Deploy this powerful open-source invoicing system to your data center

3 years ago 305

If you're looking for an open-source invoice strategy to deploy, Jack Wallen believes Invoice Plane mightiness beryllium conscionable the solution to conscionable your needs.

Recently, I realized I was having to enactment excessively hard to invoice each of my assorted clients. I'd been utilizing the aforesaid aged spreadsheets for years, but it was getting a spot excessively cumbersome to woody with. I could person turned to a commercialized level for this, but fixed open-source was my jam, I figured it would beryllium adjacent amended to find a coagulated solution for my on-premise virtual information center. Turns out, there's a rock-solid tool, called Invoice Plane, that's conscionable the ticket.

SEE: Kubernetes: A cheat expanse (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Invoice Plane includes the indispensable features for you to negociate invoices, specified arsenic casual invoicing, lawsuit management, outgo tracking and quotations. It mightiness not person each of the bells and whistles associated with larger, commercialized tools, but of the open-source options I've found, this is (by far) the best.

Let's locomotion done the process of deploying Invoice Plane.

What you'll request

I'll beryllium demonstrating the installation connected Ubuntu Server 20.04, truthful you'll request a running, updated lawsuit of that platform, arsenic good arsenic a idiosyncratic with sudo privileges. That's it, let's install.

How to instal the indispensable dependencies

The archetypal happening we'll bash is instal the indispensable dependencies. Log into your Ubuntu Server and archetypal instal Apache with the command:

sudo apt-get instal apache2 -y

When the installation completes, commencement and alteration Apache with the commands:

sudo systemctl commencement apache2 sudo systemctl alteration apache2

Next, we'll instal MariaDB arsenic our database. This is done with the command:

sudo apt instal mariadb-server mariadb-client -y

Once MariaDB is installed, unafraid it with the command:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Make definite to springiness the database admin idiosyncratic a password and reply Y to the remaining questions.

Now, we tin instal PHP. First, instal a adjuvant bundle with:

sudo apt-get instal software-properties-common -y

Add the PHP repo with:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Update apt:

sudo apt-get update

Finally, instal the required PHP components with the command:

sudo apt-get instal php7.1 libapache2-mod-php7.1 php7.1-common php7.1-mbstring php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-soap php7.1-gd php7.1-xml php7.1-intl php7.1-mysql wget unzip php7.1-cli php7.1-zip php7.1-curl php7.1-mcrypt -y

How to make the database

Time to make a database. Log successful to the MariaDB console with:

sudo mysql

Create the Invoice Plane database and idiosyncratic with the commands:

CREATE DATABASE invoice_plane_db; CREATE USER 'invoiceplane'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';

Grant the indispensable privileges with:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON invoice_plane_db.* TO 'invoiceplane'@'localhost';

Flush the privileges and exit with:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit

How to download and instal Invoice Plane

We are acceptable to download and instal Invoice Plane. The latest mentation is 1.5.11.1 Make definite to cheque the official download page, truthful you're downloading the close version. To download Invoice Plane, contented the command:

wget https://www.invoiceplane.com/download/v1.5.11.1

When the download completes, make a caller directory with the command:

mkdir invoiceplane

Extract the downloaded record with the command:

unzip v1.5.11.1 -d invoiceplane

Move the caller directory into the Apache papers basal with:

sudo mv /invoiceplane /var/www/html/invoiceplane

Change into the caller directory:

cd /var/www/html/invoiceplane

Copy the config and htaccess files with the commands:

sudo cp ipconfig.php.example ipconfig.php sudo cp htaccess .htaccess

Give the directory the close permissions and ownership:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/invoiceplane/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/invoiceplane/

Create the required Apache big record with:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/invoiceplane.conf

In that file, paste the pursuing contents:

<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/invoiceplane ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com <Directory /var/www/html/invoiceplane/> Options +FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require each granted </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>

Save and adjacent the file.

Enable the tract with the pursuing command:

sudo a2ensite invoiceplane.conf

Enable the rewrite module with:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

How to tally the Invoice Plane setup wizard

Open a web browser and constituent it to http://SERVER/invoiceplane/index.php/welcome (where SERVER is the IP code of the hosting server). At this point, you'll locomotion done a precise elemental GUI to implicit the installation. The steps successful the wizard are:

Choose a Language
Prerequisite check
Database details (Figure A)
Create User Account

Figure A

When configuring the database details, you'll use:

Hostname—localhost
Port—3306
Username—invoiceplane
Password—the password you acceptable successful the MariaDB console for PASSWORD
Database—invoice_plane_db

After you've created the idiosyncratic account, you'll beryllium presented with the Login screen. Upon palmy authentication, you'll find yourself connected the Invoice Plane main model (Figure B), wherever you tin commencement mounting up clients and creating invoices.

Figure B

Congratulations, you present person an easy-to-use invoicing strategy moving successful your on-premise information center. Hopefully, this volition beryllium a large betterment implicit your aged spreadsheet method.

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