ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution
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@chrishthompson Yes, totally agree. I tried several ERPs and this one really made me almost teary. Such a rich-featured ERP and they decided to make it open source.
It's a high quality made ERP. It has integration with WordPress and n8n.
Really wish it would be in Cloudron soon.
At the moment, I'm paying for a separate server just to deploy ERPnext. But it would lovely to have it in my Cloudron along with other apps I have here.
Cloudron team, please consider bringing it here
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@girish Any chance you will be able to have a look at their official package? I deployed their docker image for production in DO: https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
— and it works like a charm.
Why I think ERPnext is a very beautiful project: Open-source at heart, with good developers behind it, highly supportive and very community-driven project. The project has been going on for almost a decade now. -
@aizat I second this, would lvoe to see it on cloudron!
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Are there plans to bring ERPNext to cloudron soon so I can use those resources or do I have to set up and pay for another virtual machine? Because my Time is kind of running out on this one and I would rather not migrate again.
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@andreasdueren said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
Are there plans to bring ERPNext to cloudron soon so I can use those resources or do I have to set up and pay for another virtual machine? Because my Time is kind of running out on this one and I would rather not migrate again.
We're actually in the same boat, since it's a new year looking to move platforms and this would be a massive win on our side.
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@aizat Since the cloudron Teams seems to be unwilling to adopt the official docker image for the app store, do you or anyone else here have experience in installing custom docker images so I can get this thing finally set up?
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@andreasdueren I've packaged one or two things for myself on Cloudron, and I took a look at Frappe/ERPnext.
First, for the thread: Cloudron does not run Docker images "as-is." Or, if you prefer, simply because a project runs in Docker does not mean that it will immediately be runnable under Cloudron. A Cloudron app needs to be packaged up so that it will "play nicely" with the control architecture that Cloudron provides. Put simply, to get that friendly Cloudron experience, some work is needed when packaging an app.
In the case of ERPnext, it has a compose file that specifies many software services. Traefik is used for routing and load balancing (I assume); Nginx fronts the service; it seems like Frappe (the API backend) is written in Python (another service). There's worker processes of several flavors, a scheduling service, a Redis cache, MariaDB (which, for porting to Cloudron, we'd want to integrate with it's built-in DB add-on), the site creator service... and a large number of storage volumes.
Cloudron does not, to the best of my understanding, support running
docker-composefiles. As a result, to package this, we'd have to pull all of these services into a single container image. That would take some thinking, especially since Docker "likes" to have one process per container. Or, if there is another way/it is possible, I don't personally know how to package up a multi-container Cloudron application.The Cloudron team may have something else to say, but I thought I'd drop a note in the thread that helps explain why this app is a more complex proposition than others (perhaps) when it comes to packaging. Yes, it is open, and yes, it installs easily on a VM when you do a
docker-compose up. Unfortunately, that is not the same as packaging things up to run under the Cloudron framework. -
@jadudm Fair and not a problem. I'm just a little bit disappointed by the lack of communication. If it won't get packaged for a while then a short note would have been sufficient instead of letting people like me guessing whats planned next.
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@andreasdueren We are not working on packaging this. We try to leave a note when we start packaging an app. Currently, we are working on 7.1 - https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/5982/what-s-coming-in-cloudron-7-1 and there's also many existing apps that need to be updated.
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For future reference, I found https://github.com/frappe/frappe/wiki/The-Hitchhiker's-Guide-to-Installing-Frappe-on-Linux . Fairly complicated!
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@girish Thank you, that makes it easier forme to decide on my next steps with ERPNext. I'll check out that guide.
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@andreasdueren Hey, sorry for the late reply. I have followed this protocol closely and it works like a charm: Youtube Video
It's fairly straightforward if you apply the same method as the video above, it uses the GitHub method that was posted here.
ERPnext is a solid system, worth the hassle. Good luck
Kind regards. -
From what I've seen looking at the frappe/erpnext system design, it looks like a lot of the service complexity comes from their "bench" system tool that provides multitenancy / "environment duplication" capabilities via their backup and restore system. From my experience being able to branch environments is vital for these kinds of tools, but... that's basically cloudron's core competency. With a bit of work cloudron could probably match any missing features that "bench" has over it.
With bench factored out and its features provided by cloudron directly, I think you'd be left with a single python service that needs redis, mariadb/mysql, and postgresql, which cloudron provides as services already.
Notes:
- "frappe" is the company and also the name of the development/deployment framework for erpnext and other applications developed by the same team
- The frappe/frappe-worker docker image referred to in the frappe_docker/compose.yaml file is built from the source in frappe dir in the frappe/frappe repo
- The
bench worker --queue shortcommand (and similar) runs scheduler.py:start_worker() - The queue workers are a Python RQ-based job scheduling/background task system. RQ uses redis queues
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Teaser
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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Two major issues that I ran into while testing on cloudron.
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frappe framework requires the database name and database username to be the same (its hardcoded and all over the place). When testing locally it worked but in cloudron, db name is appended with “db” and username with “user”
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frappe framework needs root access to the database, eg. password of the user named “postgres” (its hardcoded, even if —dbroot-username exists, it’s for mariadb only)
That’s why I’m running postgres server on the Docker container itself, and not use any db addons. I’ll map the db storage to /app/data so it gets backed up regularly.
See you guys with good news next time. Most apps made in Python seem to write all over the filesystem so I’m testing it on readonly environment; once done ErpNext should be available soon. Thank you for your patience.
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
frappe framework requires the database name and database username to be the same (its hardcoded and all over the place). When testing locally it worked but in cloudron, db name is appended with “db” and username with “user”
That's a pretty rough requirement
but we can fix the platform code I guess to have an option to generate such names.frappe framework needs root access to the database, eg. password of the user named “postgres” (its hardcoded, even if —dbroot-username exists, it’s for mariadb only)
Keeps getting rougher
There's no chance we will allow an app to have root db access.Is the situation any better with mariadb instead of postgresql?
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frappe framework needs root access to the database
Surely this is not actually necessary to run the app, but is just part of their custom dynamic deployment system (ick). I hope it's possible to extricate the actual app from the framework...
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@girish for the initial release, I've given up on the idea of using Cloudron addons for now. Postgres is also getting over-complicated so I think I'd stick with MariaDB. Let's see how it goes. The build-run-test cycle is quite tedious when there are all kinds of new errors to resolve. ErpNext turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.
Current status: frappe installed, up and running. ErpNext won't install, and require all its dependencies (apps) to be installed. My target is to publish it by this week.
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@infogulch said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
frappe framework needs root access to the database
Surely this is not actually necessary to run the app, but is just part of their custom dynamic deployment system (ick). I hope it's possible to extricate the actual app from the framework...
I thought so too. Unfortunately, it keeps asking for "postgres super user password".
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@nj Thanks for all your hard work. Few have the necessary skills.
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Help Needed. Please check issue on github.
I'm inches away from either successfully running ErpNext or quitting the idea of packaging it. Never had I ever stuck with this kind of stupid errors.
When everything goes smooth, one of the modules (Payment Module in particular) make the entire table crash in the middle of loading the modules. Fix one error, then another pops up, then another.
I no longer have time nor patience to package this after this week. Here's the progress.. github.com/njsubedi/cloudron-erpnext if anyone has time, skill and patience, please go ahead and continue packaging this piece of sofware.
If anyone knows people from Frappe, please tell them to stop putting spaces and uppercase letters in table names, and at least retry any database operation instead of leaving the entire database in broken state when something fails, then have the user restart the minutes long process from the beginning.
Hours spent: 100+
Please check the issue on Github
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj You might not want to hear this, but in 100 hours, you could probably reproduce anything you need from ERPNext in EspoCRM using the Entity Manager to build copies of any specific data structures and Reports for anything specific there.
That's basically a lot of what I've been doing lately, taking Espo from being a CRM to an ERP system.
We're not here for a long time - but we are here for a good time :)
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@marcusquinn I could do the entire EspoCRM in Directus if I had to.
I wanted to package it because it's one of the most wanted apps, but I think it takes someone else who knows python and databases more than me.
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj After 18 months working with Espo, I doubt it, and I'm a fan of Directus too.
I see value in having ERPNext, and Odoo, packaged and available too. Even if only so that people can compare all of these similar apps, and take inspiration from all of them to make the best solution with the one they choose to develop among them.
I think you're right though, this one needs cooperation from the original author if it's not versatile enough to handle errors in building in Cloudron's tighter security Docker environment.
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Trailer
You know what's disappointing? I started packaging ERPNext for the HR module. Unfortunately, the HR Module is not available after installation. Now I'm here thinking where the hell it go, and why I spent weeks packaging something that doesn't have the particular module I was looking for.Update: Looks like
version-14of ERPNext does not have HR module. Onlyversion-13has it. Now packaging version 13.
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
Looks like version-14 of ERPNext does not have HR module.
They refactored the HR and Payroll module into a "new" app --> #31467. Maybe this could still be installed within the current V14 docker app --> ERPNext HRMS installation.
PS: Thank you for your hard work
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@subven oh, wow! How did I miss that!
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but if you wish to put on a donation pot, I would be happy to contribute where I can, as a token of thanks for your hard work and time!
Thank you again for all the hard work. -
@Aizat I'm looking for someone who know MariaDB and Python3 for the project. I've successfully packaged ErpNext, but I had to patch the source code of "Payments" and "HRMS" modules that crash the database tables during installation. Instead of cash, I'm looking for few other people who would pull the repo, and see if they see the same kind of crashes.
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Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj I tried installing it to my cloudron and it built successfully, but I ran into an issue with the cloudron cli during installation saying that I need to specify a subdomain (when I clearly did specify a subdomain), then I ran out of time to mess with it until later this week.
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Okay, the errors have gone. I'd say I'm 99% done packaging. Will post the good news soon.
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Okay, here is the good news. Please try it out and let me know if it works.
If you're not ready to build the image yourself, you can simply install the image that I created.
cloudron install --image njsubedi/cloudron-erpnext -l erp.<yourdomain.tld>.ErpNext v14 is now available on Cloudron. See the README file for usage instructions.
Features
- ErpNext v14 - running on Frappe Framework v14
- HRMS Module - Includes HR and Payroll modules
- Plug n Play - Automatically configured to use the subdomain you install it on, no setup needed
- Independent - Does not depend on Cloudron Addons for redis, mysql or such
Gotchas
- Installs its own database servers, but data resides inside /app/data, so it gets backed-up, no not a big issue
- Hasn't been tested a lot, but it's working pretty fine
- Multi-tenancy isn't set up, even though that's pretty trivial to do
Good to know
- After installation, look into
/app/datafolder using cloudron's file manager for a file that ends with-credential.txt. - Raise issues on Github if you run into problems, not here.
Founder of Yarsa Labs
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@nj said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
Okay, here is the good news. Please try it out and let me know if it works.
If you're not ready to build the image yourself, you can simply install the image that I created.
cloudron install --image njsubedi/cloudron-erpnext -l erp.<yourdomain.tld>.ErpNext v14 is now available on Cloudron. See the README file for usage instructions.
Features
- ErpNext v14 - running on Frappe Framework v14
- HRMS Module - Includes HR and Payroll modules
- Plug n Play - Automatically configured to use the subdomain you install it on, no setup needed
- Independent - Does not depend on Cloudron Addons for redis, mysql or such
Gotchas
- Installs its own database servers, but data resides inside /app/data, so it gets backed-up, no not a big issue
- Hasn't been tested a lot, but it's working pretty fine
- Multi-tenancy isn't set up, even though that's pretty trivial to do
Good to know
- After installation, look into
/app/datafolder using cloudron's file manager for a file that ends with-credential.txt. - Raise issues on Github if you run into problems, not here.
You are a Free Software hero right there, @nj !
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@nj
bonus points to you sir! 
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Referenced by
infogulch
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Can somebody review the code?
@girish what else needs to be done so that it can be released as an unstable app in the store?
Some concerns:
- only dev branch for hrms and payment module and no release (yes I'm aware that only the dev branch exists - this has to be adressed in the future)
- does not use Cloudrons Redis
- Will some of the database mitigations break the insallation in the future?
I will wait until the unstable release at the Cloudron App Store and start testing then
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I’ve added Cloudron LDAP support. I’ll push the changes this evening.
I think I can do Cloudron redis too. Looks doable.
I think after the default site is created, I can dump the db and import that to cloudron MySQL, but still ErpNext devs recommend Mariadb support only, and it needs the database name to be the same as the db user name. Unless there’s support from Cloudron devs, it’s a blocker. But I have set db path to be inside /app/data, so backup is not an issue. Also tried migration and backup-restore, which worked fine.
Since I’m actively using it at my company I’ll keep supporting this app. Also Keycloak, Outline and Odoo.
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@nj Thanks for your hard work with this! I am looking forward to the day this becomes available in the app store us n00bs.
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@nj What is the latest on Odoo? Is it still inching its way to beta on Cloudron?
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@nj ERPNext 14 also have an LMS, right?
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@mdreira said in ERPNext - cost-effective ERP solution:
@nj ERPNext 14 also have an LMS, right?
Seem like yes, indeed, as it is written on the quoted page. And it seems to be very powerful as well.
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After reviewing Odoo and Flectra, in their community and enterprise versions, I think that ERPNext is a very good option because it is 100% free software.
And it has a lot of features.
As @nebulon says, it is a cost-effective ERP solution.
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@mdreira The big gotchya with Odoo is that the most useful part of it, the Studio addon, is not in the community edition.
With ERPNext, their equivalent no-code custom data model builder is included.
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This post is deleted! -
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Such a great solution and offering.
This would solve quite a few problems a client of mine is experiencing trying to solve.
Looking forward to this!
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Wow, this app wishlist post started at 2018…
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@mdreira Yeahhh...all good things take time, plus ERP next at the time was not what it is now lol but that's even more reason to get it onboarded now =]
✌💙+1
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@plusone-nick I'm hoping the Cloudron team will support to include this formally in Cloudron soon. There might be some hindrances, but I think it should work relatively fine now, right?
