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Lesson 7 - Install The QuickBooks Desktop SDK

 

Lesson Notes:

  • Additional Software you'll need to install on the Windows guest VM for QuickBooks Desktop.
    • Alternate browser like Firefox or Chrome if you don't dig Edge or IE.
    • A good text editor for hacking XML.
  • You may want to use Intuit's sample company files instead of creating your own because they come populated with name list (customers, vendors, items, etc) and transaction (invoices, sales receipts, etc) entities.
  • QBD comes with sample company files preloaded with data.
  • Download and install the QBSDK.
  • If your dev environment is OSX or Linux you are going to need to do some host file hacking.
  • This topic is explained starting around the 2:01 mark.
    1. Search for the Windows console (cmd.exe) app.
    2. Right-click the cmd.exe and select "Run as Adminstrator".
    3. Paste in this command: notepad.exe C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
    4. Using ifconfig to get your OSX or Linux IP Address.
    5. Create an entry in the Windows host file like so: 192.168.1.45 localhost.test
      • My local address is 192.168.1.45 and I use a static DHCP address so it doesn't change.
    6. Save and exit the host file — these local DNS changes will take place immediately on Windows.
  • Minimul says —

    The QuickBooks Web Connector can only establish a SOAP server connection to an "https" enabled SOAP server or if there is "localhost" somewhere in the hostname than it can just be a plain "http" connection so that is why I use localhost.test.

  • This topic is explained starting around the 4:01 mark.
  • Lastly, make sure you bind your local (on OSX/Linux) SOAP web application server to 0.0.0.0. For example, for Rails I run this command bundle exec rail s -b 0.0.0.0 or you will not be able to communicate from the Windows VM to your local SOAP dev environment.