xero-node

xero-node

NodeJS Client for the Xero API. Works with ES5, ES6+ and TypeScript.

Supports all application types:

• Private - apps that can only connect to a single organisation
• Public - apps that can connect to any organisation, but only for 30 minutes at a time
• Partner - approved apps that can automatically refresh tokens

Version 3 has been rebuilt fron the ground-up using TypeScript, to make it more maintainable and to take advantage of modern JavaScript features.

Features

• v3.0.0
  • all accounting endpoints
  • generic methods (get, put, post, delete) for calling any unsupported endpoints

Installation

This SDK is published as an npm package called xero-node.

npm install --save xero-node

Usage Example for Private Apps

Create a config.json file:

{
	"appType": "private",
	"consumerKey": "your_consumer_key",
	"consumerSecret": "your_consumer_secret",
	"callbackUrl": null,
	"privateKeyPath": "C:\\keys\\your_private_key.pem"
}

Then add the following JavaScript (example works in NodeJS version 8 and above):

const XeroClient = require('xero-node').AccountingAPIClient;
const config = require('./config.json');

(async () => {

    // You can initialise Private apps directly from your configuration
    let xero = new XeroClient(config);

    const result = await xero.invoices.get();

    console.log('Number of invoices:', result.Invoices.length);

})();

Usage Example for Public and Partner Apps

Create a config.json file:

{
	"appType": "public",
	"consumerKey": "your_consumer_key",
	"consumerSecret": "your_consumer_secret",
	"callbackUrl": null,
	"privateKeyPath": "C:\\keys\\your_private_key.pem"
}

Then add the following JavaScript (example works in NodeJS version 8 and above):

const XeroClient = require('xero-node').AccountingAPIClient;
const config = require('./config.json');

(async () => {

    let xero = new XeroClient(config);

    // Create request token and get an authorisation URL
    const requestToken = await xero.oauth1Client.getRequestToken();
    console.log('Received Request Token:', requestToken);

    authUrl = xero.oauth1Client.buildAuthoriseUrl(requestToken);
    console.log('Authorisation URL:', authUrl);

    // Send the user to the Authorisation URL to authorise the connection

    // Once the user has authorised your app, swap Request token for Access token
    const oauth_verifier = 123456;
    const savedRequestToken = {
        oauth_token: 'aaa',
        oauth_token_secret: 'bbb'
    };
    const accessToken = await xero.oauth1Client.swapRequestTokenforAccessToken(savedRequestToken, oauth_verifier);
    console.log('Received Access Token:', accessToken);

    // You should now store the access token securely for the user.

    // You can make API calls straight away
    const result = await xero.invoices.get();
    console.log('Number of invoices:', result.Invoices.length);

    // When making future calls, you can initialise the Xero client direectly with the stored access token:

    const storedAccessToken = {
        oauth_token: 'aaa',
        oauth_token_secret: 'bbb',
        oauth_session_handle: 'ccc',
        oauth_expires_at: '2018-01-01T01:02:03'
    };
    const xero2 = new XeroClient(config, storedAccessToken);
    const invoices = await xero2.invoices.get();
    console.log('Number of invoices:', invoices.Invoices.length);

})();

Further Examples

• Integration tests
• Sample app

Contributing

Local development

There are lots of TODOs in code and on our GitHub Projects kanban board - feel free to pick one off.

After you clone the repository, run npm install to install required dependencies.

Running the tests

We need two private Apps to get around the ratelimits. They can be connected to the same Org.

1. Copy private-config-example.json to private-config.json in the integration test directory.
2. Copy it again to 1private-config.json in the integration test directory.
3. Overwrite the example values with your own from the Developer Portal.
4. (Do the same for partner-config-example.json if required.)
5. Run npm test

Project Philosophies

1. A simple and intuitive interface. eg:

   PUT https://api.xero.com/api.xro/2.0/ContactGroups/b05466c8-dc54-4ff8-8f17-9d7008a2e44b/Contacts

   becomes:

   xero.contacts.contactGroups.create(contact)

   Matching SDK methods names to endpoints, allows consumers to read the official API documentation and translate it to SDK method calls quickly.

   That rather than using HTTP verbs (.put(), .post() etc) the SDK will use actions. Example get(), create(),delete(), update(). This abstracts away Xero's funny PUT vs POST.

2. A simple and single OAuth flow. Rather than automatically refreshing tokens, the SDK we will expose methods which allow the OAuth methods eg Refreshing Tokens etc. Consideration is also being made to OAuth2.

3. Abstracted underlyting OAuth/HTTP lib. This will allow swapping it out if we needed. The SDK won't bleed the OAuth libs exception types onto the consumer when it hits a 500/400 etc. Having a OAuth/HTTP layer will allow reuse and extension to other APIs (Payroll, Expenses etc).

4. Minimal to no entity/request/response validation. A consumer will pass in JSON and get JSON out. There will be no manipulation of data along the way. Helper methods if asked for will be provided by a separate module. This will reduce maintenance costs.

5. Unit tests!

6. Writing the SDK in Typescript will allow us to provide TS types for the API's contracts, and it's what we use internally at Xero. This will also aid in self-generated docs.

Maintainers

@philals @iamam34 @bryanlloydtee @dannyvincent @dupski