Intuit Partner Platform team blog

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

Federated Applications on Intuit Partner Platform

Today, we are pleased to announce the release of “Federated Applications” on the Intuit Partner Platform. It’s been a blast to work with our Rock-Star team to deliver this and I want to personally welcome our five new developers, VerticalResponse, DimDim, Rypple, Setster, and ExpenseWare, that have gone through federation already.  It’s always scary going first, but these folks have been great partners and I look forward to their awesome success!

Here is some more information on the details of federation and how you as a developer can get started.

Now Available: IPP V1.2

IPP version 1.2 is now available. It contains several significant developer productivity enhancements. We’ve made additional changes to address known issues.

DEVELOPMENT PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENTS

Deploy application updates that include schema changes
Developers can now publish application updates that include database schema changes, including new tables, fields, relationships, roles, etc. as long as the change preserves existing user data. The Intuit Partner Platform Flex SDK Plug-in Tools have also been updated to include enhancements that help development teams manage different database schema versions, test application upgrades that involve schema changes, and automatically publish application updates to all subscribers.

Learn more about these schema update capabilities.

Support for application-specific beta programs
Developers who want to market test their applications before commercially releasing them may now create “beta plans.” Beta plans are application entitlements that allow users to use applications for free for a fixed period of time. Beta plans allow developers to specify the number of users who can share a particular beta program subscription and a specific target date when the Beta period will end. Once the beta program ends, application subscribers are prompted to select a pricing plan so they can continue to use the application.

Follow this link for more information on defining application-specific beta programs.

Additional reports: settlement failures and beta plan tracking
The Settlement Failures Report presents a list of application subscribers (and their contact info) for whom the IPP Billing service could not collect the monthly subscription fee. This information helps developers work through collection issues with their subscribers.

The Developer Free Trial Usage report has been extended to list subscribers who have signed up for beta programs as well as free trials. The report includes user contact information along with the dates upon which each subscriber‘s beta plan or free trial will expire.

Click here for more information on these additional developer reporting capabilities.

SOFTWARE UPDATES / FIXES
For the complete list of software updates and fixes included in IPP v1.2, please review the release notes located here.

Thanks,
—The Intuit Partner Platform Team

Intuit Partner Platform – Open for Business

Phew! After about a year of pretty heavy strategy and really heavy engineering work, I’m proud to announce the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) is open for business.   What is IPP you ask?  Well, it’s the fastest and easiest way for you to build a SaaS business.  Here’s the way I think about building a SaaS business –

Three simple steps to success:

1) Get a great idea – we can share some of our research on what Small businesses are telling us they need – but your entrepreneurial inspiration is critical

2) Build your great idea on a solid platform – IPP gives you robust hosting, a database with prebuilt  functionality, a UI layer with Adobe Flex, integration with QuickBooks data, integrated billing service, etc. etc.

3) Get lots and lots of customers – Even the best application, built on the best technology, won’t get you very far if no one comes to buy it.  What makes the Intuit Partner Platform truly unique is access to our channels of Small Business customers. We have about 25 million employees within our 4 million QuickBooks customers alone – and we want to drive them to buy your apps. 

In listening to our customers, they are demanding applications that solve their business needs – “right for me” applications.  We can’t build all of those ourselves – but we can build a great platform and a great channel for you to build lots of great apps that solve for our customer’s needs.  So what you see today is V1 – open for business. There is a lot more to come, but we’re ready for prime-time now.  We have a few developers that we’ve been working with for a while that have apps in the marketplace – try them out – play around with the materials we have on the website – download the SDK - then get your idea ready and give us a call.   We’ll help you refine that idea and design a killer app for the small business world – We’re open for business and ready to drive users to your app – give us an app and let’s get started!

Alex Chriss
Business Leader, Intuit Partner Platform