fresh-auth

Fresh::Auth

This gem makes it really, REALLY easy to use the Freshbooks API. It couldn't be easier.

With only 3 functions you'll ever need to use, and only 2 required configuration values, it can't get any easier.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile: gem 'fresh-auth' And then execute: $ bundle Or install it yourself as: $ gem install fresh-auth

Usage

Configuration:

You must define your Freshbooks subdomain and your OAuth Secret in your application code before using Fresh::Auth. For Ruby on Rails apps, a new file at config/initializers/fresh-auth.rb would be appropriate.

Your configuration file should look like this (you fill in the three empty strings):

Fresh::Auth.configure do |config|

  # The part of your login url between 'http://' and '.freshbooks.com'
  config.url.subdomain = ""

  # Under 'My Account' (on the top right when you're logged into Freshbooks)
  #   -> 'Freshbooks API' -> 'OAuth Developer Access' -> 'OAuth Secret'
  # You'll need to request this from Freshbooks initially.
  config.oauth_secret = ""

  # Optional.  Any string of your choice.  Be creative or check out http://www.thebitmill.com/tools/password.html
  config.nonce_salt = ""
end

Fear not: If you try to use Fresh::Auth without configuring it first, an exception will be thrown that clearly describes the problem.

Public API:

There are two modules in this API: Fresh::Auth::Authentication and Fresh::Auth::Api

Fresh::Auth::Authentication

This module authenticates you with Freshbooks, storing the authentication in an array called session. This integrates seamlessly with Ruby on Rails' controller environment. If you're using some framework other than Ruby on Rails, make sure to define session in your class before including the Authentication module. This isn't recommended because your class will also need to define other objects called params and request and implement a redirect_to method. It gets complicated. Better leave it to Rails to handle this for you.

The only public function of this module is AuthenticateWithFreshbooks.

To use it, just add the following line of code to your controller: include Fresh::Auth::Authentication

Then, the following line of code authenticates with Freshbooks from any method in your controller: AuthenticateWithFreshbooks()

Note that, after authenticating with Freshbooks, the user will be redirected back to the same path using HTTP GET, so make sure the resource supports HTTP GET and that in the business logic executed on GET, AuthenticateWihFreshbooks() is called.

Fresh::Auth::Api

Once you've authenticated, you want to send XML requests to Freshbooks. The first step is preparing the XML with Fresh::Auth::Api.GenerateXml, which you'll supply with a block that defines all the nested XML that you want in your request. GenerateXml also takes two arguments before the block: the class and method that you want to call.

First, in your controller: include Fresh::Auth::Api

Then, in some method in that controller:

my_xml = GenerateXml :invoice, :update do |xml|
  xml.client_id 20
  xml.status 'sent'
  xml.notes 'Pick up the car by 5'
  xml.terms 'Cash only'
  xml.lines {
    xml.line {
      xml.name 'catalytic converter'
      xml.quantity 1
      xml.unit_cost 450
      xml.type 'Item'
    }
    xml.line {
      xml.name 'labor'
      xml.quantity 1
      xml.unit_cost 60
      xml.type 'Time'
    }
  }
end

Ok, you created the XML. Now you want to send it. Sounds pretty complicated, right? Not at all! Ready? Let's go!

_response = PostToFreshbooksApi my_xml

Now, are you wondering what's in _response? I'll tell you shortly, but before we discuss that, we have to know about the exception that PostToFreshbooksApi might raise. It raises a detailed error message if the response status is not 'ok'. Makes sense, right?

Now, you still want to know what's in _response? Oh, nothing fancy. Just a Nokogiri XML object, representing the root element of the xml response. Could this get any easier?

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request