[Tutor] learn python to build payment processor

[Mats Wichmann]

On 07/11/2018 07:55 AM, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> hello,
> I would like to ask what for recommendations on books/resources to learn python to build a payment processor. I need to understand how python works with databases, user authentication and how a user can have an account page to view all his details; something like you would see when you login to your Paypal account. I am building a payment processor for cryptocurrencies. I am a newbie, but know very basic Python, applied to math. Should I learn to use Django to do this project, is it necessary?
> thanks a lot,


Hi Anil.

Python has a kind of motto:

"There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."

(see https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/)

The thing is, when "it" is a complex concept -- and "payment processing"
certainly is that (you've listed several high-level issues already) --
you end up not being able to simply apply that.  There are a lot of ways
to deal with the payment processing topic.

Normally the advice would be to decompose your problem into rather
distinct chunks, and see what looks like a good choice for each
(including the "build or buy" decision, although here by "buy" I only
mean pick up some existing implementation). You listed some of those -
database, auth, web interface, account managment, but probably need to
break it down further.

Django is a powerful and wonderful system; however the one time I worked
with it on a paid project where a book author wanted a system to order
and sell her book, the existing payment-processing modules nearly drove
me insane with all the quirks I ran into. Since then I've spewed a good
amount of possible unjustified hate for Django. If you've done this many
times it's probably a trivial exercise.  Probably today's code is more
mature when I did this.  etc.  All I'm saying is Django may, or may not,
be your magic bullet.  Or it may be overkill for what you need - we
can't tell.

There's a Udemy course on this topic - I don't know if it's of interest
to pay a bit of money to look at it and see if there's a fit based on
what they have to present (I'm sure there are many other options, some
not pay-for):
https://www.udemy.com/learn-django-code-accept-payments-with-stripe/

Meanwhile, it turns out I have Jeff Knupp's site bookmarked because I
like the way he explains at least some of the topics he takes on, and
he's got one on payment processing too:

https://jeffknupp.com/blog/2014/01/18/python-and-flask-are-ridiculously-powerful/

I've mentioned three scenarios here because (a) I fell in this hole
myself once, and (b) I happen to have seen the two links in the course
of other searching.  I bet there's a ton of resources for this on the
Internet because, well, there are an awful lot of people who want to
figure out how to get paid without irritating their customers in the
process!


The bottom line is... there's probably not one place you can go which
will teach you exactly what you need to know for this idea, and nothing
more.  But there are a ton of resources that will edge you in that
direction.  Including this list - if you get to the point where you have
specific Python questions to ask.

Best of luck!