As the title says I’m trying to use webhooks to automate some of the Stripe events which occur when a customer goes through the subscription process.
In my webhooks.php file these are the bits of code that I don’t understand:
/* The are my comments */
// These are comments from the Stripe docs
/* First snippet of code - Not sure what this does? */
$payload = @file_get_contents('php://input');
/* Second snippet of code - Not sure what this does?
what is the $event variable refering to and why is $payload being
passed into it? */
$event = null;
try {
$event = StripeEvent::constructFrom(
json_decode($payload, true)
);
} catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
// Invalid payload
echo '⚠️ Webhook error while parsing basic request.';
http_response_code(400);
exit();
}
/* Third snippet of code - I understand the switch and case keywords to
basically be if and else statements so if the type of the $event variable is
equal to 'customer.subscription.trial_will_end' then run '$subscription =
$event -> data -> object'. However what is the $subscription variable being
assigned to in this case (what does $event -> data -> object mean?) */
// Handle the event
switch ($event->type) {
case 'customer.subscription.trial_will_end':
$subscription = $event->data->object; // contains a StripeSubscription
// Then define and call a method to handle the trial ending.
// handleTrialWillEnd($subscription);
break;
case 'customer.subscription.created':
$subscription = $event->data->object; // contains a StripeSubscription
// Then define and call a method to handle the subscription being created.
// handleSubscriptionCreated($subscription);
break;
case 'customer.subscription.deleted':
$subscription = $event->data->object; // contains a StripeSubscription
// Then define and call a method to handle the subscription being deleted.
// handleSubscriptionDeleted($subscription);
break;
case 'customer.subscription.updated':
$subscription = $event->data->object; // contains a StripeSubscription
// Then define and call a method to handle the subscription being updated.
// handleSubscriptionUpdated($subscription);
break;
default:
// Unexpected event type
echo 'Received unknown event type';
}
/* Fourth snippet of code - Why do we need to set this? */
http_response_code(200);
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Answer
/* First snippet of code - Not sure what this does? */
$payload = @file_get_contents('php://input');
It reads the request body of the HTTP POST request that this script is receiving(a webhook handler is receiving a HTTP request Stripe sends your server). This is a standard PHP idiom.
/* Second snippet of code - Not sure what this does? what is the $event variable refering to and why is $payload being passed into it? */
$event is the meaningful Event(https://stripe.com/docs/api/events/object) object that is the body of the webhook request. Stripe’s PHP library has a function constructEvent to take the incoming request body and parse/convert it to an object you can work with, that’s what that code is doing.
However what is the $subscription variable being assigned to in this case (what does $event -> data -> object mean?) */
The Event contains a ‘payload’ object which is the actual API object the event is about. For example if a Subscription is created, you get a customer.subscription.created event and that payload is the Subscription object. It’s all covered in Stripe’s docs. https://stripe.com/docs/api/events/object#event_object-data-object /// https://stripe.com/docs/api/events/types#event_types-customer.subscription.created
/* Fourth snippet of code - Why do we need to set this? */
Because after receiving this incoming request from Stripe you have to reply back to let them know you got it. https://stripe.com/docs/webhooks/build#acknowledge-events-immediately