Talking to Quickbooks locally from external SaaS Servoy app

Classic Servoy
1

If I load a java bean on an external servoy server that is designed to talk to Quickbooks, I need to understand if the smart client will be able to talk to a local copy of Quickbooks. I’m not sure if the server has to be in direct communication with Quickbooks, or if each client would be able to talk to their own local QB. The servoy server would be outside the client’s firewall.

I would have the configuration stored for each client, where they could specify the location of their QB file, but it’s not just clear in my mind if the client is going to have the capability to talk to QB if the server isn’t local.

Thanks for any help.

2

but it’s not just clear in my mind if the client is going to have the capability to talk to QB if the server isn’t local.

So, what is your question?
Is it about Servoy or about Quickbooks setup?

If the last I guess you need intuit to help you.
If the first, when you need client-server communication you need to create a client-server plug-in.

3

I’ll try to clarify. I’m referring to the client-server communication capabilities, not anything specific to Intuit/QB.

I found a javabean that already talks to Quickbooks. When I test it in Developer, it works fine, where everything is local on my network. I set the properties that the bean needs to talk to QB. I’m building a SaaS application, so in production, the server will be remote and users will access the application via the smart client, over the internet.

My question is: does QB have to be visible to the servoy server for communication to take place, or can the smart client talk to QB?

Each customer will have their own local copy of QB. My application would need to add invoices to QB for them. It’s not about how to build a bean or how the QB API works --it’s all about how Servoy handles communication and if the local smart client would be capable of talking to a local API, when the Servoy server is outside the firewall.

I hope that helps. Sorry if I’m adding confusion.

4

Here’s the Quickbooks Javabean I’m testing:

http://www.nsoftware.com/ibiz/quickbooks/

It dropped right into Servoy and I was able to quickly establish functionality where I could add invoices to QB, when the Servoy server was on the LAN.

I’m wondering if the customer’s firewall is going to break communication to QB, since the Servoy server won’t be local to the customer’s copy of QB. They will only have the smart client running within their LAN.

Thanks!

5

OK, so it depends.

When you want a local client to talk to a local quickbooks installation you need a smart client with the bean or plugin.
No need for the use of RMI.
Make sure that you deploy the libraries (if any) to the client though…

When you want a local client to talk to a server quickbooks installation you need a smart client to talk to the server with the bean or plugin initiated by a server object.

As long as your operation is local the server does not need to be aware of what you are doing locally…

Hope this helps

6

So I can put the javabean on each client computer during install, and that smart client will then have the capabilities of the bean available locally?

Did I get that right?

Does Servoy allow me to specify which javabeans are needed on the client end, and will it install them for me when a new client logs in for the first time?

If that’s correct, that really makes it easy.

Thanks for quick responses Marcel!

7

I would say read the docs, I am pretty sure that the use of plugins and beans is outlined!

When it is a bean you can put it on the form and you are set to go.
Servoy takes care of the rest.

Make sure any necessary lib is in the classpath of the bean though.