QuickBooks Online querying with filter returns 401 everytime

Question

I\'ve had success creating objects with POST and Content-Type application/xml

I\'ve also had success querying using Content-Type application/x-www-form-urlencoded wi

Answer 1

peterl answered one of my questions on here that may also answer yours. I had been trying to put the Filters in the body when they should have gone into the header. Here was peterl's code sample for getting all unpaid invoices (open balance greater than 0.00) for a particular customer.

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=7VUB6whp

public List<Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.Invoice> GetQboUnpaidInvoices(DataServices dataServices, int startPage, int resultsPerPage,  IdType CustomerId)
{
    StringBuilder requestXML = new StringBuilder();
    StringBuilder responseXML = new StringBuilder();

    var requestBody = String.Format("PageNum={0}&ResultsPerPage={1}&Filter=OpenBalance :GreaterThan: 0.00 :AND: CustomerId :EQUALS: {2}", startPage, resultsPerPage, CustomerId.Value);

    HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = WebRequest.Create(dataServices.ServiceContext.BaseUrl + "invoices/v2/" + dataServices.ServiceContext.RealmId) as HttpWebRequest;
    httpWebRequest.Method = "POST";
    httpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
    httpWebRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", GetDevDefinedOAuthHeader(httpWebRequest, requestBody));
    requestXML.Append(requestBody);
    UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
    byte[] content = encoding.GetBytes(requestXML.ToString());
    using (var stream = httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream())
    {
        stream.Write(content, 0, content.Length);
    }
    HttpWebResponse httpWebResponse = httpWebRequest.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
    using (Stream data = httpWebResponse.GetResponseStream())
    {
        Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults searchResults = (Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults)dataServices.ServiceContext.Serializer.Deserialize<Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults>(new StreamReader(data).ReadToEnd());
        return ((Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.Invoices)searchResults.CdmCollections).Invoice.ToList();
    }

}

protected string GetDevDefinedOAuthHeader(HttpWebRequest webRequest, string requestBody)
{

    OAuthConsumerContext consumerContext = new OAuthConsumerContext
    {
        ConsumerKey = consumerKey,
        ConsumerSecret = consumerSecret,
        SignatureMethod = SignatureMethod.HmacSha1,
        UseHeaderForOAuthParameters = true

    };

    consumerContext.UseHeaderForOAuthParameters = true;

    //URIs not used - we already have Oauth tokens
    OAuthSession oSession = new OAuthSession(consumerContext, "https://www.example.com",
                            "https://www.example.com",
                            "https://www.example.com");


    oSession.AccessToken = new TokenBase
    {
        Token = accessToken,
        ConsumerKey = consumerKey,
        TokenSecret = accessTokenSecret
    };

    IConsumerRequest consumerRequest = oSession.Request();
    consumerRequest = ConsumerRequestExtensions.ForMethod(consumerRequest, webRequest.Method);
    consumerRequest = ConsumerRequestExtensions.ForUri(consumerRequest, webRequest.RequestUri);
    if (webRequest.Headers.Count > 0)
    {
        ConsumerRequestExtensions.AlterContext(consumerRequest, context => context.Headers = webRequest.Headers);
        if (webRequest.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] == "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
        {
            Dictionary<string, string> formParameters = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            foreach (string formParameter in requestBody.Split('&'))
            {
                formParameters.Add(formParameter.Split('=')[0], formParameter.Split('=')[1]);
            }
            consumerRequest = consumerRequest.WithFormParameters(formParameters);
        }
    }

    consumerRequest = consumerRequest.SignWithToken();
    return consumerRequest.Context.GenerateOAuthParametersForHeader();
}

You can also see my original Question Here on StackOverflow: Query for All Invoices With Open Balances using QuickBooks Online (QBO) Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) DevKit.

Answer 2

I believe my problem came down to improper encoding of the Filter's value in the signature. That explains the 401 invalid signature errors I was getting.

I used an online tool to take me through the steps in properly signing an Oauth request. While going through those steps I realized my problem was with the steps where you normalize the request parameters and then percent-encode them. I was including the '=' of the filter in the normalization step, which breaks your signature. The tool I used can be found at:

http://hueniverse.com/2008/10/beginners-guide-to-oauth-part-iv-signing-requests/

Thanks for everyone's input.

Answer 3

Do you get a 401 with the same request in the API Explorer?

http://ippblog.intuit.com/blog/2013/01/new-ipp-developer-tool-api-explorer.html

Also, are you using the static base URL or retrieving it at runtime?

https://ipp.developer.intuit.com/0010_Intuit_Partner_Platform/0050_Data_Services/0400_QuickBooks_Online/0100_Calling_Data_Services/0010_Getting_the_Base_URL

If you are using the static base URL, try switching to the runtime base URL to see if you still get the error.

Answer 4

I have written about my experience with escaping characters within an QuickBooks OAuth Request.