Welcome to dj-payfast’s documentation!

dj-payfast is a comprehensive Django library for integrating PayFast payment gateway into your Django applications. It provides a simple, secure, and Pythonic way to accept payments from South African customers.

Overview

PayFast is South Africa’s leading payment gateway, trusted by thousands of businesses to process online payments securely. dj-payfast makes it easy to integrate PayFast into your Django projects with minimal configuration.

Key Features

Secure: Built-in signature verification and validation
Easy to Use: Simple API similar to dj-stripe and dj-paypal
Complete: Models, forms, views, and webhooks included
Test Mode: Sandbox support for development and testing
Admin Interface: Full Django admin integration
Webhooks: Automatic ITN (Instant Transaction Notification) handling
Database Tracking: Complete payment history and audit trail
Customizable: Support for custom fields and metadata
Mobile Ready: Works with PayFast’s mobile payment options

Quick Example

Install using pip:

pip install dj-payfast

Add payfast to your main projects:

INSTALLED_APPS += [
   'payfast'
]

Add App to Main Projects urls.py:

urlpatterns += [
   path('payfast/', include("payfast.urls"))
]

Added payfast application ( /payfast/payments ), perform a post request on, some fields are not required, This is a post request:

{
   "m_payment_id": "",
   "user": null,
   "amount": null,
   "item_name": "",
   "item_description": "",
   "name_first": "",
   "name_last": "",
   "email_address": "",
   "cell_number": "", // optional field
   "custom_str1": "", // optional field
   "custom_str2": "", // optional field
   "custom_str3": "", // optional field
   "custom_str4": "", // optional field
   "custom_str5": "", // optional field
   "custom_int1": null, // optional field
   "custom_int2": null, // optional field
   "custom_int3": null, // optional field
   "custom_int4": null, // optional field
   "custom_int5": null, // optional field
}

Note: The fields cell_number, custom_str1 through custom_str5, and custom_int1 through custom_int5 are optional.

Expected Response

{
   "amount": "99.99",
   "item_name": "Premium Subscription",
   "item_description": "1 month premium access",
   "name_first": "",
   "name_last": "",
   "email_address": "your.email@gmail.com",
   "m_payment_id": "3a280ceb-344c-48d1-8e9c-7945f3f1194a",
   "payfast_url": "http://127.0.0.1:2000/payfast/checkout/2"
}

Using Payfast within React or Android

To use the above Response just redirect to the payfast_url and pay.

Why dj-payfast?

PayFast Integration Made Simple

While PayFast provides excellent documentation, integrating it into Django applications requires handling:

Secure signature generation and verification
ITN webhook processing and validation
Payment tracking and database storage
Admin interface for payment management
Test and production environment configuration

dj-payfast handles all of this for you, letting you focus on building your application instead of dealing with payment gateway integration details.

Requirements

Python 3.8+
Django 3.2+
requests 2.25.0+
A PayFast merchant account (get one at payfast.co.za)

Installation

Install using pip:

pip install dj-payfast

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/carrington-dev/dj-payfast.git
cd dj-payfast
pip install -e .

Quick Start

Add to INSTALLED_APPS

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'payfast',
]

Configure Settings

# PayFast Configuration
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_ID = 'your_merchant_id'
PAYFAST_MERCHANT_KEY = 'your_merchant_key'
PAYFAST_PASSPHRASE = 'your_passphrase'  # Optional but recommended
PAYFAST_TEST_MODE = True  # Set to False for production

Add URLs

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('payfast/', include('payfast.urls')),
]

Run Migrations
```
python manage.py migrate
```
Start Accepting Payments!

See the Usage Guide guide for detailed examples.

Documentation Contents

REFERENCE

API Reference
- Models
- Forms
- Views
- Utility Functions
- Configuration
- Admin
- Exceptions
- Constants
- Version Information
- Type Hints
- See Also

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

PayFast Resources

Community & Support

GitHub: github.com/carrington-dev/dj-payfast
Issues: GitHub Issue Tracker
PyPI: pypi.org/project/dj-payfast
Email: carrington.muleya@outlook.com

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our contributing guide for details on:

Reporting bugs
Suggesting features
Submitting pull requests
Running tests
Code style guidelines

License

dj-payfast is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

This library is inspired by other excellent Django payment libraries:

Special thanks to PayFast for providing a reliable payment gateway for South African businesses.