I made three new custom search engines to help readers research key issues mentioned on this site. Basically each one is limited to search only within the top 3-10 forums, blogs, and support pages for the topic.

These will save a lot of time since you can now do just one search, instead of having to search every forum every time you have a question.

Here they are. Let me know how they work. I’m also adding them to the Helpful Resources sidebar so you’ll always have an easy link to them.

1. Ubuntu Search (Searching *.ubuntuforums.org, *.ubuntu.com/ )
2. GoldMine Search (Searching *.frontrange.com, *.contactreview.net, *.castellcomputers.com, *.thegmblog.com)
3. QuickBooks Search (Searching *.quickbooksgroups.com, *.intuit.com )

Let me know if you have more resources, or blogs I can add to any of these search engines.

Posted by Greg Pinero (Primary Searcher) as QuickBooks, GoldMine, Searching Better, Ubuntu at 11:40 AM MST

3 Comments »

Tip: If you’re working with the QuickBooks API and QuickBooks returns an error message like this:
QuickBooks found an error when parsing the provided XML text stream.

The first thing to think about (assuming your XML generally looks valid) is the ordering of your elements. The XML schema requires all of the XML elements be in a specific order. You can view the order in the OnScreen Reference.

In general to get more information about a XML error, start up your qb* XML Validator tool (should be installed with SDK) and put in your XML file. Here’s the error I got from having an out of order element:
Reason: Element content is invalid according to the DTD/Schema.
Expecting: ServiceDate, SalesTaxCodeRef, IsTaxable, OverrideItemAccountRef.

Posted by Greg Pinero (Primary Searcher) as QuickBooks at 8:56 AM MST

Comments Off

I tried out QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 6.0 today in hopes that upgrading from version 5.0 would allow us to have more user defined / custom fields. These let you store extra information for various entities. For example you could store the color of an item, or the tracking number for an invoice. However version 5 and also version 6 limit you to 5 new fields for items and 7 new fields for customers and believe it or not, we are all maxed out.

Here are some screen shots in case you don’t believe me

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Greg Pinero (Primary Searcher) as QuickBooks at 5:10 PM MST

Comments Off

It’s not, NEVER! I suppose it was just a rumor this whole time. I just came across this in the QB forums. It’s a shame because the QuickBooks API is just so slow and cumbersome.

I honestly do not know where the rumour that we are doing a MSSQL Server version of QuickBooks keeps coming from — we’re not. Any plans we may or may not have regarding a database change would not be discussed in public — Intuit does not pre-announce product…

Even if we WERE to do a SQL-based database the SDK would remain the same (and you would not have ODBC access to the DB) because we would want the freedom to change DB schemas without breaking 3rd party applications. You would be best served sticking with the SDK or a layer built on top of it (like qODBC) that lets you focus on your program logic.

————————-
Peter A. Vogel
Developer Support Manager | IDN PM Lead
Staff SW Engineer
Intuit Developer Network

I read this here.

Tags: QuickBooks, QuickBooks API, API, MSSQL Server, QuickBooks Schema, QuickBooks Database

Posted by Greg Pinero (Primary Searcher) as QuickBooks at 10:29 AM MST

Comments Off

Renaming/Renumbering any list item in QuickBooks will affect both historical and future transactions.

QuickBooks will not “retain” the fact that it once had a different number and/or name.

Says Laura on this forum.

My searches for this:

1. quickbooks rename items
2. what is the effect of renaming items in Quickbooks
3. quickbooks rename items effects

Tags: QuickBooks, Items, Editing

Posted by Greg Pinero (Primary Searcher) as QuickBooks at 11:36 AM MST

Comments Off