stripe

What is stripe?

The Stripe npm package is a library that provides a powerful and easy-to-use interface to the Stripe API, allowing developers to integrate payment processing into their Node.js applications. It supports a wide range of payment operations, from charging credit cards to managing subscriptions and handling disputes.

What are stripe's main functionalities?

Charging a Credit Card

This feature allows you to create a charge on a credit card. The amount is specified in the smallest currency unit (e.g., cents for USD).

stripe.charges.create({
  amount: 2000,
  currency: 'usd',
  source: 'tok_amex',
  description: 'Charge for [e-mail]'
}).then(function(charge) {
  // asynchronously called
});

Creating a Customer

This feature enables you to create a new customer object, which can be used for recurring charges and tracking multiple charges that are associated with the same customer.

stripe.customers.create({
  email: '[e-mail]'
}).then(function(customer) {
  // asynchronously called
});

Managing Subscriptions

This feature allows you to create and manage subscriptions for recurring payments. You can specify the plan and customer to associate with the subscription.

stripe.subscriptions.create({
  customer: 'cus_4fdAW5ftNQow1a',
  items: [{
    plan: 'plan_CBXbz9i7AIOTzr'
  }]
}).then(function(subscription) {
  // asynchronously called
});

Handling Webhooks

This feature is for setting up a webhook endpoint to listen for events from Stripe. This is useful for receiving notifications about various events, such as successful payments or subscription cancellations.

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const app = express();
app.post('/webhook', bodyParser.raw({type: 'application/json'}), (request, response) => {
  let event;
  try {
    event = JSON.parse(request.body);
  } catch (err) {
    response.status(400).send(`Webhook Error: ${err.message}`);
    return;
  }
  // Handle the event
  switch (event.type) {
    case 'payment_intent.succeeded':
      const paymentIntent = event.data.object;
      console.log(`PaymentIntent was successful!`);
      break;
    // ... handle other event types
    default:
      console.log(`Unhandled event type ${event.type}`);
  }
  response.status(200).end();
});
app.listen(8000, () => {
  console.log('Running on port 8000');
});

Other packages similar to stripe

braintree

Braintree is a full-stack payment platform that makes it easy to accept payments in your app or website. It offers similar functionalities to Stripe, including payment processing, subscription management, and fraud protection. Braintree is known for its PayPal integration, which can be a deciding factor for some businesses.

square-connect

Square Connect is the official Square npm package. It provides access to various Square services, including payment processing. While it offers similar features to Stripe, such as handling transactions and managing customers, it is particularly tailored for businesses that use Square's point of sale system.

mollie-api-node

Mollie is a payment service provider that offers an easy-to-implement process for integrating payments into a website or app. It supports various payment methods and is known for its simplicity. However, it might not have as extensive a feature set as Stripe, particularly in terms of global reach and customization options.

README

Stripe Node.js Library

The Stripe Node library provides convenient access to the Stripe API from applications written in server-side JavaScript.

Please keep in mind that this package is for use with server-side Node that uses Stripe secret keys. To maintain PCI compliance, tokenization of credit card information should always be done with Stripe.js on the client side. This package should not be used for that purpose.

Documentation

See the Node API docs.

Installation

Install the package with:

npm install stripe --save

Usage

The package needs to be configured with your account's secret key which is available in your Stripe Dashboard. Require it with the key's value:

var stripe = require('stripe')('sk_test_...');

var customer = await stripe.customers.create(
  { email: '[e-mail]' }
);

Or with versions of Node.js prior to v7.9:

var stripe = require('stripe')('sk_test_...');

stripe.customers.create(
  { email: '[e-mail]' },
  function(err, customer) {
    err; // null if no error occurred
    customer; // the created customer object
  }
);

Or using ES modules, this looks more like:

import stripePackage from 'stripe';
const stripe = stripePackage('sk_test_...');
//…

Or using TypeScript:

import * as Stripe from 'stripe';
const stripe = new Stripe('sk_test_...');
//…

Using Promises

Every method returns a chainable promise which can be used instead of a regular callback:

// Create a new customer and then a new charge for that customer:
stripe.customers.create({
  email: '[e-mail]'
}).then(function(customer){
  return stripe.customers.createSource(customer.id, {
    source: 'tok_visa'
  });
}).then(function(source) {
  return stripe.charges.create({
    amount: 1600,
    currency: 'usd',
    customer: source.customer
  });
}).then(function(charge) {
  // New charge created on a new customer
}).catch(function(err) {
  // Deal with an error
});

Configuring Timeout

Request timeout is configurable (the default is Node's default of 120 seconds):

stripe.setTimeout(20000); // in ms (this is 20 seconds)

Configuring For Connect

A per-request Stripe-Account header for use with Stripe Connect can be added to any method:

// Retrieve the balance for a connected account:
stripe.balance.retrieve({
  stripe_account: 'acct_foo'
}).then(function(balance) {
  // The balance object for the connected account
}).catch(function(err) {
  // Error
});

Configuring a Proxy

An https-proxy-agent can be configured with setHttpAgent.

To use stripe behind a proxy you can pass to sdk:

if (process.env.http_proxy) {
  const ProxyAgent = require('https-proxy-agent');
  stripe.setHttpAgent(new ProxyAgent(process.env.http_proxy));
}

Examining Responses

Some information about the response which generated a resource is available with the lastResponse property:

charge.lastResponse.requestId // see: https://stripe.com/docs/api/node#request_ids
charge.lastResponse.statusCode

request and response events

The Stripe object emits request and response events. You can use them like this:

var stripe = require('stripe')('sk_test_...');

function onRequest(request) {
  // Do something.
}

// Add the event handler function:
stripe.on('request', onRequest);

// Remove the event handler function:
stripe.off('request', onRequest);

request object

{
  api_version: 'latest',
  account: 'acct_TEST',       // Only present if provided
  idempotency_key: 'abc123',  // Only present if provided
  method: 'POST',
  path: '/v1/charges'
}

response object

{
  api_version: 'latest',
  account: 'acct_TEST',       // Only present if provided
  idempotency_key: 'abc123',  // Only present if provided
  method: 'POST',
  path: '/v1/charges',
  status: 402,
  request_id: 'req_Ghc9r26ts73DRf',
  elapsed: 445                // Elapsed time in milliseconds
}

Webhook signing

Stripe can optionally sign the webhook events it sends to your endpoint, allowing you to validate that they were not sent by a third-party. You can read more about it here.

Please note that you must pass the raw request body, exactly as received from Stripe, to the constructEvent() function; this will not work with a parsed (i.e., JSON) request body.

You can find an example of how to use this with Express in the examples/webhook-signing folder, but here's what it looks like:

event = stripe.webhooks.constructEvent(
  webhookRawBody,
  webhookStripeSignatureHeader,
  webhookSecret
);

Writing a Plugin

If you're writing a plugin that uses the library, we'd appreciate it if you identified using stripe.setAppInfo():

stripe.setAppInfo({
  name: 'MyAwesomePlugin',
  version: '1.2.34', // Optional
  url: 'https://myawesomeplugin.info', // Optional
});

This information is passed along when the library makes calls to the Stripe API.

More Information

• REST API Version
• Error Handling
• Passing Options
• Using Stripe Connect

Development

Run all tests:

$ npm install
$ npm test

Run a single test suite:

$ npm run mocha -- test/Error.spec.js

Run a single test (case sensitive):

$ npm run mocha -- test/Error.spec.js --grep 'Populates with type'

If you wish, you may run tests using your Stripe Test API key by setting the environment variable STRIPE_TEST_API_KEY before running the tests:

$ export STRIPE_TEST_API_KEY='sk_test....'
$ npm test