How to Install InvoicePlane on FreeBSD 12

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 FreeBSD 12 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• Nginx
• MySQL version 5.5 or greater or MariaDB equivalent
• 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 FreeBSD version.

uname -ro
# FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE

Ensure that your FreeBSD system is up to date.

freebsd-update fetch install
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

Install the necessary packages.

pkg install -y sudo vim unzip curl wget bash socat git

Create a new user account with your preferred username. We will use johndoe.

adduser

# Username: johndoe
# Full name: John Doe
# Uid (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Login group [johndoe]: <Enter>
# Login group is johndoe. Invite johndoe into other groups? []: wheel
# Login class [default]: <Enter>
# Shell (sh csh tcsh nologin) [sh]: bash
# Home directory [/home/johndoe]: <Enter>
# Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Use password-based authentication? [yes]: <Enter>
# Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Enter password: your_secure_password
# Enter password again: your_secure_password
# Lock out the account after creation? [no]: <Enter>
# OK? (yes/no): yes
# Add another user? (yes/no): no
# Goodbye!

Run the visudo command and uncomment the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line, to allow members of the wheel group to execute any command.

visudo

# Uncomment by removing hash (#) sign
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now, switch to your newly created user with su.

su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo tzsetup

Install PHP and required PHP extensions

Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions.

sudo pkg install -y php72 php72-mbstring php72-tokenizer php72-pdo php72-pdo_mysql php72-openssl php72-hash php72-json php72-phar php72-filter php72-zlib php72-dom php72-xml php72-xmlwriter php72-xmlreader php72-pecl-imagick php72-curl php72-session php72-ctype php72-iconv php72-gd php72-simplexml php72-zip php72-filter php72-tokenizer php72-calendar php72-fileinfo php72-intl php72-phar php72-soap php72-xmlrpc php72-opcache php72-mysqli php72-bcmath php72-gmp

Check the version.

php --version

# PHP 7.2.19 (cli) (built: Jun 20 2019 01:25:01) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

Soft-link php.ini-production to php.ini.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Enable and start PHP-FPM.

sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=yes
sudo service php-fpm start

Install MariaDB

Install MariaDB.

sudo pkg install -y mariadb102-client mariadb102-server

Check the version.

mysql --version
# mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.2.24-MariaDB, for FreeBSD12.0 (amd64) using readline 5.1

Start and enable MariaDB.

sudo sysrc mysql_enable="yes" 
sudo service mysql-server start

Run the mysql_secure_installation script to improve the security of your MariaDB installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Log into MariaDB as the root user.

mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:

Create a new MariaDB database and user. Remember the credentials for this new user.

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

Install Nginx

Install Nginx.

sudo pkg install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.16.0

Enable and start Nginx.

sudo sysrc nginx_enable=yes
sudo service nginx start

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/invoiceplane.conf and set up Nginx for InvoicePlane.

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

  server_name example.com;

  root /usr/local/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 127.0.0.1:9000;
  }
}

Save the file and exit.

Now we need to include invoiceplane.conf in the main nginx.conf file.

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line to the http {} block.

include invoiceplane.conf;

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo service nginx reload

Install InvoicePlane

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

cd /usr/local/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 /usr/local/www/invoiceplane folder.

cd /usr/local/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 /usr/local/www/invoiceplane directory to www.

sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/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.