Test in-app purchase on iPhone before app submit

Question

I'm developing a Cordova app that contains in-app purchase. I've already got working the Android side, so the plugin flow is working.

Now I'm testing the iOS side and I can't get products correctly: they are invalid and not complete, it seems the app is not able to download product data.

1. I've defined IAP (consumable) items in iTunes, associated dummy image and they show "Ready to submit" status (yellow bullet)
2. IAP products are also associated in the new app version page, not submitted for review yet.
3. I see this message on an iTunes page: "Your first In-App Purchase must be submitted with a new app version. Select it from the app’s In-App Purchases section and click Submit."
4. I'm testing on real device with app compiled and installed directly from XCode and through TestFlight

I checked around for this problem but I did not found a clear solution, my question is: why I can't correctly download my configured products form iTunes?

• do I have to submit the whole app to get IAP approval before start testing, or
• it should be possible to test (and get products) locally the IAP stuff without any app submission/approval by Apple (And in this it could be a software problem)?

I can't see what to do. Thanks in advance for any help.

UPDATE

Here is the basic code i'm using, with this plugin, to get IAP product configured on iTunes:

function storeInitialize() {
    store.register({
        id:     "creds_500",
        type:   store.CONSUMABLE
    });

    store.ready(function() {
        console.log("\\o/ STORE READY \\o/");
        console.log(JSON.stringify(store.get("creds_500")));
    });

    // When any product gets updated, refresh the HTML.
    store.when("product").updated(function(p) {
        console.info("Updating " + p.id);
        console.log(JSON.stringify(p));
    });    

    // Signal order errors
    store.when("product").error(function() {
        utils.userInfo("Il tuo ordine non è stato processato.");
    });

    // Load product data from the servers and restore whatever already have been purchased by the user.
    store.refresh();
}

And here is it's output from safari console using a iPhone 4s device, installing the app from XCode:

[Info] Updating creds_500
[Log] {"id":"creds_500","alias":"creds_500","type":"consumable","state":"invalid","title":null,"description":null,"priceMicros":null,"price":null,"currency":null,"loaded":true,"canPurchase":false,"owned":false,"downloading":false,"downloaded":false,"additionalData":null,"transaction":null,"valid":false}
[Info] Updating creds_500
[Log] {"id":"creds_500","alias":"creds_500","type":"consumable","state":"invalid","title":null,"description":null,"priceMicros":null,"price":null,"currency":null,"loaded":true,"canPurchase":false,"owned":false,"downloading":false,"downloaded":false,"additionalData":null,"transaction":null,"valid":false}
[Log] \o/ STORE READY \o/
[Log] {"id":"creds_500","alias":"creds_500","type":"consumable","state":"invalid","title":null,"description":null,"priceMicros":null,"price":null,"currency":null,"loaded":true,"canPurchase":false,"owned":false,"downloading":false,"downloaded":false,"additionalData":null,"transaction":null,"valid":false}

So, almost all IAP fields are null including price, title and description (defined in iTunes side) and products are "invalid" "not-purchasable". I found in other posts that on Apple side no approval is required for testing purpose.

Where am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

May I ask why are you using that particular plugin and not a different one? It hasn't been updated in 8 months, which in terms of Cordova apps, means a lifetime.

Your plugin has only 200 stars, while this cordova-plugin-purchase has almost 800, and it was updated 2 months ago. Also, it includes Windows Universal compatibility, I strongly suggest you to switch plugins and retry.