Install InvoiceNinja on Shared Hosting-v5

[khat17]

So I’m creating a new post to move forward. Would also like to drag in @apocalips as a question was asked about v5 in one of the previous posts.

Install InvoiceNinja on HostGator (Shared)

Hi I have same issue Hosting Hostgator InvoiceNinja v5.0.13 PHP Version 7.2.32 Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@maisait .com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error erro…

AFAIK - once your hosting company supports proc_open it should be a simply extract/upload/setup operation. That’s what I’ve gotten so far from discussions in this thread. Did you get this resolved?

EDIT1
Since I think I’ve gotten the v4 sorted totally (no issues so far) I’m currently creating new v4 and v5 directories on my web server to assist with documenting the process.

I’ll try to do full setups from scratch and add screenshots to my site. I’m still hopeful that we can get v5 installed without proc_open being available - but waiting on something to test.

EDIT2
So…Seems I’m at a dead end and proc_open is absolutely required.

[2021-06-06 12:28:15] production.INFO: The Process class relies on proc_open, which is not available on your PHP installation.

What I did was create a new database entirely and redo the upload from scratch. What it does is go right back to the setup page and the laravel.log under /ninja3/storage/logs shows the quoted info above.

So unless someone gives something to try - I’m going to check around for other hosting companies that may fit the bill.

[Ntandoyenkosi]

There’s really no play/work around for the proc_open thing huh?

[hillel]

Sorry, not that I’m aware of

[onio]

Hi @khat17 , thanks for all the work putted in testing. Thanks for your guide on V4 i was able to setup mine.

Also thanks to all the team at InvoiceNinja for the continuous update on the app.

I was on the fence about going thru all the husttle of update my V4 to then try the v5 Migration but reading all you the work you did seems we are in the same boat.

Thinking about it gave me 2 ideas.

The proc_open when is needed?
*Normal operation
*Just Updating/Migration/installing process

on the provider page about php_modules finded this small letter.

-VPS and Dedicated servers are less restrictive when requesting/applying modules.-

Maybe if the proc_open is only needed for the migration/update/install process we can ask the provider for a vps or dedicated server to do the update/migration process then export the database and do a clean install then import the backup from the VPS/DedicServer.

The other option i was thinking was doing all the process in a personal VM machine like this.

-ExportDatabase and Settings from current V4Shared.

• Install new VMServer V4 , import database and settings from V4Shared.
  -Install new VMServer V5, import database and settings from V4 VM or V4Shared?.
  -Export Database and Settings from VMServer V5.
  -Install new V5Shared, import database and settings from V5VMServer.

If this workaround works, maybe for future update we only need to do the last 3 steps but only using V5. So we can have around a VMServer on version sync with V5Shared to just do updates.

Maybe someone with knowledge about local server and V4 to V5 migration can shine a light here.

Greetings

[khat17]

This is an interesting proposition. I’m willing to try, but I only see this working if it’s a few files that can be copied over. Maybe if just the ENV file is needed, the database can be imported to the hosting provider and the ENV edited to point to the new DB.

[Peter]

Hi There:)
I’m facing a similar issue after installing Release v5.2.1 on my shared hosting (hostinger)
They currently offer support for v4xx from the auto install panel. I managed to update my v4 to the latest v4.5.40 in order to get ready to migrate to v5.2.1
I installed invoice ninja 5.2.1 in a subfolder, I changed the info in .env in order to connect to a new DB. When I pont the url to domain/invoiceninja5/ I get 404. Same situation if I point the url to domain/invoiceninja5/public.
According to the documentation, if I install in a subfolder I should change a rewrite rule on .htaccess. It should be updated to RewriteRule ^(.*)$ invoiceninja5/public/$1 [L]
If I apply that change, then I get error 500. I managed to create all the cronjobs described in the ducumentation, but I still facing the same errors.
What surprise me is that if I point the url to domain/invoiceninja5/public/index.php#/ I can log in and use the new version of invoice ninja. I haven’t tried migrating from v4 yet. Any idea why I’m getting error 400???
is it really because my shared hosting doesn’t support proc_open

This is all what I have in my laravel log
cat laravel.log
[2021-06-12 06:17:00] production.INFO: db fails
[2021-06-12 06:50:25] production.INFO: latest version = 5.2.1

[david]

@Peter

It sounds like you just need to get the rewrites working correctly.

The system may work without proc_open, I think the self updater needs it.

If you have Softaculous, you can use their one click installer to install Invoice Ninja.

[Peter]

Hi David, thanks for your reply.
My webhosting is not using Cpanel. I have something called Hpanel and something similar to softaculus. However, they only offer invoice ninja 4.5.xx from the auto install option. I did play around with rewrites rules, but I couldn’t make it work and the support people are helpless at the moment.
I managed to install the same version 5.2.1 on my local machine (Ubuntu 20.04 running apache2) and I didn;t have any issues.
I used https://htaccess.madewithlove.be/ to check what .htaccess rules are up to and I discovered that they are getting the redirection wrong.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L] is giving this output
The new url is domain/public/invoiceninja5/
The tests are stopped because of the L in your RewriteRule options.
I’ll keep digging to make this work.

[UPDATE]
I did change the rewite rule to RewriteRule ^(.*)$ invoiceninja5/public/ [L] and I got the right URL like domain/invoiceninja5/public/ but this time I got a 404 page from the hosting instead invoice ninja

If I pont the url to domain/invoiceninja5/public/ I get a 404 from invoice ninja app

[sunshine]

Hey there, we can get more verbose log entries in storage/logs/laravel.log if we add a few lines of code to the file app/Utils/SystemHealth.php. Whenever an exception occurs, we make sure some output is printed to the log file by adding info($e->getMessage());. So for example, function simpleDbCheck() would then look like this:

private static function simpleDbCheck(): bool
{
    $result = true;

    try {
        $pdo = DB::connection()->getPdo();
        $result = true;
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        info($e->getMessage());
        $result = false;
    }

    return $result;
}

[khat17]

Hi all. So after moving providers I can finally do the upgrade. The export option is right there - working on that as we speak. Let’s see how painless it is.

• Update your V4 to the latest version (I used 4.5.50).
• Setup V5 to a DIFFERENT directory.
• Use a different SQL database.
• Ensure credentials are the same as V4.
• Don’t setup 2FA or anything else (for now).
• On completion - log in to V4.
• Go to SETTINGS/ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT.
• Scroll down to the migration option. Click START MIGRATION.
• Select “Self Hosted” on the next page.
• Enter the FULL URL including the /public. So https://mysite.com/ninja/public then hit CONTINUE.
• Sit back and wait. May take a while depending on your site.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’m sitting and waiting. Once it’s done though - it should be up and running. The only thing I’m wondering about is this…

Let’s say the original site on V4 was mysite.com/ninja/public - if I set up V5 on mysite.com/invoice/public - once I’m done with the migration and everything is working - how do I move V5 from /invoice to /ninja in keeping with the previous naming? What DB settings or files will I need to change to point to the correct directory?

Standing by for any help with that. Once we get that part sorted - I’ll post information with full photos on my blog or wiki (or both) so persons can reference it.

EDIT
Well. That was actually it. Got an email on completion and confirmed that everything is there. Easy enough once the web hosting provider supports V5. Now just waiting on info on how to get information pointed to /ninja.

The idea I have is to reinstall to /ninja and copy the .env from the /invoice directory there. I guess that’s one option. Is there a cleaner way to get it done?

EDIT2
I may leave the link as is with /invoice - but (for science!) would like to know if the method I suggested would work - or if there’s an easier way to get it done.

[hillel]

In addition to renaming the folder you’d also need to update the APP_URL value in the .env file.

Note: if you leave v4 up with different URLs you can forward the v4 links to v5.

[khat17]

Will definitely check this out if needs be in future. I’ve already started using the new V5 and I’m trying to catch up to some outstanding stuff. But - as usual - many thanks for the fast response @hillel and keep up the good work!