Installing TimeTrex Remote API Tools
TimeTrex On-Site server software includes all the necessary API tools to utilize the API, however in cases where you want to access the TimeTrex API from a remote computer, or access the API of a TimeTrex Cloud Hosted account, please follow these instructions.
Installation Steps:
Step 2:
- Keep in mind that you will need to have PHP installed on whichever computer you wish to run these tools from.
- Installing PHP on Windows:
- Download PHP for windows here: http://windows.php.net/download
- Once downloaded you will need to extract the PHP files to a directory, such as C:\php\
- Rename the file "C:\php\php.ini-production" to "C:\php\php.ini".
- Edit the newly renamed php.ini file and uncomment the lines by removing the semicolon from the beginning of the line:
;extension=php_curl.dll
;extension=php_openssl.dll
Step 3:
- Extract the TimeTrex_Remote_Tools.zip to C:\timetrex_remote_tools
Step 4:
Register a permanent API key/Session ID, required for all remote tool usage. Follow these steps:
- Login to TimeTrex as the employee that the API calls will be executed as.
- In the blue header bar at the top right, click your profile to expand the Profile menu.
- Select Passwords / Security.
- Click the More (...) button at the top right of the inset page.
- Select "Register API Key".
- Take note of the provided API key/Session ID for use below.
Step 5:
- Once you have PHP installed and the TimeTrex tools extracted you can see a list of arguments for each tool by running the tool with the help flag, here is an example:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\import\import.php --help
Example Usages
Importing Employees
- Before using the import tool we highly recommend going through an import within the TimeTrex application at least once to make it easier to map your import file columns.
- To do this first login to the TimeTrex application then click Company -> Import in the menu along the top of the screen, this will bring up the import wizard which will step you through the import process, be sure to save the map settings on the column mapping step.
- *Warning: If you do go through the entire import wizard on your live installation this will import data into your TimeTrex application.
- Once you have saved the column mapping with the import wizard you will be able to export it to be used with the command line.
- Here is an example of exporting a saved mapping named "Default" with the import type "User":
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\import\import.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -object User -export_map Default C:\Temp\default_employees.map
- You should now be able import employees using newly exported mapping file using a command similar to this:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\import\import.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -object User C:\Temp\default_employees.map C:\temp\data_to_import.csv
- If you want to update existing employees and import new employees in a single operation, use a command similar to this that specifies the "-f update" argument:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\import\import.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -object User -f update C:\Temp\default_employees.map C:\temp\data_to_import.csv
Importing Punches
- Importing punches can be accomplished in a similar way as importing employee records described above. Follow those instructions for exporting a mapping file, then you can import punches with a command similar to this:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\import\import.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -object Punch C:\Temp\punches.map C:\temp\data_to_import.csv
Exporting Reports
- We recommend that you first create a saved report from the TimeTrex application that is customized as needed, then you can simply export that report by name from the command line. Keep in mind saved reports are only accessible by the employee that creates them, so you must use the same username/password when exporting reports.
- If the type of report you saved was a TimeSheet Summary report, with the name "MySavedReport", you would export that report using the follow example:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\export\export_report.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -report TimesheetSummaryReport -saved_report MySavedReport C:\temp\timesheet_summary_report.csv csv
- If you need to filter the report based on a specific start/end date rather than using the relative time period such as "Last Pay Period", see this example:
C:\php\php C:\timetrex_remote_tools\tools\export\export_report.php -server https://demo.timetrex.com/api/json/api.php -api_key YourAPIKeyHere -report TimesheetSummaryReport -saved_report MySavedReport -time_period custom_date -filter start_date=01-Jan-19,end_date=31-Jan-19 C:\temp\timesheet_summary_report.csv csv
If you wish to utilize the API directly to programmatically perform actions within TimeTrex that are not available from the existing tools, please see our API usage examples.
See the following guides for instructions on installing TimeTrex for other operating systems:
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