doc/README



                LedgerSMB Small Medium Business Accounting
                     Version 1.1


DESCRIPTION:
------------
LedgerSMB is a double-entry accounting system written
in perl. It has been tested with PostgreSQL, Apache,
Netscape, Mozilla, Galeon, Explorer, Links, Lynx,
Konqueror, Voyager, W3M and Opera clients on Linux,
FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows, Mac computers and PDA's.

Data is stored in a SQL database server, either locally or
remote, the display is through a text or GUI web browser.
The system is linked by a chart of accounts.  All transactions
for AR, AP and GL are stored in a transaction table. Hyper-links
from the chart of accounts let you view transactions posted
through AR, AP and GL.

Configuration files let you specify to which SQL database server
to connect to, personal preferences such as company name,
language, number and date format, etc.

With the admin script you can create, edit or delete users,
create and delete datasets and set up the Chart of Accounts
and templates needed for the system.

You can have a group of users using the same dataset and
templates for generating Invoices, Income Statements and
Balance Sheets or a different set altogether.

Templates are supplied in html, text and tex format to
generate most of the forms. Forms can be printed to screen,
sent to a printer or e-mailed.


COPYRIGHT:
----------
Licensed under the terms of the GPL.


LATEST VERSION:
---------------
available from http://www.ledgersmb.org/


PLATFORMS:
----------
Non specific, see requirements.


REQUIREMENTS:
-------------
1 - Perl, 5+
2 - http server (Apache, NCSA, httpi, thttpd, ...)
3 - SQL Server (PostgreSQL 8.0+)
4 - DBD (DBD-Pg)
5 - DBI
6 - LaTeX (optional)


FOREIGN LANGUAGE SUPPORT:
-------------------------
28 languages are supported. Language files are
ordinary text files, no special software is
needed to change or add new translations.

Some of the translation files are not 100% complete.
If strings are missing, English is used instead.


INSTALLATION 
------------------------------
unpack the tar.gz file in /usr/local

  tar xzvf ledger-smb-2.6.x.tar.gz

you should now have everything in /usr/local/ledger-smb

rename ledger-smb.conf.default to ledger-smb.conf

edit ledger-smb.conf

create a file ledger-smb-httpd.conf in the same location
where your httpd.conf is and copy the next section into the file

  Alias /ledger-smb /usr/local/ledger-smb/
  <Directory /usr/local/ledger-smb>
    AllowOverride All
    AddHandler cgi-script .pl
    AddDefaultCharset On
    Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymlinks
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from All
  </Directory>

  <Directory /usr/local/ledger-smb/users>
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from All
  </Directory>

edit httpd.conf and add

  # LedgerSMB
  Include /config_directory/ledger-smb-httpd.conf

Note: use an absolute or relative path to include
the configuration in your httpd.conf file.

i.e. /etc/httpd/ledger-smb-httpd.conf
     etc/apache2/ledger-smb-httpd.conf
     
restart your web server.


Note: /usr/local/ledger-smb is only a suggested
path, you can install in any directory.

Some versions of Apache 2.0 use a conf directory for
configuration files. If this is the case copy
ledger-smb-httpd.conf into this directory and leave
httpd.conf as is.


SET PERMISSION:
---------------
change directory to /usr/local/ledger-smb

# chown -hR nobody:nogroup users templates css spool

replace nobody:nogroup with the web server user and group.
Some systems use apache:apache, www, www-data, ...


FTP INSTALLATION:
-----------------
If you do not have access to the server's configuration
files install LedgerSMB in userspace by ftp'ing all the
files to your server.

a) untar ledger-smb in your private_html directory
b) turn on script execution for the folder ledger-smb
You can control this with an .htaccess file

  Options +ExecCGI
  DirectoryIndex login.pl

c) protect the users directory with an .htpasswd file

AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Unauthorized"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/host.domain/private_html/ledger-smb/users/.htpasswd
require valid-user

d) protect the templates directory with an .htpasswd file

AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Templates"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/host.domain/private_html/ledger-smb/templates/.htpasswd
require valid-user

e) set up your PostgreSQL database and the tables.

You will most likely only have access to PostgreSQL with
some other tools like pgadmin.

1) create a database user or use an assigned database user
2) create a blank database or use one which was created for you
3) load your web browser and connect to
http://host.domain.com/private_html/ledger-smb/admin.pl
to create the tables.

There is no password so just hit the Enter key or click
on "Continue".

Select the "Database Administration" link

Host [database host]               Port [      ]
User [database user]           Password [for your database]
Connect to [your database]

click on "Create Dataset"

The next screen is for choosing a Chart of Accounts

Create Dataset [your database]
Multibyte Encoding [                 ]

Select a chart of accounts and click on "Continue".

Your tables will now be created and the chart of accounts
will be loaded.

Go to the next step, "SET UP A USER"


PREPARE YOUR SQL DATABASE SERVER:
---------------------------------

  PostgreSQL:
  -----------
  add one database user with create database privileges
  to manage the datasets and tables for LedgerSMB
  
  # su postgres
  $ createuser -d ledger-smb
  Shall the new user be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y
  Shall the new user be allowed to create more new users? (y/n) n
  
  if you use passwords to access postgres use this command
  $ createuser -d -P ledger-smb

  Install PL/PGSQL in template1 if it has not been installed yet

  # su postgres
  $ createlang plpgsql template1
  
  
SET UP A DATABASE AND TABLES:
-----------------------------
Load your web browser and connect to
http://localhost/ledger-smb/admin.pl

Select the "Database Administration" link,
enter the user you created in the previous step.

The "Create Dataset" link queries the server
for existing datasets and displays them in a
table. Enter a name for the new dataset (use
lowercase letters only!) and select one of the
Chart of Accounts and click on Continue.

You cannot manage any other datasets from this
interface, only the datasets used by LedgerSMB

POSTGRESQL: template1 is only used to query
the server, none of the information stored
in template1 is manipulated in any way.
You can connect to any other database you
own, template1 is only a default.


SET UP A USER:
-------------
Load your web browser and connect to
http://localhost/ledger-smb/admin.pl

Click on "Add User". In the Database
section select the driver and enter
the user you used to create the dataset.


LOAD THE ACCOUNTING PROGRAM:
----------------------------
Load your web browser and connect to
http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl


UPGRADING TO A NEWER VERSION:
-----------------------------
1. load admin.pl and lock the system
2. untar the new version over top
3. check the doc directory for specific notes
4. load admin.pl and unlock the system
5. log in

NOTE: datasets are upgraded when you log in for
the first time. During the upgrade process the
dataset is locked so nobody can do any work.
If an error occurs the system will remain locked.
Track down the error, fix it, load admin.pl,
unlock the system and log in again.


UPGRADING WITH setup.pl:
------------------------
run setup.pl from the command line and follow the prompts.


INSTALLATION CHECKLIST:
-----------------------
1. untar LedgerSMB somewhere (i.e /usr/local, /opt)
2. change permission for the users, templates, css and spool directory
3. edit httpd.conf
4. edit ledger-smb.conf
5. add the database user ledger-smb
6. load admin.pl
7. create datasets for companies
8. add users

   In the Database section enter
   
   a) PostgreSQL
   
      Host:     for local connections leave blank
      Dataset:  the dataset created in step 7
      Port:     for local connections leave blank
      User:     ledger-smb
      Password: password for ledger-smb


IF SOMETHING DOESN'T WORK:
--------------------------
There is a FAQ in the doc directory.

There are also several mailing lists at
http://www.ledgersmb.org/
where you can seek free help.

For commercial support see http://www.ledgersmb.org/

=====================================================================
September 24, 2006