Announcing IPP v2.7

The Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) team is excited to announce that IPP v2.7 is now live and available for IPP development partners and includes the following updates:

• New Workplace App Center application toolbar
• New BETA-quality extension to Intuit Data Services
• AppCenter enhancements to improve the application shop and learn experience
• A variety of platform and IDS issues / defects

NEW INTUIT WORKPLACE APP CENTER TOOLBAR 

A new Intuit Workplace App Center toolbar will be introduced to customers in production in the 2010 Q3 timeframe.

The new toolbar allows partners greater control over the look and feel, and provides greater configurability while still providing users easy-to-use navigation between App Center apps and services.

Access to the new toolbar capabilities are being provided to IPP developers in this v2.7 release and are asked to test the new controls and configure their applications to work correctly with the new toolbar by July 31, 2010.

Benefits include:

• App Center application footer is removed 

  The new version of the toolbar will replace the function of the current standard Workplace application footer. This will reduce the real estate dedicated to Workplace navigation elements by more than 50 percent.

• Option to have toolbar scroll with the application interface 

  Developers can configure their application to allow the new toolbar to scroll with their application window contents. The default behavior is for the new toolbar to remain fixed at the top of the application window (for backwards compatibility).

• Control over application brand / name and toolbar background color 

  Developers can include a custom logo in thae toolbar, as well as control the background color of the interface.

• Greater control / configurability over stand menu options 

  Developers can include custom links to a variety of standard menu options, including options for HELP, FEEDBACK, ADD USERS, and MANAGE USERS.

• New Expiration Messaging for Applications 

  New dialog boxes have been added to each of the different plan expiration scenarios. Users are now presented with messaging that more clearly indicates which expiration scenario has been triggered:

  • Beta period expired: The application is no longer available for beta testing.
  • Trial period expired: Free trial period has ended; user is prompted to purchase a subscription.
  • Application subscription has been cancelled: Application is no longer available for use.

To access and test against the new toolbar, please submit an IPP Support Incident.

NEW BETA-QUALITY EXTENSTION TO INTUIT DATA SERVICES 

A number of new data sets, enhancements and improvements to IPP Intuit Data Services (IDS) are now available in BETA-quality.

Production-quality versions of these services—along with Flex tool updates that support these services—will be delivered in IPP v2.8, scheduled for release later in May.

Developers must use v2 of the IDS API to utilize these new services.
Previous IDS versions (e.g. v1) is currently supported but will not include these new objects/behaviors; developers are strongly urged to migrate to the latest API version at their earliest convenience.

The following data elements and methods have been exposed in BETA quality. 

New IDS Objects / Methods

• LISTS
• Create Method for SalesTaxItem, Item Discount, and Item Fixed Asset
• Create and Update method for Payment Item
• ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
• Update method for Invoice, Estimate and Sales Receipt
• ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
• Create method for Bill Payment Check, Bill Payment Credit Card, and Vendor Credit

Other IDS Enhancements available in BETA with IDS v2.7 include:

• Developer control over customer data connectivity options 

  Partners can now configure which IDS connectivity options their application subscribers can select from. Options include: Enter Data Directly, Use Sample Data, and Use My QuickBooks Desktop Data. By default, users are presented all three of these choices for any IDS-enabled application.

• Reporting data services beta 

  Developers can now access QuickBooks summary report data via IDS services for the following reports providing a summary view of data:

• Profit and Loss
• Balance Summary
• Sales Summary
• Account Balances
• Customers Who Owe Me
• Income Breakdown
• Top Customers by Sales

Methods are also available that allow developers to request reporting data for specified time periods or predefined subset (e.g. top 20).

• Enhanced query and sorting filters 

  IPP v2.7 introduces a variety of expanded sorting and filtering options. Developers can specify sort order, filter results by the synchronize flags, and get the number of objects returned by a query for all IDS objects. Name, Accountant, and Item objects can also be filtered by the active flag.

• Additional data validation rules for IDS operations 

  IPP v2.7 adds new validation rules to improve IDS data quality / consistency as well as to improve QuickBooks desktop sync reliability.

Partners should review their application to ensure their products conform to the following rules and properly handle the following error conditions when storing data to Intuit Data Services.

Examples of these new validation rules include:

• Names must be unique across names objects (Customer/Employee/Vendor/other names objects).
• Transactions (Bills, Invoices, etc.) must have at least one line.
• Email address must be in standard Internet format.
• Cannot reference both an Accounts Payable object and an Accounts Receivable object in a single General Ledger Journal Entry.
• Journal Entries must be in balance (Sum of Credits equal to Sum of Debits).
• For Accounts Payable transactions, a vendor must be referenced in the header.
• For Accounts Receivable posting and non-posting transactions, a Customer reference must be provided.

Other IDS enhancements include

• View-only User Roles 

  We’ve added new application roles that allow developers to provide read-only access to different classes of IDS objects. A new Confidential Reporting role has also been added to support the new reporting data services.

• Improved initial sync performances for customers 

  Performance of initial synchronization has been improved by 20 percent for improved customer experience.

For more details, including data validation rules and known issues please refer to the v2.7 IDS release notes and IDS Programmers Guide.

INTUIT WORKPLACE APP CENTER IMPROVEMENTS 

There are a variety of enhancements and modifications to Intuit App Center to improve the overall shopping flow and experience.

• New “All Apps” Page 

  A new “All Apps” page to the site providing an easy way for users to see a comprehensive list of all available applications. An “All Apps” link has been added to the top blue menu bar for easy access to the new page. The list of applications can be sorted by a particular column by clicking on the sorting triangles and multiple columns can be sorted by holding down the shift key while clicking a sort triangle.

• Clarifying Default Sign-Up Options for Applications 

  The Sign-Up Options for applications have been clarified through new terminology and graphics. Users are now presented with clearer messaging and graphics which indicate what evaluation option a particular application supports:

  • “Get it Free:” Application offers a free baseline subscription plan.
  • “Try it Free:” Application offers a free trial period; a purchased subscription is then required.
  • “Buy it Now:” Application does not offer any free trial or baseline plan and requires a purchase.

• Additional Help for QuickBooks Sync Manager Issues 

  Additional links have been added to the Frequently Asked Questions page in the top blue menu bar for issues with QuickBooks Data Synchronization. Users can now link directly to resources focused on QuickBooks Data Synchronization issues.

• Design improvements to Solution Category Pages 

  Design improvements to the Solution Category Pages (Run My Business, Manage My Work, Grow and Manage My Customers, Reduce My Costs) to simplify user navigation. The information presented has been streamlined and issues with lists scrolling have been addressed.

For a complete list of software updates / fixes included in IPP v2.7, see the release notes.

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The Intuit Partner Platform Team.