How to unsubscribe user from paypal automatically using php (when they upgrade to a different subscription)

Question

When a user upgrades their subscription on my site, I get contacted by IPN, then I want to use php to contact paypal to cancel any existing subscription they may have. How do I do this? I can only find how to do it using buttons the user has to click.

Answer 1

This is the best solution I have found:

http://thereforei.am/2012/07/03/cancelling-subscriptions-created-with-paypal-standard-via-the-express-checkout-api/

/**
 * Performs an Express Checkout NVP API operation as passed in $action.
 *
 * Although the PayPal Standard API provides no facility for cancelling a subscription, the PayPal
 * Express Checkout  NVP API can be used.
 */
function change_subscription_status( $profile_id, $action ) {

    $api_request = 'USER=' . urlencode( 'api_username' )
                .  '&PWD=' . urlencode( 'api_password' )
                .  '&SIGNATURE=' . urlencode( 'api_signature' )
                .  '&VERSION=76.0'
                .  '&METHOD=ManageRecurringPaymentsProfileStatus'
                .  '&PROFILEID=' . urlencode( $profile_id )
                .  '&ACTION=' . urlencode( $action )
                .  '&NOTE=' . urlencode( 'Profile cancelled at store' );

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp' ); // For live transactions, change to 'https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp'
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1 );

    // Uncomment these to turn off server and peer verification
    // curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE );
    // curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1 );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1 );

    // Set the API parameters for this transaction
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $api_request );

    // Request response from PayPal
    $response = curl_exec( $ch );

    // If no response was received from PayPal there is no point parsing the response
    if( ! $response )
        die( 'Calling PayPal to change_subscription_status failed: ' . curl_error( $ch ) . '(' . curl_errno( $ch ) . ')' );

    curl_close( $ch );

    // An associative array is more usable than a parameter string
    parse_str( $response, $parsed_response );

    return $parsed_response;
}

Example:

change_subscription_status( 'I-NARPL1C00000', 'Cancel' );

I hope it helps