Brenda's dashboard

Hi Pete,

I'm afraid not, although actually you probably don't need to do the encoding at all on the email/password -- just set them as plain text (I just cut and pasted my example above from a different site verbatim).

If that doesn't work I recommend asking on a dedicated ActionScript forum, or perhaps a programming QA site like the excellent http://stackoverflow.com as we don't have any direct AS experience.

Good luck and do let us know how you get on.

Hi again,

I assume this base64Encode method requires a class like from:

http://dynamicflash.com/goodies/base64/

e.g.


import com.dynamicflash.util.Base64;

var projectsUrl:String = "http://yourdomain.freeagentcentral.com/projects";
var userName:String = "username";
var userPassword:String = "password";
var encoded:String = Base64.encode(userName + ":" + userPassword);
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(projectsUrl);
request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml"));
request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Accept", "application/xml"));
request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Authorization", "Basic" + encoded));
request.method = URLRequestMethod.GET;
try
{
loader.load(request);
}
catch (error:Error)
{
trace("Unable to load requested document.");
trace(encoded);
}


Any ideas why this isn't working?

P.

Hi Pete

I don't have any direct experience of ActionScript, but I've just had a quick Google around and it looks like the flash.net package contains everything you'll need for communicating with FreeAgent (the URLLoader, URLRequest and URLRequestHeader objects in particular).

I can't verify the correctness of the following at all, but I would imagine this is partly what you'd need to do to make a GET request to FreeAgent to obtain a list of projects in XML format:

var projectsUrl:String = "https://[yourdomain].freeagentcentral.com/projects";

var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(projectsUrl);

request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml"));

request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Accept", "application/xml"));

request.requestHeaders.push(new URLRequestHeader("Authorization", "Basic " + base64Encode(email + ":" + password)));

request.method = URLRequestMethod.GET;

I hope this helps!

Hey Olly. I was hoping to do it in Flash (AS3) perhaps as an AIR app. Once I can find any examples of the basics of REST with Flash it should be no problem. Any suggestions?

Pete,

The API (still in beta, since not all of the FreeAgent functionality is available through it as yet) is documented here: http://www.freeagentcentral.com/devel....

It really is straightforward to get Time and Project data in and out of FreeAgent using most programming languages -- it just involves making a couple of HTTP requests and parsing some basic XML.

Which programming language would you like to write your timer in? I'm sure there are guides to using REST APIs (which the FreeAgent API is) for most popular languages.

I'm actually just wanting a timer for FA or build one myself. However I have no idea where to start with the API.

Maybe check out Intervals, a web-based time tracking service with multiple timers.

Hi guys, any more development on your own freshbooks style timer? I'm still using my freshbooks clock to track my time and then put the timeslips in manually into FA. No offence to Timepost but I just don't want to fork out any more money on addons. If I was able to work out the API I would build my own Flash clock for FA in a browser popup (Freshbooks style) or AIR app. and even donate it if you were interested. Any pointers for getting started with the API and Flash?

Hi Brenda,

While FreeAgent staff are busy adding necessary accounting features, we are committed to providing you with an ideal time tracking solution. Our sole focus is on time management, which allows us to add niche features that may never be available through a web application. We pay attention to all our customers and continuously add new features, services, and platforms that they demand.

Hi Brenda,

While we won't rule anything out, time tracking like that provided by Timepost, isn't on our immediate roadmap.

I'll write a little more about this on a Central post later, but it's tricky balancing act responding to feature requests while still trying to keep the software simple and easy to use for everybody.

Looking through GetSatisfaction you'll see so many other great ideas that people would like to see from FreeAgent, and we just don't have enough time in the day to do all of these right now.

So for the moment we feel that the level of time tracking within FAC is good enough for most freelancers. If you do need more than this, and of course some people do, then there's Timepost, which is, as you say, very reasonably priced.

Our Time Tracking will undoubtedly improve as time goes on, but for now we're concentrating on other areas of the application, making big improvements that will benefit everybody.

Sorry, it's not exactly the answer you're looking for, but hopefully it explains our reasoning.

Not to rain on the Timepost parade, it's a very nice widget, but does this mean FA isn't going to pursue developing its own? It's a little disappointing to have to pay extra (I know, I know... it's only $39 US) for functionality that should really be included in FA as standard.