Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From QuickBooks Time connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New QuickBooks Time Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks Time supports the OAuth standard for user authentication. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must create a custom OAuth application, and set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to QuickBooks Time from three common authentication flows:

Desktop: a connection to a server on the user's local machine, frequently used for testing and prototyping.
Web: access to data via a shared website.
Headless Server: a dedicated computer that provides services to other computers and their users, which is configured to operate without a monitor and keyboard.

For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

For a complete list of connection string properties available in QuickBooks Time, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: The client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
CallbackURL: The redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.

When you connect, the add-in opens QuickBooks Time's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the add-in automatically refresh the OAuth access token:

Before connecting to data for the first time, set these connection parameters:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.
- OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the add-in to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
On subsequent data connections, set:
- InitiateOAuth
- OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
Set these connection properties:
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret in your application settings.
Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to QuickBooks Time you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.