Invoice Ninja 5 ready for usage

InvoiceNinja 4 is already on Yunhost and usable, see: New app Invoice Ninja

The makers of InvoiceNinja created a completely rewritten version 5 of InvoiceNinja. This app is now available for Yunohost as well: https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh

What works:

  • installation
  • usage
  • migration of data from an existing InvoiceNinja4 installation.

What doesn’t work out of the box (https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh/blob/master/doc/DISCLAIMER.md):

  • sending mails
  • installation into a sub-directory

Please test it and let me know how it works!

2 Likes

How do I upgrade from 4 to 5?
Migration of data HOW?
A short tutorial would be useful and very welcome by invoiceninja users!

You can follow the tutorial from invoiceninja here: Free Source Available Invoicing, Expenses & Time-Tracking | Invoice Ninja

I successfully installed invoiceninja 5 on my ynh. I never used previous versions before, this is my first install.

Apart from the limitation that it must be installed on a subdomain (which I discovered when trying to install it) which requires DNS changes, and a new certificate, the install went on fine.

I encountered two problems, one which is unsolved yet:

  1. It was not easy to understand that there is an existing API_SECRET value (which is asked when logging in but marked as ‘optional’), and it was not easy to find it.
  2. My keyboard inputs do not work correctly… I can use some keys, such as backspace, arrows, number keys of the pad, but I can’t type any letter in the email or password fields. So I must use copy/paste… And the problem persists once logged in in any textfield of the app… But this is probably a browser problem (Firefox 99.0b8) as it works in Chrome…

I saw that the ynh documentation page for the app is empty, I suppose that minimal information here could help.

Thanks for making this app available on ynh !!

And just to clarify to users, v5 is no longer considered fully open source (it’s rather “source available”).

@rndmh3ro I have a question.

I reported the issue about the text input problem I encounter on Firefox on the invoiceninja Github (see here) and they told me to report back if the problem persists with latest version.

Actual version is 5.3.60
Latest is 5.3.79

I am new to yunohost, I don’t know yet how it works about app updates ? who is in charge of that ? is it possible to use a different version from the one of the Yunohost catalog ? etc.

Thanks for your help.

I also have a second question: I tried to use the linux snap invoiceninja app, but I have the following error when trying to log in:

Error: please check that Invoice Ninja v5 is installed on the server

Is there a specific port config or network config that must be correctly set up in order to make the app work ? I have a few port errors (in IPv6 only) when I run a diagnosis.

Yeah, I know… I’d like some better way to mention this. A first way is to use the ynh documentation (thanks for the hint!). I’d also like to display this somewhere prominent after the installation (in a popup or something). I created an issue for this: Add proper documentation to yunohost homepage · Issue #15 · YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh · GitHub

I am new to yunohost, I don’t know yet how it works about app updates ? who is in charge of that ?

I am the main maintainer of the app. But since the app is opensource, anyone can update it. Invoiceninja is quite fast-moving and I only update in my spare time, so any help is welcome!

To update it, one has to:

  1. change the version in manifest.json
  2. change the version in the readme
  3. change the version and the sha256sum in conf.app src.

Then one has to create a PR and let it get tested (and manually test it, too). See an example here: Update to 5.3.60 by rndmh3ro · Pull Request #11 · YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh · GitHub

There are also some Github actions that automate this process and I created an issue to do this for invoiceninja, too: Create Github Action for automatic updates · Issue #14 · YunoHost-Apps/invoiceninja5_ynh · GitHub

Is it possible to use a different version from the one of the Yunohost catalog ? etc.

Yes, if you do the steps above and then install the app from the CLI (or your fork of the repo). But generally it’d be better to share the update.

I also have a second question: I tried to use the linux snap invoiceninja app, but I have the following error when trying to log in:

Error: please check that Invoice Ninja v5 is installed on the server

Is there a specific port config or network config that must be correctly set up in order to make the app work ? I have a few port errors (in IPv6 only) when I run a diagnosis.

IN only listens on http(s), port 443. No other ports necessary. Can you please open a new thread here in the forums with this issue?

And last: thanks for this great feedback!

1 Like

Thanks for the explanations.

I don’t have neither the time neither the knowledge to help on this for at least the next months (sorry). But I will keep it in mind.

Hi @rndmh3ro, I was wondering if you might have also encountered problems with the generation of PDF ?

My Yunohost is on a raspberry 3 board, and I don’t know if this “specific” (and maybe limited ?) environment can be the cause of the problems I encounter.

I configured invoiceninja (in the .env file) to use phantomJS to generate PDFs, but this leads to the generation of PDF without the correct content (thread on Invoiceninja forum)… and there is no information about the error in the logs so I don’t have any lead on what is the problem exactly and how to solve it.

And if I use the default engine (snappdf), it does not work either. In the forum thread link above someone said that:

It looks like the system won’t allow InvoiceNinja to run a cli command to execute the snappdf binary.

Anyway if anyone has some interesting inputs for solving this problem I’m interested. Without pdf generation my install is useless…

Thanks !

Hi, where can you find the API_SECRET value? I have just run into this problem.

My Yunohost is on a raspberry 3 board, and I don’t know if this “specific” (and maybe limited ?) environment can be the cause of the problems I encounter.

I guess it’s probably got to do with the fact that the raspi is an ARM-system where the tools to generate PDFs don’t work. Might be helpful to check if that is the case.

Hi, where can you find the API_SECRET value? I have just run into this problem.

It’s in the configuration file (normally /etc/yunohost/apps/invoiceninja5/settings.yml ). Run the following as root:

grep "api_secret" /etc/yunohost/apps/invoiceninja5/settings.yml | cut -d ":" -f 2

2 Likes

That worked perfectly, thanks so much!

What does that mean?

See Source-available software - Wikipedia

Yes. I was more interested what it means in this concrete case of invoice ninja. The webpage of invoice ninja didn’t give me much insight into it. Is it still possible to use it completely free in open (source) version?

You’ll have to check what their license allows: GitHub - invoiceninja/invoiceninja at v5.8.0

For personal use it should be fine.