Ruby web apps and the Intuit Partner Platform

Editor's note: The following is a guest post by Zack Chandler who has been active in the Ruby on Rails and Intuit developer community for a number of years.

As recently as five years ago the majority of developers considered the Ruby programming language arcane and obscure. Then the Ruby on Rails web framework burst on the scene and seemly overnight became a must-consider choice when building web apps.

I began working with Ruby on Rails before the 1.0 release and have been amazed at the progress of the framework and growth of the community. Not long after that I began developing integrations between Ruby web apps and QuickBooks via the QuickBooks Web Connector and QuickBooks Online via the QBO API.

New to the QuickBooks ecosystem, I quickly learned there were additional benefits beyond simply adding the “QuickBooks integration” checkbox on a feature tour. Specifically the QuickBooks Marketplace quickly proved itself to be a valuable channel for lead-generation.

Fast-forward to 2010 and Ruby developers have even greater reason to be excited with Intuit’s current integration opportunities.

Ruby web apps apps targeting small to medium-sized businesses are launching daily. Humm… guess which accounting system most small to medium-sized businesses use (hint: rhymes with “fast cooks”)?

Meanwhile Intuit has re-imagined their entire developer offering and launched the ambitious Intuit Partner Platform. To a Ruby developer with no former experience with QuickBooks integration I would simply say that the most exciting parts of IPP are:

• Intuit Data Services - a cloud-based API for QuickBooks data
• Intuit Workplace App Center - an online portal where your web app can be marketed and sold to millions of Intuit customers

I recently did a deep-dive into IPP and came away thoroughly excited. I’ve posted a quickstart tutorial entitled Intuit Partner Platform for Ruby Web Applications on my Depixelate blog which will hopefully help other Rubyists get started with IPP.

The future is indeed bright for those Ruby developers wishing to both co-market and integrate with Intuit data through the cloud.

Comments

[GERALD ANGLIN]

Is there an existing QB plugin, or other QB solution, that will permit me to process recurring invoices and do two special things - 1/ INCLUDE BY AUTO GENERATION, THE DATES FOR THE PERIOD FOR WJHICH THE INVOICE IS APPLICABLE ( i.e. 01 March 2010 to 31 August 2010 on 6 month cycle or 01 March 2010 to 31 march 2010 for monthly cycle and 2/ AUTOMATICALLY ADVANCE THE NEXT DUE INVOICE DATE FROM THE INITIAL INVOICE DATE TO THE NEW DATE AS DETERMINED BY THE APPLICABLE CYCLE (whether it be monthly, bi-monthly, quraterly or whatever? I know the security alarm industry software has this important feature so it is possible. The existing QB solution of memorized transactions does not provide for the two above features and to make my point; MANUALLY ENTERING INTO EACH DIFFERENT TRANSACTION TYPE ( LET US SAY "1000' DIFFEERENT TYPES FOR ONE MILLION CLIENTS WOULD BE A IMPRACTICAL PROCESS, THEREFORE THE "AUTOMATIC" PARTR OF MY DESIRE.