Crater is a free and open-source invoicing software built on the Laravel PHP framework. It is designed for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Here are some of Crater’s key features:

• Create and send invoices to clients.
• Generate estimates and proposals.
• Monitor payments and transactions.
• Record and track expenses.
• Generate billing reports.
• Configure tax settings.
• Access mobile applications for Android and iOS.

This guide provides the steps to install Crater on a Debian 11/Ubuntu 20.04 system with the following specifications:

• Web Server: Apache
• PHP: 7.4
• Database: MariaDB 10.3
• Subdomain: crater.maheshpalamuttath.info
• SSL: Let’s Encrypt
• Crater: v5.0.6

Installing the LAMP Stack

Install the required packages using the following command:

sudo apt install -y apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php php-common php-bcmath php-mbstring php-mysql php-tokenizer php-zip php-curl

Secure MariaDB Installation

Strengthen the security of your MariaDB installation:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Restart Apache

Restart the Apache web server to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Download and Prepare Crater

1. Download Crater from the official website: craterapp.com/downloads.

   sudo wget https://craterapp.com/downloads/file/5.0.6 -O crater.zip

2. Extract the downloaded zip file:

   sudo apt install unzip -y && sudo unzip crater.zip

3. Move the extracted folder to the web root directory:

   sudo mv crater /var/www/html/

4. Adjust ownership and permissions for the necessary directories:

   1 2 3 4

   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/crater/ sudo chmod 775 /var/www/html/crater/storage/framework sudo chmod 775 /var/www/html/crater/storage/logs sudo chmod 775 /var/www/html/crater/bootstrap/cache

Set up the Virtual Host

1. Create a virtual host configuration file:

   sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/crater.conf

2. Paste the following virtual host configuration into the file:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7

   ServerName crater.maheshpalamuttath.info         DocumentRoot /var/www/html/crater/public         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews         AllowOverride All         Require all granted     ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/crater_error.log     CustomLog /var/log/apache2/crate_access.log combined

3. Enable necessary modules, activate the virtual host, and reload/restart Apache:

   1 2 3

   sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2ensite crater.maheshpalamuttath.info sudo systemctl reload apache2 && sudo systemctl restart apache2

Secure the Site with SSL

1. Install Certbot:

   sudo apt install python3-certbot-apache -y

2. Acquire and install an SSL certificate:

   sudo certbot --non-interactive -m mail@maheshpalamuttath.info --agree-tos --no-eff-email --apache -d crater.maheshpalamuttath.info --redirect

Create the Database

1. Access the MySQL shell:

   sudo mysql

2. Create a database and user for Crater:

   1 2 3 4 5

   create database crater; create user 'crater'@'localhost' identified by 'crater123'; grant all privileges on crater.* to 'crater'@'localhost'; flush privileges; exit

Run the Installation Wizard

1. Open your web browser and go to the subdomain (e.g., crater.maheshpalamuttath.info) you configured earlier.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to finalize the Crater installation.

Reference: https://maheshpalamuttath.info/index.php/2022/01/16/an-open-source-invoicing-application-for-freelancers-smbs/