Staff API Access: No More Restrictions!

by Paul Osman in API Additions, Integrations, Development on September 30, 2009

As of today, the FreshBooks API is fully functional for Staff members, not just Administrators. Ever since its debut, the API has used a more restrictive set of permissions than the application. This made things a little simpler for us, but it didn't help our users or third-party add-on developers. It meant that certain third-party applications simply weren't as useful for customers who had multiple staff members sharing a single FreshBooks account. We've received many requests from developers to open up permissions in the API so that they more closely follow the permission settings in the application. You have been heard!

Staff now have access to all of the API methods as long as they are given the appropriate permissions from the application settings. This means that if the invoices tab is enabled for staff in the application, they can view and edit invoices from the API for clients who they are assigned to. Likewise, if the estimates tab is enabled, they will have API access to estimates for clients who they are assigned to. Ditto for Recurring Profiles, Payments and Items.

We hope that this change will make existing applications more useful and encourage new kinds of third-party add-ons that were simply not possible before. Having the API be more consistent with the application should help make FreshBooks more useful for everybody.

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FreshBooks now supports OAuth

by Sunir in Integrations, Development on September 10, 2009

FreshBooks now supports OAuth to make it easier to build and manage its third-party addons.

Today, we're proud to announce that we now support OAuth, an increasingly popular open protocol for secure API authorization. OAuth is used by many cool services such as Google Docs, Netflix, and Twitter, and we're glad to join the club!

Over the past year, FreshBooks has grown a large collection of third-party add-ons. Supporting OAuth will make it easier for customers to manage third party add-ons' access to their FreshBooks data. Add-ons that support OAuth will no longer require customers to search for and then copy and paste their FreshBooks authentication token, which will be a huge relief to customers and third party integrations alike.

More importantly, instead of sharing one authentication token with all third-party add-ons, OAuth creates a separate relationship for each add-on uniquely, all behind the scenes. That means customers will be able to turn on and off access to each separate add-on without affecting any others. This gives customers important control over who has access to their data, and when.

We strongly recommend all third-party add-ons use OAuth for secure authorization since we may eventually require it for all future add-ons.

For more information about OAuth you can read the official OAuth documentation available at the OAuth.net site as well as the FreshBooks OAuth documentation. Also, stay tuned to the Developer Blog for all future updates about OAuth and the FreshBooks API.

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Where’s my API key?

by Daniel in Integrations on March 25, 2009

With our recent redesign of the system settings and preferences pages, we’ve made it one step easier for you to access your API key.  Here are the steps on how to locate your API key under the new redesign:

1. Click on your white “My Account” link on the top right corner.

2. Click on your “FreshBooks API” sub-tab on the top right.

3. Click on your checkbox next to “Yes, I agree to the API terms of service”.

4. Your “API URL” and “Authentication Token” will become visible on your screen.

We hope you have enjoyed this update.

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Fun with SparkLines

by Sunir in Integrations on November 28, 2008

If you have never heard of a sparkline, they are what Edward Tufte describes as “word sized graphics.” Said another way, they are little charts that you can use in the middle of a paragraph. Said yet another way, they are really cool.

Colin Ramsay, who runs Plastiscenic, and is a customer of ours, has created a really fun little application on our API. It displays a sparkline of revenue by month.

It’s a pretty compact way of seeing whether you are on track in your business or not. I’ll let Colin explain what it all means:

Ones in which invoice totals exceed the specified upper threshold are marked in green, and ones which are lower than the lower threshold are red. Everything else is black. To the side of the graph, there’s a numerical readout of the invoice totals from this month and the previous month, again coloured accordingly.

If you’re interested in using it for yourself, Colin has provided the source.

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More apps using the API!

by Taavi in Integrations on June 23, 2008

We now have several new apps that interact with FreshBooks. It’s great to see this kind of work starting to happen!

Andrew finally had enough of seeing people enjoy the OSX widget and wrote a time-tracking gadget for the Vista Sidebar based off of the OSX widget! Not only does our widget provide a place for others to start, but we’re also going to help Andrew make it look pretty.

Joel has written GetFresh, a new way for your clients to log into their FreshBooks accounts in order to pay you faster. For a small fee, you can download and configure the app, then send it to your customers. They can fill in their username and password, and with 2 clicks can be logged right into FreshBooks. Joel’s also included a screencast showing how to configure things.

Remember that the above apps are from 3rd parties, and FreshBooks is not responsible for their content or functionality. We’re just happy that people are building useful things for everyone, and want to share the news with everyone.

If you’ve got an idea for a widget, gadget, app, or script that would make your life easier, all I can say is that there is no time like the present. The API is here, it’s alive, and I’ll be kicking it into shape for you.

Once you’ve got your app running, you can count on us to take notice, and let everyone know about the excellent job you’ve done. We’re rooting for you!

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