Xero

This connector provides SQL access to your Xero backend.

Before you begin

Before using the Xero connector, do the following tasks:

  • In your Google Cloud project:
    • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
    • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
    • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
      • roles/secretmanager.viewer
      • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

      A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

    • Enable the following services:
      • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
      • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

      To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

    If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Xero configuration

The following tasks are required to configure Xero:

Set up a Xero account and Xero demo company

  1. Go to Xero account to signup for a free Xero account.
  2. Go to Xero Demo Company to enable the Xero demo company.

Generate OAuth2.0 client authentication details

  1. Login to the Xero developer account.
  2. Click Sign Up and follow the prompts. If you already have an account, log in with your credentials.

    3. You will be directed to the Xero developer dashboard after logging in.

  3. Go to the Xero developer portal from My Apps section in the Developer dashboard.
  4. Click New App or Create a new app to create a new app.
  5. Enter the required details for your app, such as the app name, description, company URL, privacy policy URL, terms of use URL, and callback URL.
  6. Make sure to select the appropriate app type and permissions required for your integration with Xero's demo company.

    7. After you create your app, you will get the OAuth credentials, including a client ID and client secret.

  7. Store the client ID and client secret in a secured location for future use.

    8. When you create your integration, select the necessary scopes carefully for each schema to ensure that your application has the appropriate permissions to access and utilize the required utilities.

    For information about authentication and retrieving client ID and client secret, see Retrieve client ID and client secret.

Set up schema details

You can select the schema based on the module. The available schemas are ACCOUNTING, ASSETS, PAYROLLAUS, FILES, and PROJECTS. As we have five different modules, you have to create different connections for each module.

For information about scopes that you can specify when you create a connection, see Scopes.

Set up authorization details

For information about setting up authorization URL, see Set up authorization URL.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to the Connections page

  2. Click + Create new to open the Create Connection page.
  3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
    1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      Supported regions for connectors include:

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

    2. Click Next.
  4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
    1. Connector: Select Xero from the drop down list of available Connectors.
    2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
    3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
    4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
    5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
    6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
    7. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:

      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

    8. Schema: The Xero API you want to access as a database schema.
    9. Tenant: Sets the Xero organization to connect to. Can be a name or tenant ID.
    10. Verbosity Level: Verbosity level for connection, varies from 1-5. Higher verbosity level will log all the communication details (request,response & ssl certificates).
    11. Optionally, click + Add label to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
    12. Click Next.
  5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
    1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the Xero connection:

      • OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials
      • OAuth 2.0 Auth Code Grant

      2. To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

    2. Click Next.
  6. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
  7. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

  • OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials
    • Client ID: The client id provided by connector for the app you created.
    • Client Secret: Secret Manager Secret containing the client secret for the connected app you created.
  • OAuth 2.0 Auth Code Grant
    • Access token: The access token used for authenticating requests with auth-code-flow-based connections.
    • Client ID: The client ID used for requesting access tokens.
    • Client secret: The client secret used for requesting access tokens.

Connection configuration

This section lists the sample values for the various fields that you configure when creating the Xero connection.

Accounting server connection type

Field name Details
Region us-central1
Connector Xero
Connector version 1
Connection Name google-cloud-xero-accounting-connection
Service Account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Schema ACCOUNTING
Verbosity Level 5
Minimum number of nodes 2
Maximum number of nodes 50
Authentication OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
Client Id CLIENT_ID
Scopes offline_access openid profile email accounting.transactions, accounting.reports.read, accounting.attachments, accounting.journals.read, accounting.settings, accounting.contacts, accounting.budgets.read
Client secret CLIENT_SECRET
Secret Version 1
Authorization URL https://login.xero.com/{identity}/connect/authorize

Assets server connection type

Field name Details
Region us-central1
Connector Xero
Connector version 1
Connection Name google-cloud-xero-assets-connection
Service Account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Schema ASSETS
Verbosity Level 5
Minimum number of nodes 2
Maximum number of nodes 50
Authentication OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
Client Id CLIENT_ID
Scopes assets.read, assets
Client secret CLIENT_SECRET
Secret Version 1
Authorization URL https://login.xero.com/{identity}/connect/authorize

Files server connection type

Field name Details
Region us-central1
Connector Xero
Connector version 1
Connection Name google-cloud-xero-files-connection
Service Account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Schema FILES
Verbosity Level 5
Minimum number of nodes 2
Maximum number of nodes 50
Authentication OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
Client Id CLIENT_ID
Scopes files, files.read
Client secret CLIENT_SECRET
Secret Version 1
Authorization URL https://login.xero.com/{identity}/connect/authorize

Payrollaus server connection type

Field name Details
Region us-central1
Connector Xero
Connector version 1
Connection Name google-cloud-xero-payroll-connection
Service Account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Schema PAYROLLAUS
Verbosity Level 5
Minimum number of nodes 2
Maximum number of nodes 50
Authentication OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
Client Id CLIENT_ID
Scopes payroll.employees, payroll.payruns, payroll.payslip, payroll.timesheets, payroll.settings
Client secret CLIENT_SECRET
Secret Version 1
Authorization URL https://login.xero.com/{identity}/connect/authorize

Projects server connection type

Field name Details
Region us-central1
Connector Xero
Connector version 1
Connection Name google-cloud-xero-projects-connection
Service Account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Schema PROJECTS
Verbosity Level 5
Minimum number of nodes 2
Maximum number of nodes 50
Authentication OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
Client Id CLIENT_ID
Scopes projects, projects.read
Client secret CLIENT_SECRET
Secret Version 1
Authorization URL https://login.xero.com/{identity}/connect/authorize

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

  • Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

    However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

  • Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:

    Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

  • Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Use the Xero connection in an integration

System limitations

The Xero connector can process 5 transaction per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. However, the number transactions that the Xero connector can process also depends on the constraints imposed by the Xero instance. For more information, see Xero API rate limits. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Actions

This section lists some of the actions supported by the connector. To understand how to configure the actions, see Action examples.

DownloadAttachment action

This action downloads an attachment.

Input parameters of the DownloadAttachment action

Parameter name Data type Required Description
Filename String No Name of the attachment to download.
Table String No Name of the table from where we have to download the attachment.
ObjectId String No ObjectId of the attachment.

Output parameters of the DownloadAttachment action

This action returns the status 200 (OK) if the download is successful.

To understand how to configure the DownloadAttachment action, see Action examples.

UploadAttachment action

This action lets you upload an attachment.

Input parameters of the UploadAttachment action

Parameter name Data type Required Description
Filename String No Name of the attachment to upload.
ObjectId String No ObjectId of the attachment.
ContentType String No Content type of the attachment.
Table String No Name of the table in which the attachment should be uploaded.
Content String No Content of the attachment

Output parameters of the UploadAttachment action

This action returns the status 200 (OK) if the object upload is successful.

To understand how to configure the UploadAttachment action, see Action examples.

ListAttachment Action

This action lets you list all the attachments of a table.

Input parameters of the ListAttachment action

Parameter name Data type Required Description
ObjectId String No Object ID of the attachment.
Table String No Name of the table from which the attachments have to be listed.

Output parameters of the ListAttachment action

This action returns the status 200 (OK) if the deletion is successful.

To understand how to configure the ListAttachment action, see Action examples.

SendInvoiceMail action

This action let you send emails to an invoicer.

Input parameters of the SendInvoiceMail action

Parameter name Data type Required Description
InvoiceId String No Id of the invoice for which the mail should be sent.

Output parameters of the SendInvoiceMail action

This action returns the status 200 (OK) if the move operation is successful.

To understand how to configure the SendInvoiceMail action, see Action examples.

UploadFile action

This action lets you upload a file.

Input parameters of the UploadFile action

Parameter name Data type Required Description
Name String No Name of the file to be uploaded.
Content String No File content to be uploaded.

Output parameters of the UploadFile action

This action returns the status 200 (OK) if the object upload is successful.

To understand how to configure the UploadFile action, see Action examples.

Action examples

This section describes how to perform some of the actions in this connector.

Example - Download an attachment

This example downloads an attachment.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
  2. Select the DownloadAttachment action, and then click Done.
  3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Filename": "Xero_Test.txt",
"Table": "Contacts",
"ObjectId": "6a92a3ab-87cf-4f2f-8beb-ecb4f8ae4d41"
}

    4. If the action is successful, the DownloadAttachment task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

    [{
"Success": "True",
"Content": "Test content"
}]

Example - Upload an attachment

This example uploads an attachment.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
  2. Select the UploadAttachment action, and then click Done.
  3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Filename": "Xero_Test.txt",
"ObjectId": "6a92a3ab-87cf-4f2f-8beb-ecb4f8ae4d41",
"ContentType": "txt",
"Table": "Contacts",
"Content": "Test content upload attachment"
}

    4. If the action is successful, the UploadAttachment task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

    [{
"Success": null,
"AttachmentId": "5ba982a6-9294-45a7-bdda-5f134b0d69d5",
"FileName": "Xero_Test.txt",
"URL": "https://api.xero.com/api.xro/2.0/Contacts/6a92a3ab-87cf-4f2f-8bwb-fcb4f8ae4d41/Attachments/Xero_Test.txt",
"MimeType": "text/plain",
"ContentLength": "27",
"IncludeOnline": null,
"_": ""
}, {
"Success": null,
"AttachmentId": null,
"FileName": null,
"URL": null,
"MimeType": null,
"ContentLength": null,
"IncludeOnline": null,
"_": null
}]

Example - List attachments

This example lists the attachments of the specified table.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
  2. Select the ListAttachment action, and then click Done.
  3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"ObjectId": "6a92a3ab-87cf-4f2f-8beb-ecb4f8ae4d41",
"Table": "Contacts"
}

    4. If the action is successful, the ListAttachment task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

    [{
"AttachmentId": "5ba982a6-9294-45a7-bdda-5f134b0d69d5",
"FileName": "Xero_Limit_Testing.txt",
"URL": "https://api.xero.com/api.xro/2.0/Contacts/6a92a3ab-87cf-4f2f-8bwb-fcb4f8ae4d41/Attachments/Xero_Test.txt",
"MimeType": "text/plain",
"ContentLength": "27"
}]

Example - Send an invoice email

This example sends an email for the specified invoice.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
  2. Select the SendInvoiceMail action, and then click Done.
  3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"InvoiceId": "016a64c7-be0b-45a2-acae-13057fdf1566"
}

    4. If the action is successful, the SendInvoiceMail task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

    [{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Upload a file

This example uploads a file.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
  2. Select the UploadFile action, and then click Done.
  3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Name": "Sample1.txt",
"Content": "This is a sample file"
}

    4. If the action is successful, the UploadFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

    [{
"Success": "true",
"FileId": "09039c7b-35a2-473d-aa79-16fe00b8d460",
"Name": "Sample1.txt",
"FolderId": "36e5115d-a9b6-4c22-baf3-40a8b28ee71d",
"MimeType": "text/plain",
"Size": 26.0,
"User_Id": "c1e33cc9-eb61-45cb-9e46-3ea4121cbdc6",
"User_Name": "test_user_1@test.com",
"User_FirstName": "John",
"User_LastName": "Smith",
"User_FullName": "John Smith",
"Created": "2023-12-18 17:38:53.01",
"Updated": "2023-12-18 17:38:53.01"
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all records

This example lists all the records in the Accounts entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select Accounts from the Entity list.
  3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
  4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. For example, City='Bangalore'. You can also specify multiple filter conditions by using the logic operators. For example, City='Bangalore' and region='asia-south2'.

Example - Get an invoice

This example gets an invoice with the specified ID from the Invoices entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select Invoices from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter 1|016a64c7-be0b-45a2-acae-13057fdf1566 in the Default Value field.

    Here, 1|016a64c7-be0b-45a2-acae-13057fdf1566 is a primary key value in the Invoices entity.

Example - Create an invoice

This example creates an invoice in the Invoices entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select Invoices from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"Type": "ACCPAY",
"ContactName": "ContactName1",
"LineItem_Description": "LineItemDescription"
}

    If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
"Id": "1|7b29efe9-dacd-47bb-85a6-0c0640ce25de"
}

Example - Update a record

This example updates a record in the AssetTypes entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select AssetTypes from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field: 
    {
"BookDepreciationSetting_DepreciationRate": 10.0
}
  5. Click entityId, and then enter f8d43548-25b0-4cc3-8f59-d97106974fe8 in the Default Value field.

    If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

    {
"AssetTypeId": "f8d43548-25b0-4cc3-8f59-d97106974fe8"
}

Example - Delete a file

This example deletes the file with the specified ID from the Files entity.

  1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
  2. Select Files from the Entity list.
  3. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
  4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 421c82f0-38fb-4074-a679-63b04c0d8832 in the Default Value field.

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

  • To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
  • To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

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