How do I make a QBO v3 API Create, Update, and Delete Request with a JSON body

Question

I'm constructing my own HTTP requests for use with the QuickBooks Online v3 REST API, 'rolling my own' in the words of Keith Palmer - Consolibyt's response to this post.

I particular, I want to create, update, and delete transactions and names using JSON-formatted request bodies. The documentation is very sparse with JSON examples, so this is all I could find:

{
    ...
    "domain":"QBO"
    "sparse":{"true","false"}
    ...
}

The API gives XML examples for creating, updating, and deleting transactions, and I have been able to use those in the API explorer successfully. (For other reasons, though, I don't want to work with XML. I want to work in JSON.)

In trying to figure out how to do the same thing with JSON, I did a read of an existing JournalEntry (in the API Explorer), getting this response and planning to build the request body starting from here:

{
  "JournalEntry": {
    "Adjustment": false,
    "domain": "QBO",
    "sparse": false,
    "Id": "1056",
    "SyncToken": "2",
    "MetaData": {
      "CreateTime": "2014-02-07T13:21:51-08:00",
      "LastUpdatedTime": "2014-02-07T13:29:53-08:00"
    },
    "DocNumber": "4",
    "TxnDate": "2014-02-08",
    "CurrencyRef": {
      "value": "USD",
      "name": "United States Dollar"
    },
    "Line": [
      {
        "Id": "0",
        "Description": "test entry",
        "Amount": 102.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Credit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "57",
            "name": "Miscellaneous Income"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "Id": "1",
        "Description": "test entry (UPDATED!)",
        "Amount": 252.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Debit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "29",
            "name": "6240 Miscellaneous"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "Id": "2",
        "Description": "test entry",
        "Amount": 150.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Credit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "82",
            "name": "12100 Inventory Asset"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "time": "2014-02-07T14:21:16.181-08:00"
}

Here's the request body I'm using for an Update operation (on the same JournalEntry page of the API Explorer) -- note that I'm only changing the DocNumber (from 4 to 12345):

{
    "Adjustment": false,
    "domain": "QBO",
    "sparse": false,
    "Id": "1056",
    "SyncToken": "2",
    "MetaData": {
      "CreateTime": "2014-02-07T13:21:51-08:00",
      "LastUpdatedTime": "2014-02-07T13:29:53-08:00"
    },
    "DocNumber": "12345",
    "TxnDate": "2014-02-08",
    "CurrencyRef": {
      "value": "USD",
      "name": "United States Dollar"
    },
    "Line": [
      {
        "Id": "0",
        "Description": "test entry",
        "Amount": 102.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Credit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "57",
            "name": "Miscellaneous Income"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "Id": "1",
        "Description": "test entry (UPDATED!)",
        "Amount": 252.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Debit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "29",
            "name": "6240 Miscellaneous"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "Id": "2",
        "Description": "test entry",
        "Amount": 150.0,
        "DetailType": "JournalEntryLineDetail",
        "JournalEntryLineDetail": {
          "PostingType": "Credit",
          "AccountRef": {
            "value": "82",
            "name": "12100 Inventory Asset"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
}

Here's the Response Body I get back:

{"Fault":{"Error":[{"Message":"An application error has occurred while processing your request","Detail":"System Failure Error: null","code":"10000"}],"type":"SystemFault"},"time":"2014-02-07T14:36:18.888-08:00"}

I'm also trying a sparse update, as per these instructions, just to keep things simple. The request body:

{
    "sparse": "true",
    "Id": "1056",
    "SyncToken": "2",
    "DocNumber": "12345"
}

The response body I get back (in bright red):

{"Fault":{"Error":[{"Message":"An application error has occurred while processing your request","Detail":"System Failure Error: null","code":"10000"}],"type":"SystemFault"},"time":"2014-02-07T14:05:05.197-08:00"}

I have a feeling the problem here is something small. Can you point out what it is? Alternatively, if you have a working example of a JSON request body (for create, update, and delete operations of a transaction, ideally), that would be very helpful too (as hopefully I could use it as a template).

Answer 1

You need to add Accept : application/json to your header.