Paypal Recurring Payment - Charge immediately? - paypal

Question

I am using the Paypal API and I want to create a recurring payment, the first amount should be charged immediately. I need to know if it was successfully to unlock the content for the user. How in the world can I achieve that?
$fields = array(
'USER' => urlencode('email'),
'PWD' => urlencode('pass'),
'SIGNATURE' => urlencode('signature'),
'METHOD' => urlencode('GetExpressCheckoutDetails'),
'VERSION' => urlencode('86'),
'TOKEN' => urlencode($_GET['token'])
);
//url-ify the data for the POST
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
rtrim($fields_string, '&');
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string); //Post Fields
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$server_output = curl_exec ($ch);
curl_close ($ch);
// Get PAYERID of 1. query
$payerid = parseNVP($server_output);
$payerid = $payerid['PAYERID'];
$fields2 = array(
'USER' => urlencode('Email'),
'PWD' => urlencode('Pass'),
'SIGNATURE' => urlencode('Signature'),
'METHOD' => urlencode('CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile'),
'VERSION' => urlencode('86'),
'TOKEN' => urlencode($_GET['token']),
'PAYERID' => urlencode($payerid),
'PROFILESTARTDATE' => urlencode(date('Y-m-d').'T'.date('H:i:s', strtotime('-5 minutes')).'Z'),
'DESC' => urlencode('FitnessMembership'),
'BILLINGPERIOD' => urlencode('Day'),
'BILLINGFREQUENCY' => urlencode('1'),
'AMT' => urlencode($price),
'CURRENCYCODE' => urlencode('USD'),
'COUNTRYCODE' => urlencode('US'),
'MAXFAILEDPAYMENTS' => urlencode('3')
);
Paypal Result:
[2016-04-12 12:50 America/New_York] Verified IPN:cmd=_notify-validate&
payment_cycle=Daily&
txn_type=recurring_payment_profile_created&
last_name=Mustermann&
next_payment_date=03%3A00%3A00+Apr+12%2C+2016+PDT&
residence_country=US&
initial_payment_amount=0.00&
currency_code=USD&
time_created=09%3A49%3A25+Apr+12%2C+2016+PDT&
verify_sign=AJjtUEC2-zvkp.2Yz8a-.FGmZ2b3AoUov3DJ70yddjCmc1KidQVDeZHd&
period_type=+Regular&
payer_status=verified&
test_ipn=1&
tax=0.00&
payer_email=gut%40gut.de&
first_name=Hendrik&
receiver_email=hendrik.tewes-facilitator%40live.de&
payer_id=6AJ2HHWAPZSF6&
product_type=1&shipping=0.00&
amount_per_cycle=119.00&
profile_status=Active&
charset=windows-1252&
notify_version=3.8&
amount=119.00&
outstanding_balance=0.00&
recurring_payment_id=I-8P0534LSX2A3&
product_name=FitnessMembership&
ipn_track_id=59fede576b95c

Answer 1

You can charge an initial amount when creating a Recurring Payment Profile for Express Checkout.
Here is the documentation from the PayPal Developer Site
In the CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile API call, you will need to use the variable INITAMT
Here is more information from the PayPal Developer Site:
INITAMT
(Optional) Initial non-recurring payment amount due immediately upon
profile creation. Use an initial amount for enrolment or set-up fees.
Note: All amounts included in the request must have the same currency.
Character length and limitations:
Value is typically a positive number which cannot exceed 10,000.00 USD
or the per transaction limit for the currency. It includes no currency
symbol. Most currencies require two decimal places; the decimal
separator must be a period (.), and the optional thousands separator
must be a comma (,). Some currencies do not allow decimals. See the
currency codes page for details.