PHP Quickbooks SDK - Batch requests and handling failures - php

Question

I've building out a small app that connects to a Quickbooks API via an SDK. The SDK provides batch operations to help reduce the number of API requests needed.
However, I'm hoping to make a large amount of requests (ie: bulk deletes, uploads in the 100s/1000s). I've gotten the deletes to work, however, now I'm hoping to integrate Laravel's Queue system so that any items in the $batch that fail (due to these business-rules or other reasons) are sent to a worker who will reattempt them after waiting a minute .
Below is an example of a delete request.
class QuickBooksAPIController extends Controller
{
public function batchDelete(Request $request, $category)
{
$chunks = array_chunk($request->data, 30);
foreach ($chunks as $key => $value) {
$batch[$key] = $this->dataService()->CreateNewBatch();
foreach ($value as $id) {
$item = $this->dataService()->FindById($category, $id);
$batch[$key]->AddEntity($item, $id, "delete");
}
$batch[$key]->Execute();
}
return response()->json(['message' => 'Items Deleted'], 200);
}
}
The documentations are a bit sparse for my scenario though. How can I get the failed batch items on order to try again?
Is using batches even the right choice here? Because I have to hit the API anyway to get the $item... which doesn't make sense to me (I think I'm doing something wrong there).
EDIT:
I intentionally sent out a request with more then 30 items and this is the failure message. Which doesn't have the values that didn't make the cut.
EDIT#2:
Ended up using array_chunk to separate the payload into 30 items (which is the limit of the API). Doing so helps process many requests. I've adjusted my code above to represent my current code.

Answer 1

How can I get the failed batch items on order to try again?
If you look at Intuit's documentation, you can see that the HTTP response the API returns contains this information. Here's the example request they show:
{
"BatchItemRequest": [
{
"bId": "bid1",
"Vendor": {
"DisplayName": "Smith Family Store"
},
"operation": "create"
},
{
"bId": "bid2",
"operation": "delete",
"Invoice": {
"SyncToken": "0",
"Id": "129"
}
},
{
"SalesReceipt": {
"PrivateNote": "A private note.",
"SyncToken": "0",
"domain": "QBO",
"Id": "11",
"sparse": true
},
"bId": "bid3",
"operation": "update"
},
{
"Query": "select * from SalesReceipt where TotalAmt > '300.00'",
"bId": "bid4"
}
]
}
And the corresponding response:
{
"BatchItemResponse": [
{
"Fault": {
"type": "ValidationFault",
"Error": [
{
"Message": "Duplicate Name Exists Error",
"code": "6240",
"Detail": "The name supplied already exists. : Another customer, vendor or employee is already using this \nname. Please use a different name.",
"element": ""
}
]
},
"bId": "bid1"
},
{
"Fault": {
"type": "ValidationFault",
"Error": [
{
"Message": "Object Not Found",
"code": "610",
"Detail": "Object Not Found : Something you're trying to use has been made inactive. Check the fields with accounts, customers, items, vendors or employees.",
"element": ""
}
]
},
"bId": "bid2"
},
{
"Fault": {
"type": "ValidationFault",
"Error": [
{
"Message": "Stale Object Error",
"code": "5010",
"Detail": "Stale Object Error : You and root were working on this at the same time. root finished before you did, so your work was not saved.",
"element": ""
}
]
},
"bId": "bid3"
},
{
"bId": "bid4",
"QueryResponse": {
"SalesReceipt": [
{
"TxnDate": "2015-08-25",
"domain": "QBO",
"CurrencyRef": {
"name": "United States Dollar",
"value": "USD"
},
"PrintStatus": "NotSet",
"PaymentRefNum": "10264",
"TotalAmt": 337.5,
"Line": [
{
"Description": "Custom Design",
"DetailType": "SalesItemLineDetail",
"SalesItemLineDetail": {
"TaxCodeRef": {
"value": "NON"
},
"Qty": 4.5,
"UnitPrice": 75,
"ItemRef": {
"name": "Design",
"value": "4"
}
},
"LineNum": 1,
"Amount": 337.5,
"Id": "1"
},
{
"DetailType": "SubTotalLineDetail",
"Amount": 337.5,
"SubTotalLineDetail": {}
}
],
"ApplyTaxAfterDiscount": false,
"DocNumber": "1003",
"PrivateNote": "A private note.",
"sparse": false,
"DepositToAccountRef": {
"name": "Checking",
"value": "35"
},
"CustomerMemo": {
"value": "Thank you for your business and have a great day!"
},
"Balance": 0,
"CustomerRef": {
"name": "Dylan Sollfrank",
"value": "6"
},
"TxnTaxDetail": {
"TotalTax": 0
},
"SyncToken": "1",
"PaymentMethodRef": {
"name": "Check",
"value": "2"
},
"EmailStatus": "NotSet",
"BillAddr": {
"Lat": "INVALID",
"Long": "INVALID",
"Id": "49",
"Line1": "Dylan Sollfrank"
},
"MetaData": {
"CreateTime": "2015-08-27T14:59:48-07:00",
"LastUpdatedTime": "2016-04-15T09:01:10-07:00"
},
"CustomField": [
{
"DefinitionId": "1",
"Type": "StringType",
"Name": "Crew #"
}
],
"Id": "11"
}
],
"startPosition": 1,
"maxResults": 1
}
}
],
"time": "2016-04-15T09:01:18.141-07:00"
}
Notice the separate response object for each request.
The bId value is a unique value you send in the request, which is then echo'd back to you in the response, so you can match up the requests you send with the responses you get back.
Here's the docs:
https://developer.intuit.com/app/developer/qbo/docs/api/accounting/all-entities/batch#sample-batch-request
Is using batches even the right choice here?
Batches make a lot of sense when you are doing a lot of things all at once.
The way you're trying to use them is... weird. What you should probably be doing is:
Batch 1
- go find all your items
Batch 2
- delete all the items
Your existing code doesn't make sense because you're trying to both find the item and delete the item in the exact same batch HTTP request, which isn't possible via the API.
I intentionally sent out a request with more then 30 items and this is the failure message.
No, it's not. That's a PHP error message - you have an error in your code.
You need to fix the PHP error, and then look at the actual response you're getting back from the API.