Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business, you may find this app useful. It’s designed from the ground up for ease of use to allow business owners to create and manage their business invoices and expenses. If you’re looking for a robust, secure, and easy-to-use invoicing and time-tracking system with a multi-language interface, you may want to give Invoice a try. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Invoice Plane on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 with Apache2, MariaDB, and PHP 7.1 support. To get started with installing Invoice Plane, follow the steps below:

Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it, since Invoice Plane needs it. To install Apache2 HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below. After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots. To test the Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see the Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.

Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with Magento. To install MariaDB run the commands below. After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Run these on Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10 LTS After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to the MariaDB server Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

PHP 7.1 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories. Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.1 Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.1 Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules. After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Apache2. Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is great setting to apply in your environments. After making the change above, save the file and close. After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Apache2 to reload PHP configurations. To restart Apache2, run the commands below To test PHP 7.1 settings with Apache2, create a phpinfo.php file in the Apache2 root directory by running the commands below Then type the content below and save the file. Save the file. then browse to your server hostname followed by /phpinfo.php You should see the PHP default test page.

Create Invoice Plane Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Invoice Plane to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Magento database. To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below. Then create a database called invoiceplane Create a database user called invoicepleneuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit.

Download Invoice Plane Latest Release

To get Invoice Plane’s latest release you may want to use the GitHub repository. Install Composer, Curl and other dependencies to get started. After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Apache2 root directory and download Invoice Plane packages from Github. After that, run the commands below to create InvoicePlane’s ipconfig file. Change the URL for the portal. by running the commands below to open its config file. Then make the URL change as shown below and save the file. Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Invoice Plane to function.

Configure Apache2

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Invoice Plane. This file will control how users access Invoice Plane content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called invoiceplane. conf Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit.

Enable the Invoice Plane and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below. Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the Invoice Plane setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully. Then follow the on-screen instructions. you will be asked to input your database configuration, administrative details, and other configuration settings. When complete you may sign in and start using Invoice Plane. Return to http://example.com/index.php/sessions/login anytime thereafter to sign in. Enjoy! Congratulation! You have successfully installed Invoice Plane on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and may work on the upcoming 18.10. If you want to secure your installation, you may disable the setup for now. To do so, replace the line DISABLE_SETUP=false with DISABLE_SETUP=true in your ipconfig.php file. You may also like the post below: