Extended information on the newsletter article

The first time you try to access the QuickBooks Company file you will need to be logged in as the administrator.  You will be presented with a popup screen asking you to make a choice.

If a user is going to be running your program with QuickBooks open I would suggest either “Yes, whenever this QuickBooks company file is open”

Otherwise I would suggest “Yes, always; allow access even if QuickBooks is not running” if your going to be running your program with QuickBooks closed and having it log on by itself.

If your going to have it log on by itself I would suggest you set up a user for it.  Company -> users -> Set up users and roles (or whatever your version of QuickBooks has).  You might want to set the user at full access and give it a very strong password.  Or you can play with the permissions and figure out what the minimum you need to give is.  Just remember to log out of the admin account before testing if it works with your permissions ;-).

All example code is going to be Perl scripts and if you want to use them I would highly recommend that you download and install the FREE Active Perl Standard Distribution (http://www.activestate.com/Perl.plex?hdr=1).

I would suggest that you create a new folder on your root drive for the samples.  I use c:\testing and wherever you see that you should substitute your path.

All Perl scripts should be created in this folder by right clicking -> new -> text document -> copy and past the entire comment (for the script) -> save -> rename with a unique filename ending in .pl.

All XML documents should be saved following the above procedure except the extension should be .xml

I would highly recommend that you run all Perl scripts from the command line while testing so you can see what is happing.  To get to the command line go to start -> run -> cmd -> hit enter -> cd\testing (or whatever you named your directory).

Once there you should type filename.pl and hit enter.  You should then see text explaining if you succeeded or failed in your attempt and other helpful information.

So now that your in the right folder type filename.pl filename.xml and hit enter.

You should see a stream of XML looking something like http:#14117819

use Win32::OLE::Const 'QBXMLRP2';
Win32::OLE->Option(Warn=>3);
my $lib=Win32::OLE::Const->Load('QBXMLRP2');

#
# Read the Request file
#

open(IN,$ARGV[0]) or die "Could not open request file: $ARGV[0]: $!\n";
my @req = <IN>;
my $req = join("\n", @req);
close IN;


#
# Choose a company file
#

my $qbfile = "";  # Whatever company file is open

#
# Uncomment the next line and fill in the path to your company file to call a company file by name
#

#$qbfile = 'C:\myCompanyFile.qbw';

#
# Connect to QuickBooks, etc.
#

open OUT, "> output.xml";
our $qbxmlrp = Win32::OLE->new("QBXMLRP2.RequestProcessor");
$qbxmlrp->OpenConnection("","LetMeIn-"); # Change this to something origonal
our $qbticket = $qbxmlrp->BeginSession("$qbfile", 2);
$actualFile = $qbxmlrp->GetCurrentCompanyFileName($qbticket);
unless ($actualFile !~ /\w/) {
      print "Companyfile is $actualFile\n";
} else {
      print "Couldn't open the company file :-(\n";
      exit 0 unless ($actualFile);
}

#
# Send the file to QuickBooks
#


$xmlresponse = $qbxmlrp->ProcessRequest($qbticket,$req);
print $xmlresponse;
print OUT $xmlresponse;

#
# Close QuickBooks connection, etc.
#
close OUT;
$qbxmlrp->EndSession($qbticket);
$qbxmlrp->CloseConnection();
undef $qbxmlrp;

<?xml version="1.0"?>
 <?qbxml version="2.0"?>
  <QBXML>
   <QBXMLMsgsRq responseData="includeAll" onError="continueOnError">
    <InvoiceQueryRq>
     <MaxReturned>1</MaxReturned>
    </InvoiceQueryRq>
   </QBXMLMsgsRq>
  </QBXML>

Companyfile is C:\testing\test.QBW
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<QBXML>
<QBXMLMsgsRs>
<InvoiceQueryRs statusCode="0" statusSeverity="Info" statusMessage="Status OK">
<InvoiceRet>
<TxnID>4628-1117479112</TxnID>
<TimeCreated>2005-05-30T14:51:52-05:00</TimeCreated>
<TimeModified>2005-05-30T14:51:52-05:00</TimeModified>
<EditSequence>1117479112</EditSequence>
<TxnNumber>18</TxnNumber>
<CustomerRef>
<ListID>10000-1056025402</ListID>
<FullName>EuroTrech</FullName>
</CustomerRef>
<ARAccountRef>
<ListID>280000-1057674527</ListID>
<FullName>Accounts Receivable</FullName>
</ARAccountRef>
<TemplateRef>
<ListID>10000-1056025328</ListID>
<FullName>Intuit Product Invoice</FullName>
</TemplateRef>
<TxnDate>2005-05-30</TxnDate>
<RefNumber>1</RefNumber>
<BillAddress>
<Addr1>9 Cambridge Terr.</Addr1>
<Addr2>Suite 3</Addr2>
<City>Cambridge</City>
<State>MA</State>
<PostalCode>02163</PostalCode>
<Country>USA</Country>
</BillAddress>
<ShipAddress>
<Addr1>9 Cambridge Terr.</Addr1>
<Addr2>Suite 3</Addr2>
<City>Cambridge</City>
<State>MA</State>
<PostalCode>02163</PostalCode>
<Country>USA</Country>
</ShipAddress>
<IsPending>false</IsPending>
<IsFinanceCharge>false</IsFinanceCharge>
<PONumber>123</PONumber>
<TermsRef>
<ListID>50000-1056025336</ListID>
<FullName>1% 10 Net 30</FullName>
</TermsRef>
<DueDate>2005-06-29</DueDate>
<SalesRepRef>
<ListID>10000-1117479070</ListID>
<FullName>j</FullName>
</SalesRepRef>
<ShipDate>2005-05-30</ShipDate>
<ShipMethodRef>
<ListID>20000-1056025336</ListID>
<FullName>DHL</FullName>
</ShipMethodRef>
<Subtotal>2.00</Subtotal>
<SalesTaxPercentage>0.00</SalesTaxPercentage>
<SalesTaxTotal>0.00</SalesTaxTotal>
<AppliedAmount>0.00</AppliedAmount>
<BalanceRemaining>2.00</BalanceRemaining>
<IsPaid>false</IsPaid>
<IsToBePrinted>true</IsToBePrinted>
<SuggestedDiscountAmount>0.02</SuggestedDiscountAmount>
<SuggestedDiscountDate>2005-06-09</SuggestedDiscountDate>
</InvoiceRet>
</InvoiceQueryRs>
</QBXMLMsgsRs>
</QBXML>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
      <?qbxml version="2.0"?>
      <QBXML>
      <QBXMLMsgsRq responseData="includeAll" onError="continueOnError">
            <InvoiceQueryRq>
            </InvoiceQueryRq>
      </QBXMLMsgsRq>
</QBXML>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
  <?qbxml version="2.0"?>
    <QBXML>
      <QBXMLMsgsRq responseData="includeAll" onError="continueOnError">
        <InvoiceQueryRq>
          <TxnDateRangeFilter>
            <FromTxnDate>2005-05-15</FromTxnDate>
            <ToTxnDate>2005-05-30</ToTxnDate>
          </TxnDateRangeFilter>
        </InvoiceQueryRq>
      </QBXMLMsgsRq>
    </QBXML>

This Perl code requires the date calc module wich can be installed by
going to start -> run -> ppm -> enter -> search date-calc -> install 1

It will generate an XML file to be fed into Quickbooks.  The number of days is adjustable but the second number should always be greater then the first.

unlink "querylog.txt";
unlink "thismonth.xml";
open LOG, "> querylog.txt";

use strict;
use Date::Calc qw(Add_Delta_Days Today);
my($DateStr, @Date, $Delta, $date);
$Delta = -15;
@Date = Add_Delta_Days(Today(), $Delta);
$DateStr = sprintf("%d-%0.2d-%0.2d", @Date);
$Delta = 0;
@Date = Add_Delta_Days(Today(), $Delta);
$date = sprintf("%d-%0.2d-%0.2d", @Date);
use Win32::OLE::Const 'QBXMLRP2' || die;
my $qbfile = "//server/d/QuickBooksDATA/a-osborn.qbw";
my $qbxmlrp = Win32::OLE->new("QBXMLRP2.RequestProcessor");
die unless $qbxmlrp;
$qbxmlrp->OpenConnection("","JonathanLogin");
my $qbticket = $qbxmlrp->BeginSession("$qbfile", 2);
my $actualFile = $qbxmlrp->GetCurrentCompanyFileName($qbticket);
print "Companyfile is $actualFile\n";
die unless ($actualFile);

my $req = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<?qbxml version="2.0"?>
<QBXML>
<QBXMLMsgsRq responseData="includeAll" onError="continueOnError">
<InvoiceQueryRq>
<MaxReturned>100000</MaxReturned>
<TxnDateRangeFilter>
<FromTxnDate>'.$DateStr.'</FromTxnDate>
<ToTxnDate>'.$date.'</ToTxnDate>
</TxnDateRangeFilter>
<IncludeLineItems>1</IncludeLineItems>
<IncludeLinkedTxns>0</IncludeLinkedTxns>
<OwnerID>0</OwnerID>
</InvoiceQueryRq>
</QBXMLMsgsRq>
</QBXML>';
open OUT, ">req.txt";
print OUT $req;
close OUT;
my $xmlresponse = $qbxmlrp->ProcessRequest($qbticket,$req);
open TM, "> ThisMonth.xml";
print TM $xmlresponse;
close TM;
$qbxmlrp->EndSession($qbticket);
$qbxmlrp->CloseConnection();
print LOG "Success!!!!\n";

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
     <?qbxml version="2.0"?>
     <QBXML>
     <QBXMLMsgsRq responseData="includeAll" onError="continueOnError">
          <InvoiceQueryRq>
                   <RefNumber>123</RefNumber>
          </InvoiceQueryRq>
     </QBXMLMsgsRq>
</QBXML>