Stripe error "The resource ID cannot be null or whitespace" - laravel

Question

I am trying to create a subscription but get the error "The resource ID cannot be null or whitespace". I have stripe and cashier installed and migrated.
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
require_once('../vendor/autoload.php');
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
use \Stripe\Stripe;
use Exception;
use Stripe_Error;
class SubscriptionController extends Controller {
public function __construct() {
$this->middleware('auth');
}
public function retrievePlans() {
$key = \config('services.stripe.secret');
$stripe = new \Stripe\StripeClient($key);
$plansraw = $stripe->plans->all();
$plans = $plansraw->data;
foreach($plans as $plan) {
$prod = $stripe->products->retrieve(
$plan->product,[]
);
$plan->product = $prod;
}
return $plans;
}
public function showSubscription() {
$plans = $this->retrievePlans();
$user = Auth::user();
return view('subscribe', [
'user'=>$user,
'intent' => $user->createSetupIntent(),
'plans' => $plans
]);
}
public function processSubscription(Request $request)
{
$user = Auth::user();
$paymentMethod = $request->input('payment_method');
$user->createOrGetStripeCustomer();
$user->addPaymentMethod($paymentMethod);
$plan = $request->input('plan');
try {
$user->newSubscription('default', $plan)->create($paymentMethod, [
'email' => $user->email
]);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
return back()->withErrors(['message' => 'Error creating subscription. ' . $e->getMessage()]);
}
return redirect('dashboard');
}
}
I keep getting the error when creating a user $user->createOrGetStripeCustomer();

Answer 1

In the user table, while creating a new user just kept the stripe-id field as NULL. It should be either a stripe id or must be set as NULL. If you just keep it blank will get the error
Another important point, stripe_id filed is highly case sensitive so keep it as utf8mb4_ci encoding

Answer 2

I had that same error. And in my case was because the following:
Subscribe user 1 (and thus was created as customer in Stripe)
Delete customer from the Stripe dashboard
Try to subscribe user 1 again (in the next 10 minutes or so after delete from the customers Stripe list)
This stop happening when I subscribe a different user that has never been in the customers list.
Perphaps and this is just me doing a long shot: Stripe needs a bit of time between delete and re-subscribe.
I also looked in docs but nothing came up about this error.
only this: https://stripe.com/docs/error-codes#resource-missing

Answer 3

I was trying to integrate subscription with stripe using cashier in Laravel 8 but I was getting the same error. For me, I have already stripe_id field as NULL by default and kept utf8mb4_ci encoding.
After debugging many things, I found that "payment_method" was not coming in post and found issue with below code.
<button id="card-button" data-secret="{{ $intent->client_secret }}" class="btn btn-lg btn-success btn-block">SUBMIT</button>
It was submitting the form before JavaScript code get fully executed to get the payment method and payment method was not getting posted. So adding type="button" resolved my issue. Below is the submit button code that resolved my issue.
<button type="button" id="card-button" data-secret="{{ $intent->client_secret }}" class="btn btn-lg btn-success btn-block">SUBMIT</button>

Answer 4

Modify processSubscription function to check if the user has a payment method already before creating one to him like this:
if(! $user->hasPaymentMethod())
$user->addPaymentMethod($paymentMethod);