Intuit Partner Platform team blog

Blogs have moved

The IPP team just relaunched developer.intuit.com and have massively improved the experience which includes having our blogs under the same umbrella. Take a visit and check things out:

https://developer.intuit.com/blog/2013/05/03/enjoy-the-refreshments-2

 

This is our last regular blog post here as a result so come over to our new and improved site and tell us what you think over there.

 

Cheers!

 

Scaling New Heights Tech Track

Sign up and join us for our inaugural tech track at Scaling New Heights in June:

https://developer.intuit.com/snh/SNHTechTrack.htm

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Best,

Intuit Partner Platform team

Guidance on managing your customer attrition and billing

We are sharing some guidance here to make sure you don't incur unnecessary overhead fees when you have customer attrition. As a reminder, Intuit charges developers $5.00 per month for each Connect to QuickBooks (OAuth) connection made. You can read more details on that here.

Customers can stop paying for a variety of reasons including:

• Customer's payment method was declined, or just stopped paying you.
• Customer was only a trial customer and never converted to a paid customer.
• Customer legitimately cancelled their subscription to your App.

These customers have likely already successfully connected their QuickBooks data, which will result in you (the developer) being charged monthly for each of these connections. 

How can you ensure that you are only being charged for connections in which customers are paying you?

1. Make sure you utilize the Disconnect API. You should be already making this call in the disconnect link you provide in your App.
2. If you have any self-service cancel/disconnect work-flows in your app, call the above Disconnect API as part of this process.
3. On a regular interval (weekly), reconcile your paying customers against your Connections report. Then either manually disconnect each customer on the report, or create a script which  automatically batches your canceled customers, and then calls the Disconnect API to disconnect each one.

Taking the time to ensure you are following the above guidance will ensure you aren't unnecessarily utilizing services which are no longer needed.

QuickBooks API v3 April Release

Hey folks

Just wanted to give you all a quick update that the April Release for QuickBooks API v3 was completed last week. As part of that, we've published the first round of documentation and have made that available for everyone to view:

V3 docs

Currently the v3 API is only accessible by a small number of early adopters we've accepted into our v3 program. We'll open up applications again leading up to the July release. In the meanwhile if you have any comments or suggestions based on what you see in the docs, please share them here.

From Intuit Anywhere to IPP QuickBooks API

We wanted to let you know in advance that over the next few weeks, references to Intuit Anywhere will be removed in phases.

Why are we doing this?

Intuit Anywhere as a label which encompasses both the IPP QuickBooks API, the Blue Dot widget and the Intuit App Center opportunity has been confusing to new developers on our platform. We've listened to the feedback and are working to simplify our content to the relevant areas developers care about. The underlying services aren't going away – we're just removing the extraneous label.

QuickBooks API which had previously been labeled IDS API under Intuit Anywhere will be the core category replacing Intuit Anywhere, with the Blue Dot Widget appropriately under this topic. Going forward we'll be separating out the information related to publishing apps to the Intuit App Center under a Marketing category.

Feedback, concerns? Please feel free to leave us a comment. We want to hear from you.

Customer Account Data DevKits release for Java (1.0.1) and .NET (1.2.0)

As part of our continued Limited Availability phase of the Customer Account Data API, we are happy to announce the latest release of our Java and .NET Customer Account Data DevKits.  This release adds support for all Customer Account Data APIs, including batch APIs.  Additionally, the .NET DevKit now includes support for SAML Authentication.  For more information, please view the Customer Account Data documentation.

Discussing Webhooks

Author : Arun Avanathan, Platform Lead, IPP Data Services.  Enjoys developing core platform services for IPP.  In the past, built highly scalable applications & services for eBay & Nextag.

Webhooks

 

At Intuit Partner Platform we are currently considering introducing a new feature to provide support for Webhooks. We’d like your feedback on this topic to help evaluate the importance of this type of feature.

 

For context we provide a brief explanation below discussing the benefits of such a feature.

 

Webhook is an HTTP POST callback request sent to a URL of the your choice in response to some event occurring. This eliminates the need for you to build polling functionalities in your application to the server to check whether a particular event has occurred or not.

How is it going to help you the Application Developer?

 

Today, the Application Developer writes scripts to periodically poll Intuit Partner Platform(IPP) API for QuickBooks to know whether Data changed or not. Even though the data hasn’t changed, the polling script will still call & the API will return “no data changed” response.  This is where Webhooks can remove the need for developers to add a polling mechanism .

 

 

 

Once a Webhook endpoint is registered by an application, IPP will notify the app of data changes in the Cloud.  The Webhook payload will contain the company ID, entity name and the time the entity changed.  The application can then call IPP API for QuickBooks to get the details of the changes.

Security - How does the REST endpoint know that caller is IPP?

 

When the Webhook endpoint is registered for the application, IPP will generate an auth token – specifically a Webhook auth token – in the App Center. With every call back, IPP will use this token to make a POST request over https with Basic Auth. The Webhook endpoint can validate this token to ensure the requests are coming from IPP.

Sample Webhook call

 

 

Webhooks are not limited to solving just polling problem. Under the hood they are designed to notify any event, qualified for notification. More events will be identified & added as part of the iterative improvement process.

 

Here are some of the potential use cases webhooks can help :

 

1. Data Change events
2. Connection initiation

 

What do you think? Any other events you want to be notified for? We’d love to hear from you & let us know of any other use cases you would like to cover in this feature.  So, if it’s important to you, make sure you are heard by commenting on this blog post.

 

Application for early access to QuickBooks API v3

UPDATE: 3/19/13

Thank you to everyone who has submitted an application. We will contact you in the next few weeks to let you know if you have been accepted to the early access program.

***We have closed the survey today so that we can consider the current application pool for the April release. Please keep your eye on our blog here for updates in future for other opportunities closer to the July and October releases.

---

 

As a follow up to our webinar a few weeks ago, here is the application for folks who want to apply for early access of our QuickBooks API v3.

v3 Early Access Application

We'll evaluate each application as they come in and we'll let you know if you've been accepted via email. Thanks for your interest and support for our upcoming release.

 

Best,

Grace Francisco

Sr. Manager, Developer Programs & Evangelism

Intuit Partner Platform

 

QuickBooks API v3 Webinar Recording

Thank you to the folks who joined us for yesterday's webinar. Please find below the recording and slides.

http://youtu.be/6sOhD0u7wPc

 

Webinar slides

If you have questions please refer your questions over to our Support channel: http://developer.intuit.com/Support.html.

 

Registration for IPP QuickBooks API v3 Webinar

Folks,

Below you'll find the webinar registration information for our overview and update on QuickBooks API v3. Register early to reserve your spot! 

IPP Quickbooks API v3
Join us for a Webinar on February 21

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/979269376

Please join us on Thursday, Feb 21st, at 2 PM PST as Bhavin Raval, Group Product Manager discusses the next version of Intuit Partner Platform's QuickBooks API.

Intuit Partner Platform Team
Title:    IPP Quickbooks API v3
Date:    Thursday, February 21, 2013
Time:    2:00 PM - 3:00 PM PST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer
Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet