After 6 weeks of work, I have completed testing on the feature list for the new release of my Quickbooks module.  It’s quite a list of work accomplished:

• Option to set default Sales Rep when creating new customer in Quickbooks.
• Option to set default Customer Type when creating new customer in Quickbooks.
• Option to automatically add order note to Notes/History when order is successfully transferred.
• Ability to update inventory values from Quickbooks back into AbleCommerce.
• Full support for sub-categorized lists in Quickbooks such as G/L accounts and Inventory Items.
• Improved error handling.   Error messages now report what specific part of the transfer caused an error and more importantly, why.
• Improved logging to AC7 Error Log since it already supports easy export for emailing it to tech support.
• Improved configuration page Bank Account-to-Payment Method assignment.  Now dropdown lists are used so typos cannot cause a transfer error.
• Improved configuration page layout so parameters are grouped in a more logical way.
• Improved documentation.  Clarified key points of transfer.  Added new content for new features and configuration settings.  Added new upgrade instructions.
• Improved efficiency of accessing configuration parameters during a transfer session.  This dramatically cuts down on database hits during transfers.
• Improved Bill and Purchase Order routines to handle multiple shipments more accurately.
• Improved Quickbooks list retrieval.  Quickbooks lists are now stored in the database instead of individual files in the /App_Data/ folder.
• Eliminated second DLL from installation.  Now the entire module is deployable in a single DLL file.
• Added support for Sales Orders (only available in Quickbooks Premier or Enterprise)
• Fixed bug when searching by Order Number range in the SetExported page.

Testing has gone very well.  What a project.  Wound up rewriting like 90% of the entire module.  Added several new features, vastly improved error handling and laid a solid foundation for more enhancements.

Intuit has done a decent job of working out the kinks found in the older versions of their QBWC SDK.

The final improvement will be the support for Sales Orders.  Not entirely sure what I’ll do with the payment side of an order being transferred into a Sales Order, but we’ll cross that bridge once I reach it.  I’m waiting now on a QB Enterprise trial from Intuit so I can test.  Buying a full copy of Enterprise just for testing purposes seems wasteful.

I eliminated support for AbleCommerce 7 versions prior to release 7.0.2.  If you’re not on 7.0.2 or later, you should be.

The manual has already been updated.  As soon as I can test Sales Order transfer, I’ll release the new build to the general public.  Then it’s on to the next project !

Well I've been working hard for over three weeks now doing a complete rewrite of my Quickbooks Connector that transfers AbleCommerce 7 data electronically into Quickbooks using ASP.Net web services.

The first challenge was getting the entire Quickbooks API written into a strongly-typed ASP.Net class library.  I originally wrote some very basic classes that would serialize.  However it was a hack job as I was very new to XML, serialization etc.  Boy was it confusing. 

Plus none of the Quickbooks response messages were de-serialized back into strongly typed data classes.  I was actually doing a manual XML search on the response text to find any data needed from the responses.  Ugly doesn't even begin to describe the code.  I never want to see another XML node search again.

Having such clumsy access to the response and query data meant the code was brutal to debug when something didn't work right.

So I sat down and bit the bullet.  I built 26 strongly-typed objects that all correctly serialize and de-serialize the Quickbooks SDK requests and responses.  These are written exactly to the Intuit SDK specifications.  Testing serialization and de-serialization created some long nights but it was well worth it.

Now any response from the QB web connector can be quickly de-serialized into usable strongly-typed classes.  Responses are even typed correctly so dollar amounts are (double) and logical values are (bool).  Wow does this make things easier to program.

So now the sky's the limit.  I've already implemented full support for sub-grouped GL accounts and sub-grouped inventory items.  This is becoming increasingly more popular with businesses using Quickbooks.

I've also vastly improved error reporting.  Troubleshooting has always been a nightmare with the QB module.  No longer though, I've got a solid handle on it now that I have strongly-typed responses.

Next I'm going fix another common problem: Inventory.  Many companies use Quickbooks inventory to track their stock levels.  Getting these values back into AbleCommerce is a manual process.  I am going to make this new version of the Quickbooks Web Connector for AbleCommerce 7 synchronize inventory stock levels from QuickBooks into AbleCommerce.

I'm also going to implement another inventory problem, selling in bulk.  Often an AC7 site will sell a case of something but inventory it indivdually in QuickBooks.  That poses a problem with the transfer because the quantity sold will be 1 yet the case contained 250 units.

The new version of the module will allow a "multiplier" value to be set to each product in AbleCommerce 7 so the Quantity 1 sold becomes Quantity 250 when it hits QuickBooks.

That's all for now, more to follow.  As always, check out my http://www.Solunar.com site for all your solunar times and solunar table needs plus camping, hunting, marine equipment and yes, even boat anchors.

Well it's Saturday.  First it was Monday.  Then suddenly Friday afternoon was here and I just didn't get much done that I wanted.  Several phone calls got in the way as well as some programming research.  Now I'm spending a portion of my weekend getting some much needed bookkeeping work done. 

This should pave the way to put a big dent in the web service module next week.  I came up with a few new web service methods I'd like to add related to inventory items.  It adds more time to the module but I think it's a solid benefit and worth the delay.

I'd love to complain but business is great and the increased workload feels good.  It feels like a solid flow of work-in and work-out.  Having too much of one or the other just doesn't set well with me :)

Finished the last of the routines I want to add to the Web Service.  Everything came out nicely.

Now for documentation, packaging, install testing and online catalog setup.