Table of Contents  –

Website Payment Variables

Detailes below are the variables sent during a payment request message to PayFast.

Notes:

  1. A variable can be specified globally on your account or overridden on a per transaction basis. The value provided during a transaction overrides the global setting.
  2. This is a Boolean variable whose value must be 1 (on) or 0 (off).

Receiver Details

Name Description Required Length Notes
merchant_id The Merchant ID as given by the PayFast system. Used to uniquely identify the receiving account. Required
merchant_key The Merchant Key as given by the PayFast system. Used to uniquely identify the receiving account. This provides an extra level of certainty concerning the correct account as both the ID and the Key must be correct in order for the transaction to proceed. Required
return_url The URL where the user is returned to after payment has been successfully taken.

Default: PayFast homepage		 Optional 1
cancel_url The URL where the user should be redirected should they choose to cancel their payment while on the PayFast system.

Default: PayFast homepage		 Optional 1
notify_url The URL which is used by PayFast to post the Instant Transaction Notifications (ITNs) for this transaction. Optional 1

Payer Details

While most of these fields are optional, it is highly recommended to provide this information (if available) as it is used to pre-populate any forms the user needs to fill in which decreases the time taken to complete the transaction.

Name Description Required Length Notes
name_first First name of the payer/sender. Optional 100 char
name_last Last name of the payer/sender. Optional 100 char
email_address Email address of the payer/sender. Optional 100 char

Transaction Details

Name Description Required Length Notes
m_payment_id Unique payment ID on the merchant's system. Optional 100 char
amount The amount which the payer must pay. Required
item_name The name of the item being charged for. Required 100 char
item_description The description of the item being charged for. Optional 255 char
custom_str1..5 A series of 5 custom string variables (custom_str1, custom_str2...) which can be used by the merchant as pass-through variables. They will be posted back to the merchant at the completion of the transaction. Optional 255 char
custom_int1..5 A series of 5 custom integer variables (custom_int1, custom_int2...) which can be used by the merchant as pass-through variables. They will be posted back to the merchant at the completion of the transaction. Optional

Transaction Options

Name Description Required Length Notes
email_confirmation Whether to send email confirmation to the merchant of the transaction. Email confirmation is automatically sent to the payer. Optional 1, 2
confirmation_address The address to send the confirmation email to. Optional 100 char 1

Security

Name Description Required Length Notes
signature A security signature of the transmitted data taking the form of an MD5 hash of the submitted variables. The string from which the hash is created, is the concatenation of the name value pairs of all the non-blank variables with '&' used as a separator eg. "name_first=John&name_last=Doe&email_address=..." where pairs are listed in the order in which they appear on this page. This hash will be regenerated by the PayFast engine and the values compared to ensure the integrity of the data transfer. Optional 32 char