Quickbooks Online Edition - Fetching data to display on website

Question

I want to fetch real-time data from my Quickbooks Online edition's (India) account to display customer details like Open Balance, address etc. on my PHP website.

What is the best way to go about fetching data from Quickbooks Online Edition -

• Do I follow the instructions in http://wiki.consolibyte.com/wiki/doku.php/quickbooks_online_edition#connecting_with_the_hosted_model_of_communication ? But this requires a website with SSL certificate.
• Do I create a Intuit Anywhere app ( https://ipp.developer.intuit.com/0010_Intuit_Partner_Platform/0025_Intuit_Anywhere/1000_Getting_Started_With_IA ) and then use IDS (Intuit Data Services) to fetch the required data using the API?
• Can I use the PHP devkit ( https://code.intuit.com/sf/frs/do/viewSummary/projects.php_devkit/frs ) and feed my credentials directly to the code and access my Quickbooks account's data?
• Do I use qbXML (which however does not seem to be the recommended method)?

Or is there a better solution?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First, a disclaimer - if you're using the India version of QuickBooks Online (http://www.quickbooksonline.in/) you'll likely find that nothing works at all. Currently, Intuit does not officially support ANY non-US version of QuickBooks Online (QuickBooks for Windows non-US is supported via qbXML) for integration, regardless of which method you go with. It might work... but I doubt it.

With that said... generally speaking:

• If you're building a SaaS application and trying to allow your end-users to connect their QuickBooks accounts to your app, use Intuit Anywhere.
• Otherwise, if it's a custom/one-off/internal application, and you hate your life, use HOSTED mode via https://appreg.intuit.com and the HOSTED instructions on our QuickBooks integration wiki (HOSTED mode is notoriously unreliable and difficult to get going due to reverse DNS checks, a very specific certificate format, lack of working example code, bugs on Intuit's end, some serious nasty-ness hooking the certificate up to your .NET HTTPS request, etc.).
• Otherwise, if it's a custom/one-off/internal application, and you DON'T hate your life, use DESKTOP mode via https://appreg.intuit.com and the DESKTOP instructions on our QuickBooks integration wiki.

None of the APIs allow you to just pass your credentials in and get access - you'll always have some sort of API token to deal with (a "connection ticket" for qbXML, or OAuth for Intuit Anywhere).

If you build for Intuit Anywhere, you'll use IDS XML. Otherwise, you'll use qbXML.