Getting Started with Square and Django

Question

I'm trying to get a simple Square credit card form to work on our Django website. I'm new to using Square, but have used similar API's such as Stripe in the past.

To start, I followed along with their Square Payment Form walkthrough. I added their SqPaymentForm library and our own javascript file where I initialized a new SqPaymentForm.

The front-end appears to be working and is generating a unique card nonce every time I enter fake credentials.

Next, I submitted the form to our back-end (including the card nonce, in a hidden nonce field).

On the back-end, I've installed the Square Connect Python SDK. I copied their "Charge the card nonce" example as closely as possible, substituting our sandbox access token and location ID:

import uuid

import squareconnect
from squareconnect.rest import ApiException
from squareconnect.apis.transactions_api import TransactionsApi

# create an instance of the Transactions API class
api_instance = TransactionsApi()
# setup authorization
api_instance.api_client.configuration.access_token = 'sandbox-access-token'

location_id = 'sandbox-location-id'

nonce = request.POST.get('nonce', 'empty')
if (nonce == 'empty'): print("Throw error")
# print(nonce)

try:
  # Charge
  idempotency_key = str(uuid.uuid1())
  amount = {'amount': 100, 'currency': 'USD'}
  body = {'idempotency_key': idempotency_key, 'card_nonce': nonce, 'amount_money': amount}
  api_response = api_instance.charge(location_id, body)
  print (api_response.transaction)
except ApiException as e:
  print ('Exception when calling TransactionApi->charge: %s\n' % e)

I've also tried reformatting this code slightly to fit the example demonstrated in Square's connect-api-examples on GitHub.

But, when I test it in localhost (http), using the different demo credentials provided by Square on their test values page, I consistently get an 'Unauthorized' error from the API:

Exception when calling TransactionApi->charge: (401)
Reason: Unauthorized
HTTP response headers: HTTPHeaderDict(
{'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Vary': 'Origin, Accept-Encoding', 'X-Content-Type-Options': 'nosniff', 'X-Download-Options': 'noopen', 'X-Frame-Options': 'SAMEORIGIN', 'X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies': 'none', 'X-Xss-Protection': '1; mode=block', 'Date': 'Wed, 31 Jul 2019 20:59:10 GMT', 'keep-alive': 'timeout=60', 'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=631152000', 'content-length': '119'})
HTTP response body: {"errors":[{"category":"AUTHENTICATION_ERROR","code":"UNAUTHORIZED","detail":"This request could not be authorized."}]}

When I look through the Troubleshooting documentation, it says the likely cause for an Unauthorized error is an invalid OAuth token. Yet, none of Square's demos or examples utilize OAuth. I don't understand why OAuth would be necessary for a simple payment form that isn't behind a sign-up page?

I've tried uploading the code to our https website to see if an SSL cert was required, but I get the same error.

OAuth is definitely not required, but authentication errors imply that the access token is incorrect. Are you sure you're using the access token and not application id? — sjosey

advaiyalad advaiyalad · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-10T15:25:14

You need to set your access token, then your code will work. The location id is also not set, so square sends an error. I had the same problem, and I realized that it was because I forgot to add the access token. Hope that this helps.

Getting Started with Square and Django

1 Answers