs an Braintree account to get it up and running.

Henrik, greatly appreciate your input. I'm also hoping this becomes part of Aware natively with more features. This will attract more developers to use Aware for SaaS application. Payment processing is an integral part of SaaS application.

I have to make a decision to either start simple with Paypal version and then move to Braintree plugin or start with Braintree.

Thank you again.

Ben,
I agree, having a complete payment system in Aware is important. Regarding the Braintree VS PayPal (current implementation) choice, go with Braintree. Better solution by far.

Regarding previous discussion in this post, I am still interested in looking into further developing the Braintree plugin. Is anyone else interested in this? Please write your thoughts. Thanks

I have had a personal Paypal account for years. But I have just spent weeks trying to set up a Paypal Merchant account.

I am ready to shoot myself in the head.

Their resolution center comes back to you requesting further documents and info which I have answered... done. They dump a couple of small transactions
in your account which you need to respond to them with the values deposited... done.

Resolution Center says.... waiting on more info but does not tell you what.... Click "find out what is issue is restricting your account" just takes you back to the
same page.

For such an organisation... it is lamentably unprofessional.

Have sent emails.... no response.

I am done with them...

Have now approached Braintree and will see what comes of that.

Grrrrrr! 😡

hpl123 wrote

Ben,
I agree, having a complete payment system in Aware is important. Regarding the Braintree VS PayPal (current implementation) choice, go with Braintree. Better solution by far.

Regarding previous discussion in this post, I am still interested in looking into further developing the Braintree plugin. Is anyone else interested in this? Please write your thoughts. Thanks

I just found out from Support that the plugin that Aware has for Braintree, does not support accepting payment if someone has Paypal account, only Credit card. That's a bummer.
But with the current Paypal system in Aware, a user can pay, by Paypal, Credit or debit card. That is very important.

Unless we can ask Support to add it now for a fee and those of interested split the cost.

For those who want the current plugin to have Paypal added, please state below, so I can ask Support what would be the final cost for each one of us to buy a copy from Awaresoft. I need to have the number of people to give to Support so they can then tell each one of us what to pay them.

Who is interested? Give us your name.

Well guys, I ran the idea by Support about adding Paypal Acceptance to Plugin besides CC, and for those of us willing to buy it, Support will tell us what the total cost of the plugin would be and each of us make payment to support and then they start the work.

Please state your name below if you want a copy, so we have a number of people to give to support. This idea of using Braintree is much more cost effective than building a Paypal REST base from scratch. Thanks to Henrik for bringing up Braintree plugin.

eagles9999 wrote

Mark Bailey - $100

Mark at this point don't know what to total price would be. We need to provide # of interested parties to Support and based on the work involved, they will tell us what each package will cost. So $ figure is irrelevant at this point. We just need how many people.

Thanks for quick response!

I'm interested, too... A good payment system is highly necessary in our days 🙂

weblike wrote

I'm interested, too... A good payment system is highly necessary in our days 🙂

Just remember, this is a fairly basic plugin to save CC info in the vault and allow developer send charges. It does not support Braintree subscription, but you can build that in Aware easily. The only addition we're interested, is to support Paypal beside CC.
If this is good for you, can I count you as an interested party to purchase plugin?

weblike wrote

I'm in with $100

I just explained it to Mark 🙂 . No $ figure yet we know what the package will cost. But I will tell you this, $100 will not even buy you the current plugin. 😉

OK, I got it 🙂.

I'm interested (fairly depends on price as well, everything does in nowadays 🙂 and quality of course ).

thx a lot.

We're the guys that got the original Braintree plugin developed by awareim. There's a lot to consider on this topic, so I will try and give you our reasoning and then you need to lay your own needs and situation over the the top.

First our situation...

We had the Braintree plugin developed a few years ago. We had previously used PayPal for a subscription saas aware system we developed. PayPal did ok but it had a few issues we didn't like...

  1. With PayPal if you set up a subscription, you can't vary the amount of the subscription by more than 15%, without them re entering their credit card details again. We had an entry price of $19 per month for 1-3 users, when they went up to 4 users the price goes up to $49 per month... With PayPal we could not change the price without the customer intervention.

  2. You have to leave our site and go to PayPal to do the transaction. It's ok but we wanted it more tightly integrated. Plus the return success in Aware never really worked properly.

  3. You don't actually get the credit card details. You DO want to know expiry dates of cards, cause users need to update details, you need to prompt, but you don't know the dates. You only knows when the transaction fails, too late.

  4. If the payment fails, you get an email. They try 5 times, then the subscription is cancelled. It's a pain to manage, it's outside your app, so it's manual.

We kinda hated PayPal by the end of it, so we started to look around. This was before PayPal bought Braintre. So we got the Braintree plugin developed.

It's a simple plugin, you really only need two features and the plugin does it....

  1. Add a customer into the vault, get a token
  2. Send a charge transaction to customer in the vault using a token, get a success or fail

You manage all the billing logic in aware, you keep exp dates, you can change the amounts as you need, you use all your own forms. The plugin works great to do that. Yes you can't take PayPal as a payment method (not an issue for us, have a think about if you really need to offer PayPal, I would guess no at least as a starting point).

Now the bad side of Braintree....

  1. Check the requirements in your country to get an account, in Australia (where we are based) you must have a merchant account, and if you think getting a PayPal business account is a pain, a merchant account is a lot worse (we had to provide a business plan and financial projections)

  2. Currencies. Our Braintree account provides only for Australian dollars. This is a pain, we want to launch in Asia, UK, USA in LOCAL currency. Can't do it easily within Braintree, we have to open a merchant account in each currency. (PayPal by far has the largest selection of currencies).

  3. Prices have gone up since PayPal bought them, such is life.

So here is the situation for us...

We're re launching a product, but we really want to push it into other countries, so we're actually considering moving back to PayPal. (Can you believe it!)

Plus we're considering changing our charging method, our thinking is we can simplify our billing process by moving away from an automatic deduction method on the monthly anniversary. Basically we will have our system calculate a"date paid to" for the customer, they buy 1, 3, 6 or twelve months in advance, that sets the date paid to. If this falls behind current date they can't login without making a payment. This is what our accounting system does, it's simple and effective, but it does have an issue if people don't pay for 5 months and then try and login. Also if they just buy monthly they have to keep re entering credit card details.

In summary....

The current Braintree plugin is good, I really don't think you need to develop it further IF you're happy with Braintree issues . But really think through your fee and charging structure, there may be a better way.