I have a client using quickbooks on a Mac platform. I have a PHP5-based web application that needs to export customer/sales records. I would love to try the quickbooks web connect soap framework that Keith developed but that system is not supported on Mac.
I've read that IIF is not the best way to handle it, but at this point it seems to be my only choice. Recommendations?
Whatever the file type, is there any existing php classes for generating those files?
Unfortunately IIF looks like it is it (and it is not a good choice for many reasons). I'm not aware of any PHP classes that do this, but IIF is a very simple format to generate (deceptively simple, really because its interaction with Quickbooks is very low-level and can really do inconvenient things).
Just be aware of the development cost you are getting into. Although making the IIF file is pretty straight forward, the testing is going to be a real cost. Just go into it with your eyes open.
There is some documentation on the IIF file format available online: here, here, and here.
There is also this open-source project for dealing with IIF files: PHP QB IIF Viewer
If you end up writing your own IIF parser... get in touch with me keith [AT] consolibyte [DOT] com, as if I can find the time and you'd be willing to make it open-source I'd like to contribute so that I can add it to the other open-source QuickBooks work I've done.