Server vs. Personal API deployment

QSales for Act Api can be deployed in either Server or Personal mode as shown above. The article below describes the differences between these two options.

Server

The use of Server mode is preferred, as it allows for the least manual intervention by the user/administrator of the Act database. The server deployment will install the QSales for Act API as an always running Microsoft IIS web application. This means, when the machine is rebooted, the API will launch it's own instance of Quickbooks in the background as soon as it starts receiving requests. However, this option requires that a dedicated Quickbooks license be assigned to a Quickbooks user. The API will use this license to log in to Quickbooks and provide access to QSales for Act clients. If this is not possible due to cost concerns, a more affordable option is to use Personal deployment type, which is explained below.

Personal

The use of Personal mode is preferred when you cannot assign a dedicated license for the QSales API user. In this case, the personal deployment type will use the currently logged in Quickbooks user's connection and share it out and make it available for QSales for Act clients. 

It also means that Microsoft IIS is not used, and the connection is not "always running" as with the server couterpart. After installing the API using this deployment type, a small QSales API Application is started on system startup as shown below:



This option is also not automated since now, the API needs to get connected to Quickbooks using a user's Quickbooks account while they are using Quickbooks. Therefore, please start and log in to Quickbooks before the Start QSales API button is pressed.  Once started, the API functions in identical manner to the server option. However, the main difference is that now the API will not auto-restart on system reboots, and will require the user to manually log in to Quickbooks first, and then click the Start button on the API application. This might be a trade-off some companies are willing to make in order to save on licensing cost for Quickbooks. If that is not a huge concern, the server mode is preferred as it requires a lot less user intervention.