What language is quickbooks written in? (2023 Update)

Just spend the money and buy the SDK

Don't mind the previous poster - there a few grumpy people on this group for some reason.

The db is proprietary to Intuit. You'll need the Intuit SDK to access the underlying data. The good news is the SDK is free. A good place to start is developer.intuit.com

Good luck! Ian

Some of us just cut to the chase.

If you want questions answered, post them in the body!

You will never see a line of source code anyway, so what does it matter? It isn't open source!

Congratulations.

No.

You're welcome.

Incidentally, what an odd question for a newbie to ask. Kind of like someone just learning to drive, and his first question is, does the car have an interference engine or a free-wheeling engine?

-Mark Bole

Mark Bole wrote: ...

Not to mention the question asked in the message body has no bearing to the subject line question...

I read it completely different. Someone who has a background in real databases and is used to being able to manipulate the database as required might want to know if they are dealing with something similar or something like Quickbooks.

Regarding the fellow who posted the original question, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt regarding intention and skills...although anyone familiar with unmoderated Usenet groups knows you get what you pay for.

As a general matter, I disagree with your assertion. I have a background in "real" databases (Oracle, SQL Server), and I would *never* start just mucking around in the database of an unfamiliar application without first using the application as designed and also doing my own research at the vendor's web site or using the product's built-in help.

In particular, when someone says "I don't have a test environment" but they want to immediately start doing bulk data manipulation via the back-end, that sets off some alarms for me.

An entirely different scenario ensues if the post goes, "I've read about IIF and I've made some simple tests, now here's my question..."

-Mark Bole

Out of curiosity what does the "backend database" do? It doesn't seem to be a traditional client server arrangement.

I had a recent situation at a location using the enterprise edition. One user had been using QB all morning. A second user came in and when she tried to open the same company that was already open it gave her the "company needs to be opened in multiuser" message. They said there was an overnight power failure. I remoted into the server (Windows 2003) and found the UPS had performed an orderly shutdown.

I checked services and the "database engine" wasn't started. I started it and the second user was able to open the company. If this were a normal database no one would have been able to do anything that involved any sort of query or transaction with the database if it were stopped. Is QB some sort of unusual hybrid?

Normal is what normal is. There are numerous database engines that will not start-up automatically if they are not configured to do so. The fact that Intuit has over a 95% market share I would venture to say that the engine used by QB is the norm.

Correct. Operates in two modes. Peer to peer and client server.

Your install is slightly broken. It should have auto launched the daemon on startup.

It is a hack.

The "database engine" service was set to automatic. But that really wasn't the question.

The fact

I don't believe they have a 95% marker in client server databases. That is a relatively new thing for them and they seem to have approached it in a really unusual way.

The "database engine" is set to automatic. It has never failed to start before such as during reboots for patches etc. It just happened to be dumb luck to see if it was started since whoever heard of a client being able to do anything on a client/server database when the database engine wasn't running?

It really seems that way.

When the server side is not running the engine on the client side takes over. If configured for multiuser then it works as a peer to peer.

replying to Mark Bole, David Black wrote: Mark, I really appreciate the professional and responsible approach you mention here. You can't shoot-from-the-hip on stuff this important. David Black

replying to Mark Bole, SETRAY wrote: This is the difference between an Inquisitive Mind and a regular mind.

Thank you.