Collect Payments

Overview

The collectPayment method generates a checkout link for users to complete their payment. This integrates with your configured payment provider (e.g., LemonSqueezy) to handle the payment flow.

Basic Usage

import { scrawn } from "@scrawn/core";

const biller = scrawn({
  apiKey: process.env.SCRAWN_KEY as `scrn_${string}`,
  baseURL: process.env.SCRAWN_BASE_URL || "http://localhost:8069",
});

// Generate checkout link
const checkoutLink = await biller.collectPayment("user-123");

// Redirect user to payment page
res.redirect(checkoutLink);

In simple terms: Give me a payment link for user user-123 where they can go and pay all their outstanding amount (which is being tracked by scrawn).

Parameters

`userId` (required)

Type: string
Description: The unique identifier of the user to collect payment from
Validation: Must be a non-empty string

Response

Type: Promise<string>
Returns: A checkout URL where the user can complete their payment

Examples

Express.js Endpoint

import express from "express";
import { scrawn } from "@scrawn/core";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

const biller = scrawn({
  apiKey: process.env.SCRAWN_KEY as `scrn_${string}`,
  baseURL: process.env.SCRAWN_BASE_URL || "http://localhost:8069",
});

app.post("/api/collect-payment", async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const { userId } = req.body;
    if (!userId) {
      return res.status(400).json({ error: "userId is required" });
    }
    const checkoutLink = await biller.collectPayment(userId);
    res.redirect(checkoutLink);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Failed to collect payment:", error);
    res.status(500).json({ error: "Failed to create checkout link" });
  }
});

Error Handling

try {
  const checkoutLink = await biller.collectPayment(userId);
  console.log("Checkout link created:", checkoutLink);
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error creating checkout link:', error);
  // Handle error appropriately
}

Best Practices

1. Validate User ID

Always validate the user ID before generating a checkout link:

if (!userId || typeof userId !== 'string' || userId.trim().length === 0) {
  return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Valid userId is required' });
}

  const checkoutLink = await biller.collectPayment(userId);

2. Exclude from Tracking

Make sure to exclude the payment endpoint from usage tracking middleware:

app.use(biller.middlewareEventConsumer({
  extractor: (req) => ({
    userId: req.user.id,
    debit: 10,
  }),
  blacklist: ['/api/collect-payment'], // Don't charge for payment collection
}));