QuickBooks Online querying with filter returns 401 everytime

Question

I've had success creating objects with POST and Content-Type application/xml

I've also had success querying using Content-Type application/x-www-form-urlencoded with a blank request body which returns all of the object type depending on which URI I specify.

I can also get the same to work with something like PageNum=1&ResultsPerPage=1 in the request body and I have figured out how to incorporate that into the signature so I get a valid response.

However no matter how I format it, I cannot get anything other than a 401 response when I try to use a filter (something basic like Filter=FAMILYNAME :EQUALS: Doe). I've read over the OAuth Core 1.0 Revision A specifications on how all parameter names and values are escaped using the [RFC3986] percent-encoding. However I feel like I'm missing a step or formatting incorrectly. I've seen inconsistent information in my searching through Intuit's forums on what exactly is the proper format.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I've been struggling with this for a good week now.

The response I get when trying to use a filter is: HTTP Status 401 - message=Exception authenticating OAuth; errorCode=003200; statusCode=401

----Update----

I'm am seeing the same error when I try to use filters with the New IPP Developer Tools - IPP API Explorer. I'm using the IDS V2 QBO API Explorer. I'm able to use that tool to do a retrieve all Post and the response shows all of my customers, but when I try to use a filter I get : Server Error 401 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials. You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied.

Any Ideas? If I'm getting the same error from the API Explorer tool, it makes me think the problem is something else entirely.

----Final Update----

I have finally had success with filters and I believe I have figure out what my problem was. I was always suspicious that I was able to get queries with pagination like "PageNum=1&ResultsPerPage=1" to work, but could not get something like "Filter=FAMILYNAME :EQUALS: Doe". I suspected there problem was with the white space in the filter format. What threw me off tracking this down earlier was that I could not get the filters to work in the IDS V2 QBO API Explorer. That made me suspect there was something else going on. I decided to ignore the API Explorer all together and focus on why I could get it to work the one way but no the other.

I believe my problem came down to improper encoding of the Filter's value in the signature. That explains the 401 invalid signature errors I was getting.

"Filter=Name :EQUALS: Doe" becomes "Filter=Name%20%3AEQUALS%20%3ADoe" after normalization.

Percent-Encoding that should give "Filter%3DName%2520%253AEQUALS%2520%253ADoe".

In essence you have to "double" encode the blank space and the colons, but not the equal sign. I tried many permutations of doing the encoding, but believe my mistake was that I was either not "double" encoding, or when I was double encoding I was including the '=' sign. Either way breaks your signature. Thanks for everyone's input.

Answer 1

I believe my problem came down to improper encoding of the Filter's value in the signature. That explains the 401 invalid signature errors I was getting.

I used an online tool to take me through the steps in properly signing an Oauth request. While going through those steps I realized my problem was with the steps where you normalize the request parameters and then percent-encode them. I was including the '=' of the filter in the normalization step, which breaks your signature. The tool I used can be found at:

http://hueniverse.com/2008/10/beginners-guide-to-oauth-part-iv-signing-requests/

Thanks for everyone's input.

Answer 2

Do you get a 401 with the same request in the API Explorer?

http://ippblog.intuit.com/blog/2013/01/new-ipp-developer-tool-api-explorer.html

Also, are you using the static base URL or retrieving it at runtime?

https://ipp.developer.intuit.com/0010_Intuit_Partner_Platform/0050_Data_Services/0400_QuickBooks_Online/0100_Calling_Data_Services/0010_Getting_the_Base_URL

If you are using the static base URL, try switching to the runtime base URL to see if you still get the error.

Answer 3

peterl answered one of my questions on here that may also answer yours. I had been trying to put the Filters in the body when they should have gone into the header. Here was peterl's code sample for getting all unpaid invoices (open balance greater than 0.00) for a particular customer.

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=7VUB6whp

public List<Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.Invoice> GetQboUnpaidInvoices(DataServices dataServices, int startPage, int resultsPerPage,  IdType CustomerId)
{
    StringBuilder requestXML = new StringBuilder();
    StringBuilder responseXML = new StringBuilder();

    var requestBody = String.Format("PageNum={0}&ResultsPerPage={1}&Filter=OpenBalance :GreaterThan: 0.00 :AND: CustomerId :EQUALS: {2}", startPage, resultsPerPage, CustomerId.Value);

    HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = WebRequest.Create(dataServices.ServiceContext.BaseUrl + "invoices/v2/" + dataServices.ServiceContext.RealmId) as HttpWebRequest;
    httpWebRequest.Method = "POST";
    httpWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
    httpWebRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", GetDevDefinedOAuthHeader(httpWebRequest, requestBody));
    requestXML.Append(requestBody);
    UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
    byte[] content = encoding.GetBytes(requestXML.ToString());
    using (var stream = httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream())
    {
        stream.Write(content, 0, content.Length);
    }
    HttpWebResponse httpWebResponse = httpWebRequest.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
    using (Stream data = httpWebResponse.GetResponseStream())
    {
        Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults searchResults = (Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults)dataServices.ServiceContext.Serializer.Deserialize<Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.SearchResults>(new StreamReader(data).ReadToEnd());
        return ((Intuit.Ipp.Data.Qbo.Invoices)searchResults.CdmCollections).Invoice.ToList();
    }

}

protected string GetDevDefinedOAuthHeader(HttpWebRequest webRequest, string requestBody)
{

    OAuthConsumerContext consumerContext = new OAuthConsumerContext
    {
        ConsumerKey = consumerKey,
        ConsumerSecret = consumerSecret,
        SignatureMethod = SignatureMethod.HmacSha1,
        UseHeaderForOAuthParameters = true

    };

    consumerContext.UseHeaderForOAuthParameters = true;

    //URIs not used - we already have Oauth tokens
    OAuthSession oSession = new OAuthSession(consumerContext, "https://www.example.com",
                            "https://www.example.com",
                            "https://www.example.com");


    oSession.AccessToken = new TokenBase
    {
        Token = accessToken,
        ConsumerKey = consumerKey,
        TokenSecret = accessTokenSecret
    };

    IConsumerRequest consumerRequest = oSession.Request();
    consumerRequest = ConsumerRequestExtensions.ForMethod(consumerRequest, webRequest.Method);
    consumerRequest = ConsumerRequestExtensions.ForUri(consumerRequest, webRequest.RequestUri);
    if (webRequest.Headers.Count > 0)
    {
        ConsumerRequestExtensions.AlterContext(consumerRequest, context => context.Headers = webRequest.Headers);
        if (webRequest.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] == "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
        {
            Dictionary<string, string> formParameters = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            foreach (string formParameter in requestBody.Split('&'))
            {
                formParameters.Add(formParameter.Split('=')[0], formParameter.Split('=')[1]);
            }
            consumerRequest = consumerRequest.WithFormParameters(formParameters);
        }
    }

    consumerRequest = consumerRequest.SignWithToken();
    return consumerRequest.Context.GenerateOAuthParametersForHeader();
}

You can also see my original Question Here on StackOverflow: Query for All Invoices With Open Balances using QuickBooks Online (QBO) Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) DevKit.