I'm going to be building a custom interface for a QuickBooks Enterprise install (with Ruby on Rails). For example, we need to a have custom Estimate ("Quote") generator and later perform other functions as well. Before committing too heavily to the QBWC (QuickBooks Web Connector), I am hoping to understand any limitations that might exist.
Is there anything that the QBWC cannot do that can only be accomplished through the QuickBooks Enterprise interface itself?
I assume that there may be some "administrative" tasks that might not be able to be done, but Intuit's developer support can't seem to succinctly answer this question and has left me with a "Just try it and find out!" approach. This, of course, isn't really acceptable in my situation since I must understand any constraints / limitations going into this planning and proposal before really digging...
One other peculiar note in the docs (old, 2009, QBWC documentation) is: "... for a developer to write their own go-between application, in effect, replacing QBWC with their own implementation." Is this viable and does anyone have any experience with this who could provide some context of what this means?
Is there anything that the QBWC cannot do that can only be accomplished through the QuickBooks Enterprise interface itself?
Yes, there are many things. A short list of examples:
QBWC cannot add users
QBWC cannot change passwords
QBWC cannot switch between single-user and multi-user modes
QBWC cannot change settings (e.g. it cannot change the QuickBooks company from accrual to cash basis, or enable/disable tax)
QBWC cannot tell QuickBooks to update to the newest version
QBWC cannot communicate with QuickBooks when you have two separate QuickBooks companies open at once
(I'm sure there are many more)
It's also important to understand that the Web Connector is built on the same tech that all integrations with QuickBooks are built on.
Which means if the Web Connector can't do what you need, then you're SOL - no other different method of integration will be able to do what you need either.
You'd be much, much better off spec'ing out what you actually need to do, and then making sure that functionality is there, vs. trying to weed out what you can't do.
Related
I was introduced recently to the Advantage Database technology, and I now have to use it to interface with a legacy software on Win 7. I have successfully followed the advantagezone development help files in order to install both the ADS and the ODBC driver. A few questions remain, the first of which being the following: How does one change the password of a user/add a user?
I was unable to find any documentation regarding this matter. Could you point me to the relevant documentation or provide me with the command necessary to do so via command line?
Also I was wondering if there were any sort of GUI to manage the ADS, like MySQL has with PHPMyAdmin or the MySQL workbench.
Thanks for your help!
Advantage Database Server (ADS) uses a somewhat strange concept they've confusingly called a Data Dictionary (DD), which when used as designed controls users, rights, security, and access similar to what most DBMSs offer in the database itself.
Basically the only way to work with the ADS DD is through their GUI, known as the Advantage Data Architect (ARC32), which is available for download from the ADS Developer Zone. (You can do it via code, but for the types of things a DBA would do it's much easier to do things via ARC32.) Using it, you can create most of the types of things you'd typically use in a DBMS.
ARC32 also allows you to design your tables and indexes, as well as running SQL DDL and DML statements. The supported SQL grammar is also available in the documentation and covered in the book mentioned below.
You can find the documentation in ARC32 itself (using the Help menu or the ? on the toolbar), or via their Online Help FIles. The best place to start is in the topic The Advantage Developer's Guide, which is actually the entire contents of the book Advantage Database Server: A Developer's Guide. The book contains pretty good documentation on all of the aspects of both ARC32 and ADS itself, including use of the DD. Part 1, Chapter 4 has an entire section on adding users.
I want to add a Ticket System to the web app I'm developing.
The idea is very simple:
Users can open tickets when they have problems and
the Admin can see the tickets the users have submitted.
I'm looking for a ticket system but I have found only systems that are external to the web. I want to add it IN my wep app.
¿Do you know any ticket system por rails?
Thanks
I think using some external gem like noted above would be either an overkill or a hassle due to mentioned bad documentation.
Judging by your problem description this is quite simple to implement.
Create model for tickets and associations with users (I assume you
already have users model fully set up).
Authorize access to tickets' actions depending on user status (admin
or not)
Create corresponding views
P.S.
You could have a look at Redmine code. It is an open source project management software written in rails. I am sure this could give you a good idea of how to build your own or even borrow bits of code from there (if the app license that you are building fits)
Maybe Simple-Ticket would fit you. Though beware the basic implementation and the fact that there is no documentation provided nor written specs.
Have a look at restrospectiva. It doesn't have any documentation though
We need to integrate our custom in house applications with quickbooks. When I saw the QB REST API and the IPP I was like "Yay!!! Finally Qb offered us something useful!".
It was a happy moment.....
Then I read this in the FAQ
I want to integrate my custom (non-SaaS, single-tenant) solution with QuickBooks API. Can I do this?
Not today, but we are considering it.
What? Why?
were paying customers, we have integration problems....largely caused by YOU intuit!
You already built it...I assume it works...so there's no effort whatsoever on your part!
So now you offer an API on a silver platter....but...oh wait....you can't use it.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somebody tell me that I'm simply misunderstanding this....
Your understanding is correct. IPP Intuit Anywhere is the new platform only for SaaS applications.
Intuit still provides the traditional QBSDK SDK v12, which is useful if you are creating a custom integration for one company, or focused entirely on desktop scenarios only.
QBSDK Ref - https://developer.intuit.com/docs/0025_quickbooksapi/0055_devkits/0250_qb
I'm not sure if this is a good option for you but we have created a pretty slick sync with QuickBooks using the SDK for the Method Integration platform. You can use our API with the sync engine to do what you need. You'll need a Method account though which is $40.00 per month.
I have done a lot of integration with QB, and prefer to use the RSSBus ADO.NET provider. It is infinitely easier than using Intuit's SDK, and has great documentation, such as - http://cdn.rssbus.com/help/RQ4/ado/pg_desktoptable-purchaseorders.htm. It works with the Desktop version and QB online.
I am not affiliated with them at all, just a happy customer!
Have seen some conversations revolving around this, but hoping for some current input as to perhaps the best libs and services available for Rails developers at the moment who are implementing a subscription membership based website.
I'm interested in any libs or frameworks with which you may be familiar through GitHub or elsewhere as well as what service has given you the best experience so far for clients and your own sanity? I'm leaning towards paypal and perhaps also including Google Checkout, however there are certainly a lot of other options.
I'd like for it to be clean and to appear as integrated into the website as possible while carrying the trust of a larger service provider such as PayPal and Google.
Additionally, these are mostly micro payments at around $1.00 USD. Sometimes purchases go up to $15 to $30.
EDIT: Since initial post I've found SaaS Rails Kit (http://railskits.com/recurring_billing/). Has anyone had experience with this vs Recurly? Doing some research as per the first answer, it appears Recurly is the superior option at this point for our model, however this Rails Kit may be an even better option if it has met some very positive experiences in comparison with other options.
The one I prefer: Chargify (soon to be available on heroku)
Another I know but haven't used: Recurly (soon on heroku too)
I've been programming for years, and I've also done a few professional programming projects. I recently had a friend ask about creating an e-commerce site, but I had to turn her down because I had never worked on a web application that can bill. I also might need to write a subscription-based web service in the future. My question is, how do I even get started with billing? I've never found a guide about this, and I barely know how bank accounts work since I don't manage my own one (I have an excuse for this since I'm only 16).
I don't know if the answer is language dependent, but if it is the languages I'm interested in are Python, C/C++, and Java.
There are lots of ways to go about setting up e-commerce sites;
If you don't have any experience whatsoever, and don't want to get into anything "complicated", i would suggest going with a customizable web "storefront" hosted by someone else, pre-integrated with credit card processing, etc. There are tons of options for these online. Just search google for "web storefront". Yahoo! even has such a service:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/sellonline.php
Going beyond that, It's pretty easy to integrate with someone like PayPal. They have all sorts of options from the most basic (use a link to send someone to their site with query string parameters to let paypal know what the user wanted to buy):
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/home
Beyond that level, you will need to signup for a merchant account, or other similar sort of service, like the one offered by authorize.net (who I like):
http://www.authorize.net/
There are components you can buy for most major web development platforms like .NET, JSP, etc. Perfect example is dotnetcart. These components provide out-of-the-box, easy-to-setup integrations with major CC processing companies, as well as out-of-the-box shopping cart implementations:
http://www.dotnetcart.com/
Finally, most merchant services / payment gateways provide web services for direct integration.
PS.) Never ever ever store CC numbers ; )
I would look at paypal's api to get started. You might not want to stick with them but it is a good starting place to learn about dealing with credit card clearing houses and such.
Here ya go.
You'll typically interface with a 3rd-party for doing banking transactions. One that I've work with in the past is Authorize.Net but there's plenty out there (PayPal is another fairly popular one with a decent API).
Basically, the best approach is to do as little as possible and let the 3rd party handle all the "hard" stuff (such as security, managing credit card details and so on).