Integration with Quickbooks Online via the Intuit Data Services v3 REST API.
NOTE: If you are looking for the v2 API then you need to use my other library - Quickeebooks:
https://github.com/ruckus/quickeebooks
This library communicates with the Quickbooks Data Services v3
API, documented at:
0.1.0
introduced a backwards-incompatible change in how boolean attributes are handled. As of 0.1.0
any boolean like:
xml_accessor :active?, :from => 'Active'
will be accessible via active?
. Thereby eliminating custom code like:
def active?
active.to_s == 'true'
end
Now a call to active?
that is not set will return nil
. Otherwise it return true
/ false
.
Moreover, there is no longer a getter method e.g. active
(without the trailing ?
).
This has been tested on 1.9.3, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2
Ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.2 are not supported.
Gems:
oauth
roxml
: Workhorse for (de)serializing objects between Ruby & XMLnokogiri
: XML parsingactive_model
: For validations
An API app provides two sets of OAuth key for production and development. Since October 22, 2014, only Sandbox Companies are allowed to connected to the QBO via the development key. The end-point for sandbox mode is https://sandbox-quickbooks.api.intuit.com.
By default, the gem runs in production mode. If you prefer to develop / test the integration with the development key, you need to config the gem to run in sandbox mode:
Quickbooks.sandbox_mode = true
What follows is an example using Rails but the principles can be adapted to any other framework / pure Ruby.
Create a Rails initializer with:
QB_KEY = "your apps Intuit App Key"
QB_SECRET = "your apps Intuit Secret Key"
$qb_oauth_consumer = OAuth::Consumer.new(QB_KEY, QB_SECRET, {
:site => "https://oauth.intuit.com",
:request_token_path => "/oauth/v1/get_request_token",
:authorize_url => "https://appcenter.intuit.com/Connect/Begin",
:access_token_path => "/oauth/v1/get_access_token"
})
To start the authentication flow with Intuit you include the Intuit Javascript and on a page of your choosing you present the "Connect to Quickbooks" button by including this XHTML:
<!-- somewhere in your document include the Javascript -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://appcenter.intuit.com/Content/IA/intuit.ipp.anywhere.js"></script>
<!-- configure the Intuit object: 'grantUrl' is a URL in your application which kicks off the flow, see below -->
<script>
intuit.ipp.anywhere.setup({menuProxy: '/path/to/blue-dot', grantUrl: '/path/to/your-flow-start'});
</script>
<!-- this will display a button that the user clicks to start the flow -->
<ipp:connectToIntuit></ipp:connectToIntuit>
Your Controller action (the grantUrl
above) should look like this:
def authenticate
callback = quickbooks_oauth_callback_url
token = $qb_oauth_consumer.get_request_token(:oauth_callback => callback)
session[:qb_request_token] = token
redirect_to("https://appcenter.intuit.com/Connect/Begin?oauth_token=#{token.token}") and return
end
Where quickbooks_oauth_callback_url
is the absolute URL of your application that Intuit should send the user when authentication succeeds. That action should look like:
def oauth_callback
at = session[:qb_request_token].get_access_token(:oauth_verifier => params[:oauth_verifier])
token = at.token
secret = at.secret
realm_id = params['realmId']
# store the token, secret & RealmID somewhere for this user, you will need all 3 to work with Quickbooks-Ruby
end
NOTE: If you are using Rails 4.1, you will need to wrap the token in Marshal.load and Marshal.dump:
session[:qb_request_token] = Marshal.dump(token)
Marshal.load(session[:qb_request_token]).get_access_token(:oauth_verifier => params[:oauth_verifier])
⭐ Also, check out regular Quickbooks-Ruby contributor, minimul's, article Integrating Rails and QuickBooks Online via the version 3 API for a step-by-step guide along with screencasts.
Once you have your users OAuth Token & Secret you can initialize your OAuth Consumer
and create a OAuth Client
using the $qb_oauth_consumer
you created earlier in your Rails initializer:
access_token = OAuth::AccessToken.new($qb_oauth_consumer, string_access_token_from_qb, string_access_secret_from_qb)
Most likely you will want to persist the OAuth access credentials so you don't have to connect to QBO each and every time.
QBO allows the access credentials to live for 6 months, and after 5 months they can be renewed. You will get an error if you try and renew prior to 5 months. Thus, you will need to keep track of the dates and manage the renewal process yourself.
An example database table would have fields likes:
access_token varchar(255),
access_secret varchar(255)
company_id varchar(255),
token_expires_at datetime # Set to 6.months.from_now upon insertion
reconnect_token_at datetime # Set to 5.months.from_now upon insertion
Then you will want to have a scheduled task / cron which runs nightly and runs thru your tokens and checks for records where reconnect_token_at <= now()
and it then performs the following logic:
expiring_tokens.each do |record|
access_token = OAuth::AccessToken.new($qb_oauth_consumer, record.access_token, record.access_secret)
service = Quickbooks::Service::AccessToken.new
service.access_token = access_token
service.company_id = record.company_id
result = service.renew
# result is an AccessTokenResponse, which has fields +token+ and +secret+
# update your local record with these new params
record.access_token = result.token
record.access_secret = result.secret
record.token_expires_at = 6.months.from_now.utc
record.reconnect_token_at = 5.months.from_now.utc
record.save!
end
The general approach is you first instantiate a Service
object based on the entity you would like to retrieve. Lets retrieve a list of Customers:
service = Quickbooks::Service::Customer.new
service.company_id = "123" # also known as RealmID
service.access_token = access_token # the OAuth Access Token you have from above
# Equivalent to Quickbooks::Service::Customer.new(:company_id => "123", :access_token => access_token)
customers = service.query() # Called without args you get the first page of results
# yields
customers.entries = [ .. array of Quickbooks::Model::Customer objects .. ]
customers.start_position = 1 # the current position in the paginated set
customers.max_results = 20 # the maximum number of results in this query set
Under the hood Intuit uses a simple SQL-like dialect for retrieving objects, the above no-arg use of query()
issued a Select * From Customer
.
You can issue your own query by passing the complete and valid query as the first argument:
customers.query("Select Id, GivenName From Customer")
Each Entity has different fields you can retrieve & filter on. Refer to Intuit documentation for details.
Do not pass pagination parameters in your query - pass them as additional options, using :page
and :per_page
:
# to use the default query
customers.query(nil, :page => 2, :per_page => 25)
# to use a custom query: find customers updated recently and only select a few attributes
query = "Select Id, GivenName From Customer Where Metadata.LastUpdatedTime>'2013-03-13T14:50:22-08:00' Order By Metadata.LastUpdatedTime"
customers.query(query, :page => 2, :per_page => 25)
Often one needs to retrieve multiple pages of records of an Entity type
and loop over them all. Fortunately there is the query_in_batches
collection method:
query = nil
Customer.query_in_batches(query, per_page: 1000) do |batch|
batch.each do |customer|
# ...
end
end
The first argument to query_in_batches
is the query
(which
can be nil
to retrieve the default items in that collection).
If you're are running a custom Query then pass it instead.
The second argument is the options, which are optional.
By default, the options are per_page: 1000
.
You may retrieve an array of objects like so:
customers = service.all
Unlike other query functions which return a Quickbooks::Collection object, the all method returns an array of objects.
You can retrieve a specific Intuit object like so:
customer = service.fetch_by_id("99")
puts customer.company_name
=> "Acme Enterprises"
The find_by(attribute, value)
method allows you to retrieve objects with a simple WHERE query using a single attribute. The attribute may be given as a symbol or a string.
Symbols will be automatically camelcased to match the Quickbooks API field names.
customer = service.find_by(:family_name, "Doe")
or
customer = service.find_by("FamilyName", "Doe")
By default updating an object will un-set any attributes that are NOT specified in the update request. That is, the update is NOT sparse by default. Thus, be careful as you might accidentally unset attributes that you did not specify.
Example:
# fetch a Customer to change their name
customer = service.fetch_by_id("99")
customer.company_name = "Neo Pets"
service.update(customer)
In the above example since we retrieved all fields and then just changed a single attribute, we have given the "complete" entity back to Intuit and effectively only the name is changed.
If you don't have the complete object on hand and only want to change a couple of attributes without un-setting what you are not specifying than you want to use a sparse update:
# update a Customer's name when we only know their ID
customer = Quickbooks::Model::Customer.new
customer.id = 99
customer.company_name = "New Company Name"
service.update(customer, :sparse => true)
Some models require a reference to be set, to a Customer, or an Item, etc. In the Quickbooks API these references
are labeled via a property like CustomerRef
. In quickbooks-ruby
the assignment of these references is done
by using the setter on the _id
property.
For example, to specify a Customer with ID 99 on an Invoice you would do this:
invoice = Quickbooks::Model::Invoice.new
invoice.customer_id = 99
This will automatically set a CustomerRef
XML packet with a value of 99.
The QBO API documentation states that SalesReceipt
has a ShipMethodRef
attribute. Normally, all attributes of a Ref
type
take an pseudo-integer argument, representing the foreign ID, which in turn point to a valid object with that ID.
I say pseudo because they look like Integers but Intuit has made it clear they should be handled as strings.
Anyways, its subtle but the value for a SalesReceipt#ShipMethodRef
while it is a BaseReference
needs to be set manually:
shipping_reference = Quickbooks::Model::BaseReference.new('FedEx', name: 'FedEx')
receipt.ship_method_ref = shipping_reference
A complete example on generating a basic invoice:
# Given a Customer with ID=99 lets invoice them for an Item with ID=500
invoice = Quickbooks::Model::Invoice.new
invoice.customer_id = 99
invoice.txn_date = Date.civil(2013, 11, 20)
invoice.doc_number = "1001" # my custom Invoice # - can leave blank to have Intuit auto-generate it
line_item = Quickbooks::Model::InvoiceLineItem.new
line_item.amount = 50
line_item.description = "Plush Baby Doll"
line_item.sales_item! do |detail|
detail.unit_price = 50
detail.quantity = 1
detail.item_id = 500 # Item ID here
end
invoice.line_items << line_item
service = Quickbooks::Service::Invoice.new
service.company_id = "123"
service.access_token = access_token
created_invoice = service.create(invoice)
puts created_invoice.id
=> 234
Notes: line_item.amount
must equal the unit_price * quantity
in the sales detail packet - otherwise Intuit will raise an exception.
The Quickbooks API offers a send invoice feature that sends the specified invoice model via email. By default the email is sent to the bill_email
on the invoice. This feature returns an invoice model with updated email_status
and delivery_info
as shown below:
invoice = invoice_service.fetch_by_id("1")
sent_invoice = invoice_service.send(invoice)
puts sent_invoice.email_status
=> EmailSent
puts sent_invoice.delivery_info.delivery_type
=> Email
puts sent_invoice.delivery_info.delivery_time
=> Wed, 25 Feb 2015 18:56:04 UTC +00:00
It is possible to email the invoice to an altermate email address by including the email as a second parameter in the invoice.send
method. When a new email address is provided the invoice model that is returned will have the bill_email
set to the new email address as show below:
invoice = invoice_service.fetch_by_id("1")
sent_invoice = invoice_service.send(invoice, "name@domain.com")
puts send_invoice.bill_email.address
=> name@domain.com
Notes: Quickbooks has global company settings to customize the send invoice email message content and format.
#Invoices, SalesReceipts etc can also be defined in a single command
salesreceipt = Quickbooks::Model::SalesReceipt.new({
customer_id: 99,
txn_date: Date.civil(2013, 11, 20),
payment_ref_number: "111", #optional payment reference number/string - e.g. stripe token
deposit_to_account_id: 222, #The ID of the Account entity you want the SalesReceipt to be deposited to
payment_method_id: 333 #The ID of the PaymentMethod entity you want to be used for this transaction
})
salesreceipt.auto_doc_number! #allows Intuit to auto-generate the transaction number
line_item = Quickbooks::Model::Line.new
line_item.amount = 50
line_item.description = "Plush Baby Doll"
line_item.sales_item! do |detail|
detail.unit_price = 50
detail.quantity = 1
detail.item_id = 500 # Item (Product/Service) ID here
end
salesreceipt.line_items << line_item
service = Quickbooks::Service::SalesReceipt.new({access_token: access_token, company_id: "123" })
created_receipt = service.create(salesreceipt)
Notes: In order to auto-generate transaction numbers using salesreceipt.auto_doc_number!
, the 'Custom Transaction Numbers' setting under Company Settings>Sales Form Entry must be unchecked within the Quickbooks account you are posting to.
Use Service#delete
which returns a boolean on whether the delete operation succeeded or not.
service.delete(customer)
=> returns boolean
Email attributes are not just strings, they are top-level objects, e.g. EmailAddress
on a Customer
for instance.
A Customer
has a setter method to make assigning an email address easier.
customer = Quickbooks::Model::Customer.new
customer.email_address = "foo@example.com"
Like Email Addresses, telephone numbers are not just basic strings but are top-level objects.
phone1 = Quickbooks::Model::TelephoneNumber.new
phone1.free_form_number = "97335530394"
customer.mobile_phone = phone1
Addresses are also top-level objects, so they must be instantiated and set.
address = Quickbooks::Model::PhysicalAddress.new
address.line1 = "2200 Mission St."
address.line2 = "Suite 201"
address.city = "Santa Cruz"
address.country_sub_division_code = "CA" # State, in United States
address.postal_code = "95060"
customer.billing_address = address
You can batch operations such creating an Invoice, updating a Customer, etc. The maximum batch size is 25 objects.
How to use:
batch_req = Quickbooks::Model::BatchRequest.new
customer = Quickbooks::Model::Customer.new
# build the customer as needed
...
item = Quickbooks::Model::Item.new
# build the item as needed
...
batch_req.add("bId1", customer, "create")
batch_req.add("bId2", item, "create")
# Add more items to create/update as needed, up to 25
batch_service = Quickbooks::Service::Batch.new
batch_response = batch_service.make_request(batch_req)
batch_response.response_items.each do |res|
puts res.bId
puts res.fault? ? "error" : "success"
end
For complete details on Batch Operations see: https://developer.intuit.com/docs/0025_quickbooksapi/0050_data_services/020_key_concepts/00700_batch_operation
Intuit requires that complex queries be escaped in a certain way. To make it easier to build queries that will be accepted I have provided a basic Query builder.
util = Quickbooks::Util::QueryBuilder.new
# the method signature is: clause(field, operator, value)
clause1 = util.clause("DisplayName", "LIKE", "%O'Halloran")
clause2 = util.clause("CompanyName", "=", "Smith")
service.query("SELECT * FROM Customer WHERE #{clause1} AND #{clause2}")
The Quickbooks API supports two different types of attachments, depending on whether you have an actual file to upload or just want to upload "meta-data" about an operation.
meta = Quickbooks::Model::Attachable.new
meta.file_name = "monkey.jpg"
meta.note = "A note"
meta.content_type = "image/jpeg"
entity = Quickbooks::Model::BaseReference.new(3, type: 'Customer')
meta.attachable_ref = Quickbooks::Model::AttachableRef.new(entity)
Note: No actual file is being attached, we are just describing a file.
upload_service = Quickbooks::Model::Upload.new
# args:
# local-path to file
# file mime-type
# (optional) instance of Quickbooks::Model::Attachable - metadata
result = upload_service.upload("tmp/monkey.jpg", "image/jpeg", attachable_metadata)
If successful result
will be an instance of the Attachable
model:
puts attach.temp_download_uri
=> "https://intuit-qbo-prod-29.s3.amazonaws.com/12345%2Fattachments%2Fmonkey-1423760870606.jpg?Expires=1423761772&AWSAcc ... snip ..."
To download a PDF of an Invoice:
service = Quickbooks::Service::Invoice.new # or use the SalesReceipt service
# +invoice+ is an instance of Quickbooks::Model::Invoice
raw_pdf_data = service.pdf(invoice)
# write it to disk
File.open("invoice.pdf", "wb") do |file|
file.write(raw_pdf_data)
end
Quickbooks has an api called Change Data Capture that provides a way of finding out which Entities have recently changed. This gem currently supports a way of querying changed invoices. This is the only way to find out if an invoice has been deleted (not voided), since a deleted invoice will not be returned by a standard Invoice query.
It is possible to request changes up to 30 days ago.
service = Quickbooks::Service::InvoiceChange.new
...
changed = service.since(Time.now.utc - 5 days)
see: https://developer.intuit.com/docs/0100_accounting/0300_developer_guides/change_data_capture for more information.
It is possible to find out which Customer, Vendor, Item, Payment or Credit Memo Entries have recently changed. It is possible to request changes up to 30 days ago.
customer_service = Quickbooks::Service::CustomerChange.new
...
customer_changed = customer_service.since(Time.now.utc - 5 days)
vendor_service = Quickbooks::Service::VendorChange.new
...
vendor_changed = vendor_service.since(Time.now.utc - 5 days)
item_service = Quickbooks::Service::ItemChange.new
...
item_changed = item_service.since(Time.now.utc - 5 days)
see: https://developer.intuit.com/docs/0100_accounting/0300_developer_guides/change_data_capture for more information.
Quickbooks has an API called the Reports API that provides abilities such as: business and sales overview; vendor and customer balances; review expenses and purchases and more. See the specs for examples of how to leverage.
Intuit started the v3 API supporting both XML and JSON. However, new
v3 API services such as Tax Service
will only support
JSON. This gem has
roots in the v2 API, which was XML only, and hence was constructed supporting XML only.
That said, the Tax Service
is supported and other new v3-API-JSON-only services will be supported. Ideally, we would like to fully support JSON for all entities and services for the 1.0.0
release. Please jump in and contribute to help that aim.
Quickbooks.log = true
By default, logging is directed at STDOUT, but another target may be defined, e.g. in Rails
Quickbooks.logger = Rails.logger
Quickbooks.log = true
# Pretty-printing logged xml is true by default
Quickbooks.log_xml_pretty_print = false
Entity | Create | Update | Query | Delete | Fetch by ID | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Account | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Attachable | no | no | no | no | no | |
Bill | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Bill Payment | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Class | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Company Info | n/a | n/a | yes | n/a | yes | |
Credit Memo | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |
Customer | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Department | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Deposit | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Employee | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Entitlements | no | no | no | no | no | |
Estimate | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Invoice | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Item | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Journal Entry | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Payment | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
PaymentMethod | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Preferences | n/a | no | yes | n/a | yes | |
Purchase | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Purchase Order | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Refund Receipt | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Sales Receipt | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Sales Rep | no | no | no | no | no | |
Sales Tax | no | no | no | no | no | |
Sales Term | no | no | no | no | no | |
Tax Agency | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Tax Code | no | no | yes | no | no | |
Tax Rate | yes | yes | yes | no | no | |
*Tax Service | yes | yes | no | no | no | |
Term | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Time Activity | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Tracking Class | no | no | no | no | no | |
Vendor | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
Vendor Credit | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
*JSON only
quickbooks-ruby-base
: Complements quickbooks-ruby by providing a base class to handle routine tasks like creating a model, service, and displaying information.
qbo_rails
: Simple Rails error handling and QuickBooks Online "Id" persistence. Uses quickbooks-ruby
.
- Implement other Line Item types, e.g.
DescriptionLineDetail
for Invoices - Full JSON support
Cody Caughlan
quickbooks-ruby
has been a community effort and I am extremely thankful for all the amazing contributors.
The MIT License
Copyright (c) 2013
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.