Xeroizer API Library

Homepage: http://waynerobinson.github.com/xeroizer

Git: git://github.com/waynerobinson/xeroizer.git

Github: https://github.com/waynerobinson/xeroizer

Author: Wayne Robinson http://www.wayne-robinson.com

Contributors: See Contributors section below

Copyright: 2007-2013

License: MIT License

Introduction

This library is designed to help ruby/rails based applications communicate with the publicly available API for Xero.

If you are unfamiliar with the Xero API, you should first read the documentation located at http://developer.xero.com.

Installation

gem install xeroizer

Basic Usage

require 'rubygems'
require 'xeroizer'

# Create client (used to communicate with the API).
client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID, YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET)

# Retrieve list of contacts (note: all communication must be made through the client).
contacts = client.Contact.all(:order => 'Name')

Authentication

Example Rails Controller

class XeroSessionController < ApplicationController

	before_filter :get_xero_client

	public

		def new
			url = @xero_client.authorize_url(
				# The URL's domain must match that listed for your application
				# otherwise the user will see an invalid redirect_uri error
				redirect_uri: YOUR_CALLBACK_URL,
				# space separated, see all scopes at https://developer.xero.com/documentation/oauth2/scopes.
				# note that `offline_access` is required to get a refresh token, otherwise the access only lasts for 30 mins and cannot be refreshed.
				scope: "accounting.settings.read offline_access"
			)

			redirect_to url
		end

		def create
			token = @xero_client.authorize_from_code(
				params[:code],
				redirect_uri: YOUR_CALLBACK_URL
			)

			connections = @xero_client.current_connections

			session[:xero_auth] = {
				:access_token => token[:access_token],
				:refresh_token => token[:refresh_token],
				:tenant_id => connections[1][:tenant_id]
			}

		end

		def destroy
			session.data.delete(:xero_auth)
		end

	private

		def get_xero_client
			@xero_client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
				YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
				YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
			)

			# Add AccessToken if authorised previously.
			if session[:xero_auth]
				@xero_client.tenant_id = session[:xero_auth][:tenant_id]

				@xero_client.authorize_from_access(session[:xero_auth][:acesss_token])
			end
		end
end

OAuth2 Applications

For more details, checkout Xero's documentation

1. Generate the authorization url and redirect the user to authenticate

client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
)
url = client.authorize_url(
	# The URL's domain must match that listed for your application
	# otherwise the user will see an invalid redirect_uri error
	redirect_uri: YOUR_CALLBACK_URL,
	# space separated, see all scopes at https://developer.xero.com/documentation/oauth2/scopes.
	# note that `offline_access` is required to get a refresh token, otherwise the access only lasts for 30 mins and cannot be refreshed.
	scope: "accounting.settings.read offline_access"
)

# Rails as an example
redirect_to url

2. In the callback route, use the provided code to retrieve an access token.

token = client.authorize_from_code(
	params[:code],
	redirect_uri: YOUR_CALLBACK_URL
)
token.to_hash
# {
#   "token_type"=>"Bearer",
#   "scope"=>"accounting.transactions.read accounting.settings.read",
#   :access_token=>"...",
#   :refresh_token=>nil,
#   :expires_at=>1615220292
# }

# Save the access_token, refresh_token...

3. Retrieve the tenant ids.

connections = client.current_connections
# returns Xeroizer::Connection instances

# Save the tenant ids

4. Use access token and tenant ids to retrieve data.

client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
	access_token: access_token,
	tenant_id: tenant_id
)
# OR
client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
	tenant_id: tenant_id
).authorize_from_access(access_token)

# use the client
client.Organisation.first

AccessToken Renewal

Renewal of an access token requires the refresh token generated for this organisation. To renew:

client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
	access_token: access_token,
	refresh_token: refresh_token
)

client.renew_access_token

If you lose these details at any stage you can always reauthorise by redirecting the user back to the Xero OAuth gateway.

Custom Connections

Custom Connections are a paid-for option for private M2M applications. The generated token expires and needs recreating if expired.

client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
	YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET
)

token = client.authorize_from_client_credentials

You can check the status of the token with the expires? and expired? methods.

Retrieving Data

Each of the below record types is implemented within this library. To allow for multiple access tokens to be used at the same time in a single application, the model classes are accessed from the instance of OAuth2Application. All class-level operations occur on this singleton. For example:

xero = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID, YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET, tenant_id: tenant_id)
xero.authorize_from_access(session[:xero_auth][:access_token])

contacts = xero.Contact.all(:order => 'Name')

new_contact = xero.Contact.build(:name => 'ABC Development')
saved = new_contact.save

#all([options])

Retrieves list of all records with matching options.

Note: Some records (Invoice, CreditNote) only return summary information for the contact and no line items when returning them this list operation. This library takes care of automatically retrieving the contact and line items from Xero on first access however, this first access has a large performance penalty and will count as an extra query towards your 5,000/day and 60/minute request per organisation limit.

Valid options are:

:modified_since

Records modified after this Time (must be specified in UTC).

:order

Field to order by. Should be formatted as Xero-based field (e.g. 'Name', 'ContactID', etc)

:status

Status field for PurchaseOrder. Should be a valid Xero purchase order status.

:date_from

DateFrom field for PurchaseOrder. Should be in YYYY-MM-DD format.

:date_to

DateTo field for PurchaseOrder. Should be in YYYY-MM-DD format.

:where

See Where Filters section below.

#first([options])

This is a shortcut method for all and actually runs all however, this method only returns the first entry returned by all and never an array.

#find(id)

Looks up a single record matching id. This ID can either be the internal GUID Xero uses for the record or, in the case of Invoice, CreditNote and Contact records, your own custom reference number used when creating these records.

Where filters

Hash

You can specify find filters by providing the :where option with a hash. For example:

invoices = Xero.Invoice.all(:where => {:type => 'ACCREC', :amount_due_is_not => 0})

will automatically create the Xero string:

Type=="ACCREC"&&AmountDue<>0

The default method for filtering is the equality '==' operator however, these can be overridden by modifying the postfix of the attribute name (as you can see for the :amount_due field above).

\{attribute_name}_is_not will use '<>'
\{attribute_name}_is_greater_than will use '>'
\{attribute_name}_is_greater_than_or_equal_to will use '>='
\{attribute_name}_is_less_than will use '<'
\{attribute_name}_is_less_than_or_equal_to will use '<='

The default is '=='

Note: Currently, the hash-conversion library only allows for AND-based criteria and doesn't take into account associations. For these, please use the custom filter method below.

Custom Xero-formatted string

Xero allows advanced custom filters to be added to a request. The where parameter can reference any XML element in the resulting response, including all nested XML elements.

Example 1: Retrieve all invoices for a specific contact ID:

	invoices = xero.Invoice.all(:where => 'Contact.ContactID.ToString()=="cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712"')

Example 2: Retrieve all unpaid ACCREC Invoices against a particular Contact Name:

	invoices = xero.Invoice.all(:where => 'Contact.Name=="Basket Case" && Type=="ACCREC" && AmountDue<>0')

Example 3: Retrieve all Invoices PAID between certain dates

	invoices = xero.Invoice.all(:where => 'FullyPaidOnDate>=DateTime.Parse("2010-01-01T00:00:00")&&FullyPaidOnDate<=DateTime.Parse("2010-01-08T00:00:00")')

Example 4: Retrieve all Invoices using Paging (batches of 100)

	invoices = xero.Invoice.find_in_batches({page_number: 1}) do |invoice_batch|
	  invoice_batch.each do |invoice|
	    ...
	  end
	end

Example 5: Retrieve all Bank Accounts:

	accounts = xero.Account.all(:where => 'Type=="BANK"')

Example 6: Retrieve all DELETED or VOIDED Invoices:

	invoices = xero.Invoice.all(:where => 'Status=="VOIDED" OR Status=="DELETED"')

Example 7: Retrieve all contacts with specific text in the contact name:

	contacts = xero.Contact.all(:where => 'Name.Contains("Peter")')
	contacts = xero.Contact.all(:where => 'Name.StartsWith("Pet")')
	contacts = xero.Contact.all(:where => 'Name.EndsWith("er")')

Associations

Records may be associated with each other via two different methods, has_many and belongs_to.

has_many example:

invoice = xero.Invoice.find('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712')
invoice.line_items.each do | line_item |
	puts "Line Description: #{line_item.description}"
end

belongs_to example:

invoice = xero.Invoice.find('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712')
puts "Invoice Contact Name: #{invoice.contact.name}"

Attachments

Files or raw data can be attached to record types attach_data examples:

invoice = xero.Invoice.find('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712')
invoice.attach_data("example.txt", "This is raw data", "txt")

attach_data('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712', "example.txt", "This is raw data", "txt")

attach_file examples:

invoice = xero.Invoice.find('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712')
invoice.attach_file("example.png", "/path/to/image.png", "image/png")

attach_file('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712', "example.png", "/path/to/image.png", "image/png")

include with online invoice To include an attachment with an invoice set include_online parameter to true within the options hash

invoice = xero.Invoice.find('cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712')
invoice.attach_file("example.png", "/path/to/image.png", "image/png", { include_online: true })

Creating/Updating Data

Creating

New records can be created like:

contact = xero.Contact.build(:name => 'Contact Name')
contact.first_name = 'Joe'
contact.last_name = 'Bloggs'
contact.add_address(:type => 'STREET', :line1 => '12 Testing Lane', :city => 'Brisbane')
contact.add_phone(:type => 'DEFAULT', :area_code => '07', :number => '3033 1234')
contact.add_phone(:type => 'MOBILE', :number => '0412 123 456')
contact.save

To add to a has_many association use the add_{association} method. For example:

contact.add_address(:type => 'STREET', :line1 => '12 Testing Lane', :city => 'Brisbane')

To add to a belongs_to association use the build_{association} method. For example:

invoice.build_contact(:name => 'ABC Company')

Updating

If the primary GUID for the record is present, the library will attempt to update the record instead of creating it. It is important that this record is downloaded from the Xero API first before attempting an update. For example:

contact = xero.Contact.find("cd09aa49-134d-40fb-a52b-b63c6a91d712")
contact.name = "Another Name Change"
contact.save

Have a look at the models in lib/xeroizer/models/ to see the valid attributes, associations and minimum validation requirements for each of the record types.

Some Xero endpoints, such as Payment, will only accept specific attributes for updates. Because the library does not have this knowledge encoded (and doesn't do dirty tracking of attributes), it's necessary to construct new objects instead of using the ones retrieved from Xero:

delete_payment = gateway.Payment.build(id: payment.id, status: 'DELETED')
delete_payment.save

Bulk Creates & Updates

Xero has a hard daily limit on the number of API requests you can make (currently 5,000 requests per account per day). To save on requests, you can batch creates and updates into a single PUT or POST call, like so:

contact1 = xero.Contact.create(some_attributes)
xero.Contact.batch_save do
  contact1.email_address = "foo@bar.com"
  contact2 = xero.Contact.build(some_other_attributes)
  contact3 = xero.Contact.build(some_more_attributes)
end

batch_save will issue one PUT request for every 2,000 unsaved records built within its block, and one POST request for every 2,000 existing records that have been altered within its block. If any of the unsaved records aren't valid, it'll return false before sending anything across the wire; otherwise, it returns true. batch_save takes one optional argument: the number of records to create/update per request. (Defaults to 2,000.)

If you'd rather build and send the records manually, there's a save_records method:

contact1 = xero.Contact.build(some_attributes)
contact2 = xero.Contact.build(some_other_attributes)
contact3 = xero.Contact.build(some_more_attributes)
xero.Contact.save_records([contact1, contact2, contact3])

It has the same return values as batch_save.

Errors

If a record doesn't match its internal validation requirements, the #save method will return false and the #errors attribute will be populated with what went wrong.

For example:

contact = xero.Contact.build
saved = contact.save

# contact.errors will contain [[:name, "can't be blank"]]

#errors_for(:attribute_name) is a helper method to return just the errors associated with that attribute. For example:

contact.errors_for(:name) # will contain ["can't be blank"]

If something goes really wrong and the particular validation isn't handled by the internal validators then the library may raise a Xeroizer::ApiException.

Example Use Cases

Creating & Paying an invoice:

contact = xero.Contact.first

# Build the Invoice, add a LineItem and save it
invoice = xero.Invoice.build(:type => "ACCREC", :contact => contact, :date => DateTime.new(2017,10,19), :due_date => DateTime.new(2017,11,19))

invoice.add_line_item(:description => 'test', :unit_amount => '200.00', :quantity => '1', :account_code => '200')

invoice.save

# An invoice created without a status will default to 'DRAFT'
invoice.approved?

# Payments can only be created against 'AUTHORISED' invoices
invoice.approve!

# Find the first bank account
bank_account = xero.Account.first(:where => {:type => 'BANK'})

# Create & save the payment
payment = xero.Payment.build(:invoice => invoice, :account => bank_account, :amount => '220.00')
payment.save

# Reload the invoice from the Xero API
invoice = xero.Invoice.find(invoice.id)

# Invoice status is now "PAID" & Payment details have been returned as well
invoice.status
invoice.payments.first
invoice.payments.first.date

Reports

All Xero reports except GST report can be accessed through Xeroizer.

Currently, only generic report access functionality exists. This will be extended to provide a more report-specific version of the data in the future (public submissions are welcome).

Reports are accessed like the following example:

trial_balance = xero.TrialBalance.get(:date => DateTime.new(2011,3,21))

profit_and_loss = xero.ProfitAndLoss.get(fromDate: Date.new(2019,4,1), toDate: Date.new(2019,5,1))

# Array containing report headings.
trial_balance.header.cells.map { | cell | cell.value }

# Report rows by section
trial_balance.sections.each do | section |
	puts "Section Title: #{section.title}"
	section.rows.each do | row |
		puts "\t#{row.cells.map { | cell | cell.value }.join("\t")}"
	end
end

# Summary row (if only one on the report)
trial_balance.summary.cells.map { | cell | cell.value }

# All report rows (including HeaderRow, SectionRow, Row and SummaryRow)
trial_balance.rows.each do | row |
	case row
		when Xeroizer::Report::HeaderRow
			# do something with header

		when Xeroizer::Report::SectionRow
			# do something with section, will need to step into the rows for this section

		when Xeroizer::Report::Row
			# do something for standard report rows

		when Xeroizer::Report::SummaryRow
			# do something for summary rows

	end
end

Xero API Rate Limits

The Xero API imposes the following limits on calls per organisation:

• A limit of 60 API calls in any 60 second period
• A limit of 5000 API calls in any 24 hour period

By default, the library will raise a Xeroizer::OAuth::RateLimitExceeded exception when one of these limits is exceeded.

If required, the library can handle these exceptions internally by sleeping for a configurable number of seconds and then repeating the last request. You can set this option when initializing an application:

# Sleep for 2 seconds every time the rate limit is exceeded.
client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
                                         YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
                                         :rate_limit_sleep => 2)

Xero API Nonce Used

The Xero API seems to reject requests due to conflicts on occasion.

By default, the library will raise a Xeroizer::OAuth::NonceUsed exception when one of these limits is exceeded.

If required, the library can handle these exceptions internally by sleeping 1 second and then repeating the last request. You can set this option when initializing an application:

# Sleep for 1 second and retry up to 3 times when Xero claims the nonce was used.
client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
                                         YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
                                         :nonce_used_max_attempts => 3)

Logging

You can add an optional parameter to the Xeroizer Application initialization, to pass a logger object that will need to respond_to :info. For example, in a rails app:

XeroLogger = Logger.new('log/xero.log', 'weekly')
client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
                                         YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
                                         :logger => XeroLogger)

HTTP Callbacks

You can provide "before", "after" and "around" callbacks which will be invoked every time Xeroizer makes an HTTP request, which is potentially useful for both throttling and logging:

Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(
  credentials[:key], credentials[:secret],
  before_request: ->(request) { puts "Hitting this URL: #{request.url}" },
  after_request: ->(request, response) { puts "Got this response: #{response.code}" },
  around_request: -> (request, &block)  { puts "About to send request"; block.call; puts "After request"}
)

The request parameter is a custom Struct with url, headers, body, and params methods. The response parameter is a Net::HTTPResponse object.

Unit Price Precision

By default, the API accepts unit prices (UnitAmount) to two decimals places. If you require greater precision, you can opt-in to 4 decimal places by setting an optional parameter when initializing an application:

client = Xeroizer::OAuth2Application.new(YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID,
                                         YOUR_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET,
                                         :unitdp => 4)

This option adds the unitdp=4 query string parameter to all requests for models with line items - invoices, credit notes, bank transactions and receipts.

Tests

OAuth2 Tests

The tests within the repository can be run by setting up a OAuth2 App. You can create a Private App in the developer portal, it's suggested that you create it against the Demo Company (AU). Demo Company expires after 28 days, so you will need to reset it and re-connect to it if your Demo Company has expired. Make sure you create the Demo Company in Australia region.

export XERO_CLIENT_ID="asd"
export XERO_CLIENT_SECRET="asdfg"
export XERO_ACCESS_TOKEN="sadfsdf"
export XERO_TENANT_ID="asdfasdfasdfasd"

rake test

Contributors

Xeroizer was inspired by the https://github.com/tlconnor/xero_gateway gem created by Tim Connor and Nik Wakelin and portions of the networking and authentication code are based completely off this project. Copyright for these components remains held in the name of Tim Connor.