How to Install InvoicePlane on Debian 9

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InvoicePlane is a free and open source invoicing application. Its source code can be found on this Github repository. This guide will show you how to install InvoicePlane on a fresh Debian 9 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• Nginx
• MySQL version 5.5 or greater, or the equivalent version of MariaDB. This article will use MariaDB
• PHP version 7.0 or greater

• The following PHP extensions must be installed and activated:

  • php-gd
  • php-hash
  • php-json
  • php-mbstring
  • php-mcrypt
  • php-mysqli
  • php-openssl
  • php-recode
  • php-xmlrpc
  • php-zlib

Before you begin

Check the Debian version.

lsb_release -ds
# Debian GNU/Linux 9.4 (stretch)

Ensure that your system is up to date.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install sudo, build-essential and unzip packages.

apt install -y sudo build-essential unzip

Create a new non-root user account with sudo access and switch to it.

adduser johndoe --gecos "John Doe"
usermod -aG sudo johndoe
su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Install PHP and required PHP extensions

Install PHP and necessary PHP extensions.

sudo apt install -y php7.0 php7.0-cli php7.0-fpm php7.0-gd php7.0-json php7.0-mbstring php7.0-mcrypt php7.0-mysql php7.0-xmlrpc php7.0-common php7.0-recode

Check the version.

php -v

Install MariaDB

Install MariaDB.

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server

Check the version.

mysql --version

Run the mysql_secure installation script to improve MariaDB security.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Connect to the MariaDB shell as the root user.

sudo mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:

Create an empty MariaDB database and user for InvoicePlane, and remember the credentials.

CREATE DATABASE dbname;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit MariaDB.

exit

Install Nginx

Install Nginx.

sudo apt install -y nginx

Check the version.

sudo nginx -v

Configure Nginx for InvoicePlane. Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/invoiceplane.conf and populate the file with the following configuration.

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;

  server_name example.com;

  root /var/www/invoiceplane;

  index index.php index.html;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    try_files $uri =404;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
  }
}

Activate the new invoiceplane.conf configuration by linking the file to the sites-enabled directory.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/invoiceplane.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo systemctl reload nginx.service

Install InvoicePlane

Download the latest stable version of InvoicePlane and extract the archive.

cd /var/www/
sudo curl -O -J -L https://invoiceplane.com/download/v1.5.9
sudo unzip v1.5.9.zip
sudo rm v1.5.9.zip
sudo mv ip invoiceplane

Navigate to the /var/www/invoiceplane folder.

cd /var/www/invoiceplane

Make a copy of the ipconfig.php.example file and rename the copy ipconfig.php.

sudo cp ipconfig.php.example ipconfig.php

Open the ipconfig.php file and add your URL to it.

sudo vim ipconfig.php
# Something like this
IP_URL=http://example.com

NOTE: Don't forget to replace the http://example.com URL with your own URL.

Change ownership of the /var/www/invoiceplane directory to www-data.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/invoiceplane

Run the InvoicePlane installer from your web browser and follow the instructions.

http://your-domain.com/index.php/setup

Once the installation has finished, you may log into InvoicePlane using the email address and password you have chosen during the installation.

If you want to secure your installation, you may disable the setup. To do so, replace the line DISABLE_SETUP=false with DISABLE_SETUP=true in your ipconfig.php file.