Payment gateways
A payment gateway is a technology used by merchants to accept debit or credit card purchases from customers.
Payment gateways are used with Enrolment on payment to provide different payment options when purchasing access to a course.
Security notes
Moodle is an open-source project, which means that third-party developers can create their own payment plugins to extend Moodle's functionality to support additional payment methods. The implementation details and data handling practices of these third-party plugins are entirely up to the individual developers, and Moodle itself does not dictate or control how these plugins manage payment data.
Moodle only includes the PayPal plugin as standard. When using this plugin, users are redirected to the PayPal website to enter their credit card information. This ensures that the payment data is handled securely by PayPal, and Moodle does not process or transmit any credit card information directly.
Once the payment is completed on PayPal’s site, the user is redirected back to Moodle, which then processes the payment status to deliver the purchased service (e.g., course enrolment). For any additional payment plugins developed by third parties, Moodle’s core system simply delegates the payment task to these plugins and retrieves the payment status from them. Moodle HQ does not have visibility into the internal workings of these third-party plugins, including how they manage, store, or transmit payment information and therefore cannot provide specific assurances about their compliance with PCI-DSS standards.
Payment gateway set-up
- Go to Site administration / Plugins / Payment gateways and enable payment gateways as required.
- Click the settings link for each payment gateway to set a surcharge i.e. an additional percentage charged to users who choose to pay using this payment gateway, then save changes.
Payment account set-up
- Go to Site administration / Plugins / Payment gateways and click the link 'Payment accounts'.
- Click the button 'Create payment account' then enter an account name for identifying it when setting up enrolment on payment, then save changes.
- On the Payment accounts page, click the payment gateway link e.g. PayPal opposite the account name.
- Enter a client ID and secret from PayPal, tick the Enable box and save changes.
The payment gateway will then show as enabled for the account.
Multiple payment accounts may be set-up as required.
When done, the payment gateway and payment accounts are ready to be used with Enrolment on payment.
See also
- Enrolment on payment
- Developer documentation Payment API
