Intuit Partner Platform team blog

Startups and the Cloud - Video 1 (of 5): Welcome

The choices startup Software as a Service (SaaS) providers have in this new age of “Cloud Computing” can be overwhelming, confusing and risky.

In June Intuit hosted the "Startups and the Cloud" event bringing together industry experts and successful SaaS startups to discuss a range of issues startups must consider to build a successful business and get an idea to market as quickly as possible.

At the event, we were joined by leading VCs and startups who shared their views and experiences about how to navigate the cloud provider space, as well as Intuit’s co-founder Scott Cook who discussed how cloud computing can foster innovation and how an intense focus on customer needs enables businesses to deliver successful products.

It was a successful event, with good attendance and some great content that emerged during the day. We also had a filming crew in attendance who recorded each of the main sessions. Over the next few days we’ll be publishing the recorded sessions (five in all).

Below is the first of the sessions – the event Welcome and introduction by Bill Lucchini, VP and GM, Platform as a Service Group, Intuit. Enjoy!

Startups and the Cloud - Video 1 (of 5) - Welcome

Got IPP Code Samples?

Where have all our code samples been?

Up until now we weren't keeping all of our code samples in one place. (What were we thinking?) Well, we finally added a code sample section on the IPP Dev Center website.

Our new code samples page has Flex, Intuit Data Service, and Federated app code samples, plus links to code projects on code.intuit.com that we think you will be interested in. 

Do you have some Samples you would like to share with your fellow IPP developers? Post on the forums or comment on this thread and we will take a look at them, and if worthy we may just add them to the Sample Code page...with full credit of course!

So what are you waiting for? Go get some sample code!

happy coding
-Jarred

New IPP Data API: Intuit Data Services

Last week the Intuit Partner Platform team released V2.0 of IPP which includes a number of enhancements to improve the overall Intuit Workplace customer experience and additional functionality to provide more access to QuickBooks data for IPP applications developers.

New Data API – “Intuit Data Services”

The Intuit Data Services API (IDS) is live and ready for production Intuit Workplace applications to leverage additional QuickBooks data integration.

IDS is a RESTful XML over HTTP API that can be programmed against using either the “Native” IPP Flex SDK (upgraded as part of this release) or as a Federated Application. Intuit Workplace application end-users will now be using the Intuit Sync Agent as the mechanism to synchronize their QuickBooks company file data across applications.

IDS replaces the “Master Synch Application” method for Intuit Workplace applications to read and write to QuickBooks data. Existing applications programmed using the “Master Synch Application” (MSA) will continue to work until May 2010. The IPP Developer Relations team is working with developers of MSA-synced apps to migrate those applications and their users to the IDS API and Intuit Sync Agent.

IDS provides additional QuickBooks data objects available as both read and write (unless otherwise indicated):

• Accounts (Query only)
• Company (metadata written up to IDS about the company and about the QuickBooks edition,( i.e. manufacturing & wholesale, contractor, etc., QuickBooks level, i.e. Pro or Premier version, when the QB file was last updated). This read only data is returned when an app queries for Company data.
• Customer (Query, Add, Mod)
• Employee (Query, Add, Mod)
• Estimates (Query, Add)
• Jobs (Query only)
• Invoice (Query, Add)
• Items (Query only)
• Payment (Query and Add)
• SalesOrder (Query, Add)
• Sales Rep (Query only)
• Vendor (Query, Add, Mod)

How to Get Started with IDS

Check out the IDS documentation, release notes, webinar video and presentation material for more information at the IPP Developer Center documentation page.

Thanks,
—The Intuit Partner Platform Team

Moving to the Eclipse Public License

A few days ago I blogged that we will "most likely" be moving to the Eclipse Public License as our preferred license on code.intuit.com. The "most likely" disclaimer is being removed. We will be moving to the EPL.

Our lawyer is back from vacation and earlier today we got together with some folks in the Eclipse foundation to discuss the differences in the licenses, tactical details for transitioning to the EPL.

We also had a quick discussion about the formal state of the CPL on the Open Source Initiative web site. If you look at the OSI site today, you will now see that the CPL 1.0 is officially listed as superseded.

What is Next?

There is very little difference between the CPL and the EPL so as a developer using code.intuit.com software, there should be no real impact. However you should read and be familiar with the terms of the EPL.

We have some work to do on our side to switch over though. That includes:

• Notifying contributors of the license change
• Updating the general information on the code.intuit.com web site to support the changes
• Establish new projects under the Eclipse Public License starting now
• Update the existing CPL projects and code to the EPL license

Doing the nitty-gritty work of changing license headers files will need to be scheduled on a per project basis so we will be transitioning projects as we can over time.

If you are interested in tracking us, we'll be coordinating with the project administrators and discussing the details in Project Admin Forum.

What did we learn?

As a company that isn't known for it's open source contributions we are taking a big leap with code.intuit.com. We are learning as we go and we were not quite sure what the reaction to code.intuit.com would be. As it turns out, we have received a lot of good will and help from people that have more OS experience that we do. That has been very, very cool.

We also learned that, even as Open Source newbies, we have a voice. When we told folks at the Eclipse Foundation that the OSI site said nothing about CPL being superseded, voila, it was fixed.

Transparency and open collaboration. That's what it is all about and that is what we are striving for.