In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up In-App Products in your BuddyBoss App, so that you can link them to the In-App Products you create in your Apple Developer Account and Google Developer Account. Make sure to read our article for testing In-App Purchases as well, so you know how to test your products after adding them.
Video Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
01:08 – Tutorial – In-App Purchase Settings
04:55 – Tutorial – Display Products in Tab Bar
05:46 – Tutorial – How to Add Products
08:13 – Tutorial – Add Subscription Products
16:54 – Tutorial – Reorder Products on Products Screen
17:30 – Tutorial – Subscription Groups
20:52 – App Demo – Products Screen / Testing Purchases
25:04 – Tutorial – In-App Purchase Transactions
26:16 – Tutorial – Add Course Products
29:22 – App Demo – Purchase Course Products
31:11 – Tutorial – Testing in Release Apps
33:40 – App Demo – Testing in iOS Release App
35:52 – App Demo – Testing in Android Release App
Enabling In-App Purchases
The first step is to enable the In-App Purchases component. In your WordPress admin, go to BuddyBoss App > Components. From there, you can enable In-App Purchases.
In-App Purchase Settings
Once you have enabled the In-App Purchases component, go to BuddyBoss App > Settings > In-App Purchases.
The first option is for “Require Purchase”. If you check this option, when your members first log into the app, they will be required to purchase a product before they can advance into viewing the rest of the content in the app. The products they can choose from will be limited to just the ones you have assigned to your Products Screen. If you do not use this option, you can still add the Products Screen menu into your Tab Bar.
The next options are for “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy”. Apple and Google require that you display this information on the purchase screens, according to their In-App Purchase guidelines. You can select from any existing WordPress pages to be assigned to each option, and then when viewing a product in your app, you will see links to open the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in popup modals. We are using WordPress pages for these settings, instead of App Pages, because we know that many of you have already created Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages for your BuddyBoss Platform Registration Pages which are synced into the app. You can modify these pages to include some content specific to your app, and use them for your In-App Purchases as well.
Products Screen
The “Products Screen” is a dedicated screen in your app, that displays specific products that you have assigned to be displayed on the Products Screen. This is especially useful for selling membership tiers that you want to be clearly visible for purchase on a dedicated pricing tier page. You can also use this screen to advertise courses you for purchase, if that makes sense for your app. Free Products can be added to this screen as well, giving users the option to pay for a Paid Product, or just use a Free Product if they are not ready to buy.
To edit the Product Screen options, go to BuddyBoss App > Settings > In-App Purchases.
In the In-App Purchase settings, as explained above, you can force every member to purchase a product from the Product Screen immediately after logging into the app, by enabling “Require Purchase”.
Below those settings, you will see a settings area for the Products Screen, with an option for “Sales Message”. You can add some text here, which will display at the top of your Products Screen, above the list of products. Example content could be “Please select a product to purchase” or perhaps something more specific to your app.
You can also add the Products Screen to your Tab Bar or More Screen. To do this, go into BuddyBoss App > Branding > Tab Bar, and from the “Core App” section, you will see a “Products” page that you can add. Then once your members are using your app, at any time they can visit the Products menu to see their current active membership or course product, and to buy or switch to another membership or course.
You can easily re-order products in your Products Screen. Just go to BuddyBoss App > In-App Purchases > Products. You can drag and drop products from the table into any order. The products that are assigned to be visible in your Products Screen will display in the order you have set. Additionally, if multiple products are able to unlock a LearnDash Course, when viewing the purchase modal on the course, the products in the modal will be ordered according to their order in this Products table.
Creating Products
To create In-App Products, go to BuddyBoss App > In-App Purchases. Then click on the “Products” tab.
From here you can create your products to be displayed in the app, to be optionally added to your Products Screen, and/or to be accessed from LearnDash courses in the app. In order for a product to be found in the app, it needs to be added to the Products Screens and/or associated with a course.
Before creating any Paid Products in the plugin, you will need to have created the matching In-App Products already in your Apple Developer Account and Google Developer Account. From the plugin, you will be syncing in the product data from those external app store accounts.
While on the Products tab in the plugin, click on “Add New”, and then follow the below steps:
- For Product Name, add a name that describes the product in just a few words
- In most cases, we recommend using the same name as added in your Apple and Google accounts. This will make it easier to cross-check products and know which products are mapped to each other.
- For Tagline, optionally add a short sentence or phrase, explaining the product
- The Tagline will display in the Products Page, and on the single product view
- For Description, optionally add a longer description explaining the product
- The description will display only on the single product view
- For Benefits, optionally add a list of benefits the member can expect from purchasing the product
- The Benefits will display only on the single product view
- The Benefits display as a checkmark list, and so the text should be short and concise
- Benefits should highlight the features that your product offers, such as “Full catalog of courses”
- When creating a Subscription product in your Android account, it asks you to add a list of benefits for the subscription. You can consider pasting the same benefits here if you wish.
- For Products Screen, select if the product should appear on the Products Screen
- For Product Type, select if the product is Free or Paid
- Free Products can be “purchased” without payment, and do not actually use In-App Purchases
- Free Products can be tested fully from your Test App and Release App
- Paid Products require payment, and require an associated In-App Purchase from Apple and Google
- Paid Products can only be partially tested from your Test App, and require a Release App for full testing.
- For iOS Store, check the box to enable the product in your iOS app
- If the product type is Paid Product, you will need to select a product from your Apple Account
- If you don’t see the product in the list, try clicking “Sync with Apple”
- If the status says Not Approved, this means the product can still be tested, but cannot yet be purchased in a real published app, by actual users. It can still be tested from a Release App, by admins only. All products can be tested in your Test App, by all users (but will not display pricing or terms).
- If the status says Approved, this means the product was approved by Apple’s review, and can be purchased in your published app, and can be tested in your Release App by all users. All products can be tested in your Test App, by all users (but will not display pricing or terms).
- For Android Store, check the box to enable the product in your Android app
- If the product type is Paid Product, you will need to select a product from your Google Account.
- If you don’t see the product in the list, try clicking “Sync with Google”
- The product needs to be of the same type as your iOS product:
- Non-Consumable in iOS, corresponds to In-App Product in Android
- Auto-Renewable Subscription in iOS, corresponds to Subscription in Android
- Non-Renewing Subscription in iOS, corresponds to Subscription in Android
- If the status says Inactive, this means the product will not display in your Test App or Release App
- If the status says Active, this means the product is marked as Active in your Google Play Console, and can be viewed in your Test App. This does not mean the product is available for purchase in your published app. You will still need to get the product and app approved by Google first, and it will need to be added to a Testing Track to be testable in your Release App, by admins only.
- If both products are Subscription product types, you will see an option for Subscription Group
- Users can only subscribe to one product within a subscription group at a time, but can change subscriptions within the group as often as they like
- View our Subscription Groups tutorial for more information
- For Integration Type, select if the product should unlock a LearnDash Course or Membership
- For LearnDash Course, select from one of your courses
- Make sure the course is set to Closed, Recurring, or Buy Now in LearnDash options
- When viewing the course in the app, users will see a “Buy Now” button to purchase the product
- If multiple products can unlock the course, all the products will appear in the purchase modal
- For Membership, select from our supported membership plugins, then select a membership
- To be visible in the app, the product will need to be added to the Products Screen
- For LearnDash Course, select from one of your courses
Managing Transactions
You can view your app’s In-App Purchase transactions at BuddyBoss App > In-App Purchases.
If a purchase was made in the Test App, it will be clearly indicated with a (Test App) label. You can safely revoke these test app purchases, so that you can easily test purchasing and revoking over and over as you modify your settings for your Test App.
If a purchase was made in your published Release App by a real user, you will want to be careful with revoking purchase orders. Revoking a purchase will immediately remove all access to the product purchased, and it will not automatically issue any refunds to the customer.
If a customer wants a refund for their Android purchase, you can issue their refund from the Google Play Console. If a customer wants a refund for their Apple purchase, they will need to request a refund from Apple.