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  1.                 LedgerSMB Small Medium Business Accounting
  2. Version 1.1
  3. DESCRIPTION:
  4. ------------
  5. LedgerSMB is a double-entry accounting system written
  6. in perl. It has been tested with PostgreSQL, Apache,
  7. Netscape, Mozilla, Galeon, Explorer, Links, Lynx,
  8. Konqueror, Voyager, W3M and Opera clients on Linux,
  9. FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows, Mac computers and PDA's.
  10. Data is stored in a SQL database server, either locally or
  11. remote, the display is through a text or GUI web browser.
  12. The system is linked by a chart of accounts. All transactions
  13. for AR, AP and GL are stored in a transaction table. Hyper-links
  14. from the chart of accounts let you view transactions posted
  15. through AR, AP and GL.
  16. Configuration files let you specify to which SQL database server
  17. to connect to, personal preferences such as company name,
  18. language, number and date format, etc.
  19. With the admin script you can create, edit or delete users,
  20. create and delete datasets and set up the Chart of Accounts
  21. and templates needed for the system.
  22. You can have a group of users using the same dataset and
  23. templates for generating Invoices, Income Statements and
  24. Balance Sheets or a different set altogether.
  25. Templates are supplied in html, text and tex format to
  26. generate most of the forms. Forms can be printed to screen,
  27. sent to a printer or e-mailed.
  28. COPYRIGHT:
  29. ----------
  30. Licensed under the terms of the GPL.
  31. LATEST VERSION:
  32. ---------------
  33. available from http://www.ledgersmb.org/
  34. PLATFORMS:
  35. ----------
  36. Non specific, see requirements.
  37. REQUIREMENTS:
  38. -------------
  39. 1 - Perl, 5+
  40. 2 - http server (Apache, NCSA, httpi, thttpd, ...)
  41. 3 - SQL Server (PostgreSQL 8.0+)
  42. 4 - DBD (DBD-Pg)
  43. 5 - DBI
  44. 6 - LaTeX (optional)
  45. FOREIGN LANGUAGE SUPPORT:
  46. -------------------------
  47. 28 languages are supported. Language files are
  48. ordinary text files, no special software is
  49. needed to change or add new translations.
  50. Some of the translation files are not 100% complete.
  51. If strings are missing, English is used instead.
  52. INSTALLATION
  53. ------------------------------
  54. unpack the tar.gz file in /usr/local
  55. tar xzvf ledger-smb-2.6.x.tar.gz
  56. you should now have everything in /usr/local/ledger-smb
  57. rename ledger-smb.conf.default to ledger-smb.conf
  58. edit ledger-smb.conf
  59. create a file ledger-smb-httpd.conf in the same location
  60. where your httpd.conf is and copy the next section into the file
  61. Alias /ledger-smb /usr/local/ledger-smb/
  62. <Directory /usr/local/ledger-smb>
  63. AllowOverride All
  64. AddHandler cgi-script .pl
  65. AddDefaultCharset On
  66. Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymlinks
  67. Order Allow,Deny
  68. Allow from All
  69. </Directory>
  70. <Directory /usr/local/ledger-smb/users>
  71. Order Deny,Allow
  72. Deny from All
  73. </Directory>
  74. edit httpd.conf and add
  75. # LedgerSMB
  76. Include /config_directory/ledger-smb-httpd.conf
  77. Note: use an absolute or relative path to include
  78. the configuration in your httpd.conf file.
  79. i.e. /etc/httpd/ledger-smb-httpd.conf
  80. etc/apache2/ledger-smb-httpd.conf
  81. restart your web server.
  82. Note: /usr/local/ledger-smb is only a suggested
  83. path, you can install in any directory.
  84. Some versions of Apache 2.0 use a conf directory for
  85. configuration files. If this is the case copy
  86. ledger-smb-httpd.conf into this directory and leave
  87. httpd.conf as is.
  88. SET PERMISSION:
  89. ---------------
  90. change directory to /usr/local/ledger-smb
  91. # chown -hR nobody:nogroup users templates css spool
  92. replace nobody:nogroup with the web server user and group.
  93. Some systems use apache:apache, www, www-data, ...
  94. FTP INSTALLATION:
  95. -----------------
  96. If you do not have access to the server's configuration
  97. files install LedgerSMB in userspace by ftp'ing all the
  98. files to your server.
  99. a) untar ledger-smb in your private_html directory
  100. b) turn on script execution for the folder ledger-smb
  101. You can control this with an .htaccess file
  102. Options +ExecCGI
  103. DirectoryIndex login.pl
  104. c) protect the users directory with an .htpasswd file
  105. AuthGroupFile /dev/null
  106. AuthName "Unauthorized"
  107. AuthType Basic
  108. AuthUserFile /home/host.domain/private_html/ledger-smb/users/.htpasswd
  109. require valid-user
  110. d) protect the templates directory with an .htpasswd file
  111. AuthGroupFile /dev/null
  112. AuthName "Templates"
  113. AuthType Basic
  114. AuthUserFile /home/host.domain/private_html/ledger-smb/templates/.htpasswd
  115. require valid-user
  116. e) set up your PostgreSQL database and the tables.
  117. You will most likely only have access to PostgreSQL with
  118. some other tools like pgadmin.
  119. 1) create a database user or use an assigned database user
  120. 2) create a blank database or use one which was created for you
  121. 3) load your web browser and connect to
  122. http://host.domain.com/private_html/ledger-smb/admin.pl
  123. to create the tables.
  124. There is no password so just hit the Enter key or click
  125. on "Continue".
  126. Select the "Database Administration" link
  127. Host [database host] Port [ ]
  128. User [database user] Password [for your database]
  129. Connect to [your database]
  130. click on "Create Dataset"
  131. The next screen is for choosing a Chart of Accounts
  132. Create Dataset [your database]
  133. Multibyte Encoding [ ]
  134. Select a chart of accounts and click on "Continue".
  135. Your tables will now be created and the chart of accounts
  136. will be loaded.
  137. Go to the next step, "SET UP A USER"
  138. PREPARE YOUR SQL DATABASE SERVER:
  139. ---------------------------------
  140. PostgreSQL:
  141. -----------
  142. add one database user with create database privileges
  143. to manage the datasets and tables for LedgerSMB
  144. # su postgres
  145. $ createuser -d ledger-smb
  146. Shall the new user be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y
  147. Shall the new user be allowed to create more new users? (y/n) n
  148. if you use passwords to access postgres use this command
  149. $ createuser -d -P ledger-smb
  150. Install PL/PGSQL in template1 if it has not been installed yet
  151. # su postgres
  152. $ createlang plpgsql template1
  153. SET UP A DATABASE AND TABLES:
  154. -----------------------------
  155. Load your web browser and connect to
  156. http://localhost/ledger-smb/admin.pl
  157. Select the "Database Administration" link,
  158. enter the user you created in the previous step.
  159. The "Create Dataset" link queries the server
  160. for existing datasets and displays them in a
  161. table. Enter a name for the new dataset (use
  162. lowercase letters only!) and select one of the
  163. Chart of Accounts and click on Continue.
  164. You cannot manage any other datasets from this
  165. interface, only the datasets used by LedgerSMB
  166. POSTGRESQL: template1 is only used to query
  167. the server, none of the information stored
  168. in template1 is manipulated in any way.
  169. You can connect to any other database you
  170. own, template1 is only a default.
  171. SET UP A USER:
  172. -------------
  173. Load your web browser and connect to
  174. http://localhost/ledger-smb/admin.pl
  175. Click on "Add User". In the Database
  176. section select the driver and enter
  177. the user you used to create the dataset.
  178. LOAD THE ACCOUNTING PROGRAM:
  179. ----------------------------
  180. Load your web browser and connect to
  181. http://localhost/ledger-smb/login.pl
  182. UPGRADING TO A NEWER VERSION:
  183. -----------------------------
  184. 1. load admin.pl and lock the system
  185. 2. untar the new version over top
  186. 3. check the doc directory for specific notes
  187. 4. load admin.pl and unlock the system
  188. 5. log in
  189. NOTE: datasets are upgraded when you log in for
  190. the first time. During the upgrade process the
  191. dataset is locked so nobody can do any work.
  192. If an error occurs the system will remain locked.
  193. Track down the error, fix it, load admin.pl,
  194. unlock the system and log in again.
  195. UPGRADING WITH setup.pl:
  196. ------------------------
  197. run setup.pl from the command line and follow the prompts.
  198. INSTALLATION CHECKLIST:
  199. -----------------------
  200. 1. untar LedgerSMB somewhere (i.e /usr/local, /opt)
  201. 2. change permission for the users, templates, css and spool directory
  202. 3. edit httpd.conf
  203. 4. edit ledger-smb.conf
  204. 5. add the database user ledger-smb
  205. 6. load admin.pl
  206. 7. create datasets for companies
  207. 8. add users
  208. In the Database section enter
  209. a) PostgreSQL
  210. Host: for local connections leave blank
  211. Dataset: the dataset created in step 7
  212. Port: for local connections leave blank
  213. User: ledger-smb
  214. Password: password for ledger-smb
  215. IF SOMETHING DOESN'T WORK:
  216. --------------------------
  217. There is a FAQ in the doc directory.
  218. There are also several mailing lists at
  219. http://www.ledgersmb.org/
  220. where you can seek free help.
  221. For commercial support see http://www.ledgersmb.org/
  222. =====================================================================
  223. September 24, 2006