The SDK provides convenient access to the Africa's Talking APIs to python apps.

Take a look at the API docs here.

$ pip  install africastalking # python 2.7.x

OR

$ python -m pip install africastalking # python 2.7.x

OR

$ pip3 install africastalking # python 3.6.x

OR

$ python3 -m pip install africastalking # python 3.6.x

The package needs to be configured with your app username and API key, which you can get from the dashboard.

You can use this SDK for either production or sandbox apps. For sandbox, the app username is ALWAYS sandbox

# import package
import africastalking


# Initialize SDK
username = "YOUR_USERNAME"    # use 'sandbox' for development in the test environment
api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"      # use your sandbox app API key for development in the test environment
africastalking.initialize(username, api_key)


# Initialize a service e.g. SMS
sms = africastalking.SMS


# Use the service synchronously
response = sms.send("Hello Message!", ["+2547xxxxxx"])
print(response)

# Or use it asynchronously
def on_finish(error, response):
    if error is not None:
        raise error
    print(response)

sms.send("Hello Message!", ["+2547xxxxxx"], callback=on_finish)    

See example for more usage examples.

Initialize the SDK by calling africastalking.initialize(username, api_key). After initialization, you can get instances of offered services as follows:

• SMS: africastalking.SMS
• Airtime: africastalking.Airtime
• Voice: africastalking.Voice
• Token: africastalking.Token
• Application: africastalking.Application
• Mobile Data: africastalking.MobileData
• Insights: africastalking.Insights

• fetch_application_data(): Get app information. e.g balance.

• send(recipients: [dict]): Send airtime

  • recipients: Contains an array of arrays containing the following keys

    • phone_number: Recipient of airtime
    • amount: Amount to send with currency e.g 100
    • currency_code: 3-digit ISO format currency code (e.g KES, USD, UGX etc).

• max_num_retry: This allows you to specify the maximum number of retries in case of failed airtime deliveries due to various reasons such as telco unavailability. The default retry period is 8 hours and retries occur every 60 seconds. For example, setting max_num_retry=4 means the transaction will be retried every 60 seconds for the next 4 hours. OPTIONAL.

• send(message: str, recipients: [str], sender_id: str = None, enqueue: bool = False): Send a message.

  • message: SMS content. REQUIRED
  • recipients: An array of phone numbers. REQUIRED
  • sender_id: Shortcode or alphanumeric ID that is registered with your Africa's Talking account.
  • enqueue: Set to true if you would like to deliver as many messages to the API without waiting for an acknowledgement from telcos.

• send_premium(message: str, short_code: str, recipients: [str], link_id: [str] = None, retry_duration_in_hours [int] = None): Send a premium SMS

  • message: SMS content. REQUIRED
  • short_code: Your premium product shortCode. REQUIRED
  • recipients: An array of phone numbers. REQUIRED
  • keyword: Your premium product keyword.
  • link_id: We forward the linkId to your application when a user sends a message to your onDemand service
  • retry_duration_in_hours: This specifies the number of hours your subscription message should be retried in case it's not delivered to the subscriber

• fetch_messages(last_received_id: int = 0): Fetch your messages

  • last_received_id: This is the id of the message you last processed. Defaults to 0

• create_subscription(short_code: str, keyword: str, phone_number: str): Create a premium subscription

  • short_code: Premium short code mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • keyword: Premium keyword under the above short code and is also mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • phone_number: PhoneNumber to be subscribed REQUIRED

• fetch_subscriptions(short_code: str, keyword: str, last_received_id: int = 0): Fetch your premium subscription data

  • short_code: Premium short code mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • keyword: Premium keyword under the above short code and mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • last_received_id: ID of the subscription you believe to be your last. Defaults to 0

• delete_subscription(short_code: str, keyword: str, phone_number: str): Delete a phone number from a premium subscription

  • short_code: Premium short code mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • keyword: Premium keyword under the above short code and is also mapped to your account. REQUIRED
  • phone_number: PhoneNumber to be subscribed REQUIRED

• send_hashed(message: str, masked_number: str, sender_id: str, telco: str = Safaricom): Send a message to a hashed number.

  • message: SMS content. REQUIRED
  • masked_number: The hashed number being sent to. REQUIRED
  • sender_id: Shortcode or alphanumeric ID that is registered with your Africa's Talking account. REQUIRED
  • telco: The telco being used.

• call(callFrom: str, callTo: [str]): Initiate a phone call

  • callFrom: Phone number on Africa's Talking (in international format). REQUIRED
  • callTo: An array of phone numbers that you wish to dial (in international format). REQUIRED

• fetch_queued_calls(phone_number: str): Get queued calls

  • phone_number: Phone number mapped to your Africa's Talking account (in international format). REQUIRED

• upload_media_file(phone_number: str, url: str): Upload voice media file

  • phone_number: phone number mapped to your Africa's Talking account (in international format). REQUIRED
  • url: The url of the file to upload. Should start with http(s)://. REQUIRED

• send(product_name: str, recipients: dict): Send mobile data to customers.

  • product_name: Payment product on Africa's Talking. REQUIRED
  • recipients: A list of recipients. Each recipient has:
    • phoneNumber: Customer phone number (in international format). REQUIRED
    • quantity: Mobile data amount. REQUIRED
    • unit: Mobile data unit. Can either be MB or GB. REQUIRED
    • validity: How long the mobile data is valid for. Must be one of Day, Week and Month. REQUIRED
    • metadata: Additional data to associate with the transaction. OPTIONAL

• find_transaction(transaction_id: str): Find a mobile data transaction.

• fetch_wallet_balance(): Fetch a mobile data product balance.

• generate_auth_token(): Generate an auth token to use for authentication instead of an API key.

• check_sim_swap_state(phone_numbers: [str]): Check the sim swap state of a given [array of ] phone number(s).

For more information, please read https://developers.africastalking.com/docs/ussd

$ git clone https://github.com/AfricasTalkingLtd/africastalking-python.git
$ cd africastalking-python
$ touch .env

Make sure your .env file has the following content then run python -m unittest discover -v

# AT API
AT_USERNAME=sandbox
AT_API_KEY=some_key

If you find a bug, please file an issue on our issue tracker on GitHub.