Create Subscription

Audience: Citizen Developer, Pro Developer

Skill Prerequisites: APIs, Payment Gateway Integrations, Tokens

The Create Subscription action is used to create a recurring payment subscription through Authorize.Net. This powerful integration enables your application to charge customers' credit cards on a schedule you define—perfect for memberships, product subscriptions, or any recurring billing need.

It supports both Live and Test (Sandbox) modes, making it suitable for development, staging, or production environments. The action collects customer details, payment schedule, and subscription properties, then communicates securely with Authorize.Net’s API to initiate the subscription.

You can configure this action for complex scenarios, including trial periods, dynamic data via tokens, and downstream actions for webhook notifications (e.g., when a subscription is created, updated, cancelled, or expires).

Typical Use Cases

• Creating monthly or yearly recurring billing for membership sites.
• Automating payment collection for subscription-based services and SaaS platforms.
• Handling introductory trial pricing and then converting to a regular payment plan.
• Storing subscription and customer profile IDs for future API operations or record-keeping.
• Responding to Authorize.Net webhook events (such as subscription renewal, suspension, or expiration) by executing custom logic in your app.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Run SQL Query	Use to log payments or update subscription records in your database.
Display Message	Provide feedback to users after subscription creation.
Apply Tokens	Populate input fields dynamically with user data, form entries, or computed values.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
API Login ID	Your Authorize.Net API Login ID.	Yes		Yes
Transaction Key	Your Authorize.Net Transaction Key.	Yes		Yes
Go Live	Switch between Authorize.Net Sandbox (unchecked) and Production (checked).	Yes	false	No
Subscription Name	Name of the subscription.	Yes		No
Subscription Amount	Amount to bill each cycle. No $ sign (e.g., 8.95).	Yes		Yes
Subscription Trial Amount	Amount for the trial period, if any.	Yes		No
Card Number	Customer’s credit card number.	Yes		Yes
Card CCV	Card security code (CVV/CCV).	Yes		Yes
Expiration Month	Credit card expiration month (e.g., 07).	Yes		Yes
Expiration Year	Credit card expiration year (e.g., 2025 or 25).	Yes		Yes
First Name	Customer’s first name.	Yes		Yes
Last Name	Customer’s last name.	Yes		Yes
Address	Optional - Billing address.	Yes		No
City	Optional - Billing city.	Yes		No
State	Optional - Billing state/province.	Yes		No
Country	Optional - Billing country.	Yes		No
Postal Code	Optional - Billing postal/ZIP code.	Yes		No
Company	Optional - Company name.	Yes		No
Interval Length	How often to charge (e.g., every 1 month).	Yes		Yes
Interval Unit	Interval type: 0 = Days, 1 = Months.	Yes	0	Yes
Total Occurrences	Total number of billing cycles (use 9999 for unlimited/ongoing).	Yes		Yes
Trial Occurrences	Number of billing cycles at trial amount.	Yes		No
Response Result Code TokenName	Token to store the response result code from Authorize.Net.	Yes		No
Response Message TokenName	Token to store the response message from Authorize.Net.	Yes		No
Response SubscriptionId TokenName	Token to store the subscription ID from Authorize.Net.	Yes		No
Response Customer ProfileId TokenName	Token to store the customer profile ID.	Yes		No
Response Customer PaymentProfileId TokenName	Token to store the customer payment profile ID.	Yes		No
Response Customer Address Id TokenName	Token to store the customer address ID.	Yes		No
Response Ref Id TokenName	Token to store the ref ID.	Yes		No
Response SessionToken TokenName	Token to store the session token.	Yes		No
On Success	Actions to execute when the subscription is successfully created.	N/A		No
On Error	Actions to execute if the subscription creation fails.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Created	Actions to execute when notified that a subscription payment was created.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Updated	Actions to execute when a subscription payment is updated.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Suspended	Actions to execute when a subscription payment is suspended.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Terminated	Actions to execute when a subscription payment is terminated.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Cancelled	Actions to execute when a subscription payment is cancelled.	N/A		No
On Subscription Payment Expiring	Actions to execute when a subscription payment is near expiration.	N/A		No

Output Parameters Reference

Parameter	Description
Response Result Code TokenName	Token containing the Authorize.Net result code (Ok for success)
Response Message TokenName	Token containing the detailed text response or error message
Response SubscriptionId TokenName	Token containing the subscription's unique ID
Response Customer ProfileId TokenName	Token containing the created customer profile ID
Response Customer PaymentProfileId TokenName	Token containing the payment profile ID
Response Customer Address Id TokenName	Token containing the address ID
Response Ref Id TokenName	Token containing the Authorize.Net ref ID
Response SessionToken TokenName	Token containing a session token for client-side integrations

Webhook Support

You can configure Authorize.Net to send notifications (webhooks) to your site on subscription events. The endpoint for your notifications will be:

{YourSiteUrl}/DesktopModules/DnnSharp/Common/WebHandlers/AuthorizeCreateSubscriptionHandler.ashx

Assign custom actions for each event (Created, Updated, Suspended, etc.) using the relevant On Subscription... parameters.

Security

• Always use secure (HTTPS) endpoints for API keys and credit card data transmission.
• Never store plain text credit card info.
• Limit access to this action to trusted users and system roles.
• Protect and rotate your Authorize.Net credentials regularly.

Examples

1. Create a Basic Monthly Subscription

Create a $10/month membership subscription for a user, store the result in tokens, and display a message on success or error.

{
  "Title": "Create Monthly Subscription",
  "ActionType": "CreateSubscription",
  "Parameters": {
    "AuthorizeNetAPILoginID": "[Settings:AuthorizeNetAPILoginID]",
    "AuthorizeNetTransactionKey": "[Settings:AuthorizeNetTransactionKey]",
    "AuthorizeNetLiveMode": "false",
    "AuthorizeNetAmount": "10.00",
    "AuthorizeNetCardNumber": "[Form:CardNumber]",
    "AuthorizeNetCCV": "[Form:CardCCV]",
    "AuthorizeNetExpirationMonth": "[Form:CardExpMonth]",
    "AuthorizeNetExpirationYear": "[Form:CardExpYear]",
    "AuthorizeNetFirstName": "[User:FirstName]",
    "AuthorizeNetLastName": "[User:LastName]",
    "AuthorizeNetIntervalLength": "1",
    "AuthorizeNetIntervalUnit": "1",
    "TotalOccurrences": "9999",
    "AuthorizeNetSubscriptionName": "Monthly Membership",
    "AuthorizeNetResponseResultCodeTokenName": "ANetResultCode",
    "AuthorizeNetResponseMessageTokenName": "ANetMsg",
    "AuthorizeNetResponseSubscriptionIdTokenName": "ANetSubID",
    "OnSuccess": [
      {
        "Title": "Display Message",
        "ActionType": "DisplayMessage",
        "Parameters": {
          "Message": "Subscription was successfully created! ID: [ANetSubID]"
        }
      }
    ],
    "OnError": [
      {
        "Title": "Display Message",
        "ActionType": "DisplayMessage",
        "Parameters": {
          "Message": "Subscription failed: [ANetMsg]"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

2. Create a Subscription with a Trial Period

Charge $1 for the first month, then $20/month thereafter, for a total of 13 months.

{
  "Title": "Create Subscription With Trial",
  "ActionType": "CreateSubscription",
  "Parameters": {
    "AuthorizeNetAPILoginID": "[Settings:AuthorizeNetAPILoginID]",
    "AuthorizeNetTransactionKey": "[Settings:AuthorizeNetTransactionKey]",
    "AuthorizeNetLiveMode": "true",
    "AuthorizeNetAmount": "20.00",
    "AuthorizeNetTrialAmount": "1.00",
    "AuthorizeNetIntervalLength": "1",
    "AuthorizeNetIntervalUnit": "1",
    "TotalOccurrences": "13",
    "TrialOccurrences": "1",
    "AuthorizeNetCardNumber": "[Form:CardNumber]",