I understand that to access a company that is not currently open in QuickBooks, the web service needs to supply QuickBooks Web Connector with the file location as a return value to an authenticate() call.
This seems backwards to me. Why would the web service be in charge of telling the Web Connector where the relevant company file is? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to be managed by the Web Connector?
Here's the relevant explanation I've found within the QuickBooks Web Connector Programmer’s Guide:
- IF your web service wants to try a different company, supply the company pathname in the returned string. (You can supply an empty string if you want to use whatever company file happens to be open.) The web connector will respond by attempting to connect to QuickBooks again using that supplied string.
Why Would a Web Service Try a Different Company?
Why would a web service perform the second of these actions instead of simply just stopping altogether? In practice this approach is used when the web service remembers the company file path from session to session (a recommended practice) and wants to have a fall-back to use whatever company file is currently open in QuickBooks (by responding to the connectionError call with an empty string).
This is not as haphazard as it might seem. When a web service is added to the web connector, the web connector stores a unique FileID as a private data extension in the specified company. As a result, the web service can always verify that it is talking to the expected company file simply by checking the CompanyRet returned to your web service in the web connector’s first sendRequestXML call in the data exchange sequence. (Check the data extension list for the expected FileID.)
This seems like a poor end-user experience; if they move their company file (assuming they want the Web Connector operate without QuickBooks open), the web service will fail until that path is updated on the server side. It seems totally plausible that an end-user could do this without knowing it would break things.
Why is it structured this way? And more importantly: is there a way around this?
Why is it structured this way?
Because this is how Intuit built it.
is there a way around this?
No.