Working with subscriptions for iOS
Free or paid
If you want to offer a subscription in your iOS app, it is going to be either a Free or an Auto-Renewable (paid) subscription.
Free subscription
The main reason to work with a free subscription is when you want the app to be in Apple's Newsstand. Newsstand offers the advantage of background downloading.
Auto-Renewable
This is a paid subscription for a specific duration, that will automatically renew indefinitely. This means that a user has to cancel the subscription by himself/herself.
iTunes Shared Secret
Go to https://itunesconnect.apple.com -> Manage your Application -> Select your application -> Manage In App Purchases -> Select 'View or generate a shared secret', then copy and paste it into the iTunes Shared Secret field of the Settings.
Managing issues
Every time you add a new issue, you can decide whether it is part of a subscription or not. In the main Subscriptions overview, there's a list of all the issues that are part of the subscription.
Selecting 'Subscription issues' will allow you to: 'Add/Remove issue' from a subscription and 'Set a default issue'. The default issue is the issue that new subscribers will automatically get access to.
Add/remove issue
This checkbox only defines whether a specific issue is part of the subscription or not. When removing an issue from the list, it will no longer be available as part of the subscription, but the issue itself will not be deleted.
Set default issue
When the user purchases a new subscription, he/she needs to have access to a first issue. Here you can select which issue the user will be able to download after purchasing the subscription.
Adding a duration
To create a duration for an auto-renewable subscription, you need to specify the following details:
Name
The name a user will see in the list of subscriptions on the device.
Product identifier
A unique reverse-DNS for this duration. This product identifier has to be the same as the one entered in iTunes Connect / Google Play Developer Console, otherwise the subscription won't work correctly.
Duration
The interval of the subscription. On iPad it is either 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months or one year. On Android it is either one month or one year.
Important note: also add a duration for a free subscription
Although the duration for a free subscription is indefinite, you need to define this and make sure the product identifier matches the one in iTunes Connect or Google Play.
Adding subscription in iTunes Connect
Go to https://itunesconnect.apple.com -> Manage Your Application -> Select your application -> Manage In-App Purchases -> Create New
Choose the correct type of subscription (Free or Auto-Renewable) and create a new subscription family or select an existing subscription family.
Just like on the Twixl Distribution Platform, you have to add a duration for the subscription. You need to use the same product id(entifier) & matching duration as on the Twixl Distribution Platform, for example com.mycompany.myfirstmagazine.subscription.1month
NOTE
A user is entitled to all issues within the subscription for the period he has prepaid.
If he cancels his subscription before the renewal, he will still get the issue(s) within the current period.