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Welcome
to the QuickBooks Online Edition Application Registration site.
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Q:
What applications need to be registered?
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A: Applications interacting with QuickBooks Merchant Service
(QBMS) and QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE), both for Desktop and Hosted
Web Applications need to be registered with AppReg.
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Q:
What is QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE)?
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A: QuickBooks Online Edition is a version of
QuickBooks that runs in the user’s internet browser as a web service
provided by Intuit rather than as a product installed on the user’s
desktop. As a younger product, the Online Edition is not as full-featured
as the retail version of QuickBooks (for example, it does not handle
inventory items) but it does offer a number of advantages to some small
businesses:
- Access from any system
that supports a web browser, any time. This is particularly good for
geographically diverse small businesses.
- Low up-front costs.
Rather than spending hundreds of dollars for the desktop QuickBooks,
the customer pays a modest monthly fee for their QuickBooks Online
Edition account.
- Low cost of “ownership”.
Intuit handles backing up user data and maintains a secure data
center, the user can rest easy knowing their company data is secure.
- Always have the latest
and greatest release of QuickBooks Online Edition with no upgrade
costs.
Especially
attractive to developers is the fact that you can always count on all
Online Edition customers to be running the same version of the Online
Edition, which greatly simplifies your code.
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Q: What is QuickBooks Merchant Service (QBMS)?
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A:
QuickBooks Merchant Service (QBMS) enables processing of credit card
transactions from within QuickBooks. When merchants enter customer payments
into QuickBooks, QBMS can process the credit card, reconcile bank accounts
and download credit card processing fees.
Merchants
can also use QuickBooks Merchant Service with web shopping carts and other
software from third-party developers whether or not the merchant uses
QuickBooks.
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Q: What is the difference between Beta, Test, PTC,
IDNBeta, and Production?
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A:
Beta, Test, PTC, and
IDNBeta all refer to the same environment. There are only two different
environments, the test environment (with all its aliases) and the
Production environment.
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Q: Can I register my QuickBooks Online Application in
Production AND Beta environments?
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A: A single application may be
registered in only one environment. Generally developers will register a
Beta application for the development and test phase, then they would
register another application (possibly with the same application login) in
the Production environment. These aren't actually the same application
though, since they would have distinct application ID's. Users with a Premier or Pro IDN
Membership can register their applications in both environments, IDN
Community Developers may only register their applications in the Production
Environments.
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Q: I registered a "Hosted" application, but now
I see a "WebApp" application? What happened to hosted apps?
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A: A
"Web Application" (aka WebApp) is a Hosted application. Most
developers recognize the meaning more quickly when the term Web Application
is used.
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Q: I'm having trouble signing a certificate for my
QuickBooks Online Hosted Application?
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A:
I'm having trouble signing a certificate for my Application.
The
most common certificate signing issues are:
1.
Failing to use the "hostname:applogin" in the certificate CN
Note:
Keytool will ask “What is your first and last name?”. This is where you
would instead give the “hostname:applogin”.
2.
Having an /email=address string
appended to the CN
3.
Not knowing how to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) or how to
install the resulting certificate file
These
issues are covered in the Alpha Geek article [TAB: get title] available
here http://developer.intuit.com/support/technical/?id=415
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Q: How do I move from the Beta environment to Production?
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A: Once you have completed testing with the
Beta environment, you will need to register your application in the
production environment. You will need to perform minimal testing with your
new application in the new environment. The two environments use different
accounts, so you would need to use either a production merchant account
(QBMS), or company file (QBOE) with the new production registration.
You are welcome to use the same callback URLs
(for Hosted Web Applications) if you wish, or you may use different
addresses for your production instance. If you will continue doing testing
with the Beta environment (which is recommended for testing of ongoing
maintenance to your application) then you probably would want to separate
the callback URLs by environment.
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Q: What if my application uses both QBOE and
QBMS?
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A: If your application uses both QBOE and QBMS
it will be necessary to register your application twice in each
environment. You will have to register as a QBOE application with one
application login and get an application id. You will also be required to
register as a QBMS application with a separate application login and get a
different application id. When you talk to QBOE you will use the
appropriate application login & id. When you talk to QBMS you will use
the other. Each of these requires a different certificate (since the
certificate contains the application login).
When you are ready to move from testing to
production you will have to repeat both registrations in the production
environment.
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Q: What if my callback never gets called?
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A: The most common causes for this are:
1. You registered the wrong callback URL
Review your application registration
information to confirm the URL
2. You have some firewall setting that is
preventing our callbacks from coming through
Use Internet Explorer from outside your domain
to see if it can access your site. If IE complains about the certificate,
or if it makes you add the credentials, most likely our servers will fail
to trust your server.
3. You used a certificate authority that we do
not recognize, so we fail to post to the callback URL because we don't
trust the site
The list of Certificate Authorities we are
known to work with is included as an appendix to the QuickBooks Merchant
Service Developers Guide [url link here]. If you used a different
Certificate Authority, you may contact support to check on getting this
added. However this addition requires some time for research, it may be
quicker to switch to a Certificate Authority that is known to work with our
solution.
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Q: I registered an application, but I never got
my verification email message. Can I just mark it active?
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A: No, the purpose of the verification message is
to ensure that you get mail we send at the address you registered with us.
If we circumvented that system and marked your application as active, then
there's no guarantee you'll get mail from us if there is a problem with
your application. In that event, we have no choice but to deactivate your
application.
If you didn't get the verification message, you
need to check the email address you registered with your application. If it
is correct, you need to check and see if there are spam filters that may have
intercepted the message. You may edit your application information and
request a resend of this mail message.
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Q: I reconfigured my spam filters, how can I be
sure application notifications would still get through?
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A: You can edit your application and click
"Resend Verification" to be sure you are still getting email
notification on the registered address.
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Q: I registered my application as Desktop, but
I really need a Hosted Web Application, how do I change it?
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A: If you edit your application you will be
able to change this along with most other parameters of a registered
application.
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Q: I accidentally registered several different
applications, how do I delete them?
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A: Our databases don't permit removing applications.
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Q: Isn't there a simpler way to do
authentication than this?
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A: We are evaluating simpler authentication
mechanisms. If you would like to make a more official request for this,
please post to the SDK Futures forum (http://idnforums.intuit.com/categories.aspx?catid=11)
with use cases and/or a business case for this feature. This will help us
prioritize this for a future release.
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Q: My hosting provider won't permit me to
install a certificate, how can I use QBMS without this?
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A: You can use the Desktop model to circumvent
this problem, but if your application is really a Hosted Web Application by
its nature, this isn't going to get you very far. See previous answer.
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Q: My application is working, but when I view
details, it's marked as "Cancelled"?
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A: There was a problem with our internal
systems such that several working applications were not correctly marked.
There was a problem with the previous release of AppReg that resulted in
this issue. If your application is marked as cancelled in the October 2006
release of AppReg, then it's very likely it is cancelled.
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Q: I registered applications that no longer
appear in my list?
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A: Applications are listed by company
identification of the user who was logged in when the application was
registered. If you were logged in as a different user (in a different
company) when you registered an application, it wouldn't appear in your
list of applications when you log in. Note: This is not the contact email
address, but rather the one you used when you logged in. If you contact
support, they can help you find your application and get it associated with
your account.
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Q: There are applications in my list that I did
not register. Where did they come from?
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A: The list of
applications that is presented to you, is dependent on the company with
which your login is associated (not the contact email address, but rather
the one you used when you logged in). Other applications registered by
people in your company will appear in your list.
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Q: My application stopped working, when I went
to check it, it is marked as "Suspended" [or “Cancelled”, or
“QBNError”]?
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A: If an application is misbehaving (generating
inappropriate load or generating suspect traffic) we will attempt to
contact you about the issue. If we cannot contact you we will suspend the
application. If the problems caused by the application are sufficiently big
we will immediately suspend the application and contact you afterwards.
For more information on application states
please see the Application
State Helper
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Q: My hosting environment is changing, how do I
notify Intuit so that my services continue?
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A: You will need to generate a new Certificate Signing
Request (CSR) with the new host information. This new certificate will need
to be installed on the new system.
If the IP address is changing, but the hostname
will remain the same, you don't even have to do this. You just need to wait
for DNS routing tables to get updated. If there is an overlap necessary for
uptime requirements, you are suggested to configure DNS so that it appears
both your new and old IP address are valid. DNS can be configured to use
your new address as primary and your old address as fallback. We will
perceive this to mean you can contact us from either address. When routing
tables are globally updated, and when you complete your migration, you can
do another DNS update to remove the old address.
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Q: How can I set QBMS fraud preferences for my
application?
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A: This is currently not available through the
application registration process. You must open an IDN support ticket to
update the fraud preferences. Eventually this maintenance will be available
through the application registration process.
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Q: Where can I obtain an Application ID?
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A: If you are registering a QBOE or QBMS
application you will get this from the registration process. If your
application does not use QBOE or QBMS, you can get your application id by
[the current version is linked to http://developer.intuit.com/ can we point
at something better?]
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Q: Where else can I go for help?
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A: QBOE support for browser
issues
A: QBMS
support for merchant issues
A: QuickBooks support for
desktop issues
A: QBSDK
Documentation
A: AlphaGeek article
on certificates
A: Learn
more about certificates
A: IDN support
page for all API issues
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