Importers?

[iamthefij]

Are there any packaged / bundled importers for the Cloudron FF3 app? I'm not finding any instructions for that, but I'm also new to Firefly.

[murgero]

@iamthefij AFAIK The importers that are supported can be used as-is, not installed as plugins:

https://docs.firefly-iii.org/importing-data/introduction

[iamthefij]

@murgero according to the docs, the importers are separate web applications that you host and connect to FF3. Given that Cloudron doesn't really support setting up auxiliary web applications on the box, it looks like the only way to use it would be for me to host the csv-importer on a different server and then direct that to my Cloudron FF3.

Is that how others are using it?

[murgero]

@iamthefij OH in that case i'd use something like Salt Edge / Spectre as they don't need to be hosted by you and are instead hosted by trusted parties to connect bank accounts.

[iamthefij]

@murgero Even the Spectre or Plaid importers require being run as separate services: https://github.com/firefly-iii/spectre-importer

[murgero]

@iamthefij Yes that is correct, but 3rd parties already run them so you don't have to like Salt Edge runs Spectre for example.

[ChristopherMag]

I have opened up a request to get Spectre importer added as an app, please up vote if your still interested in that feature.

[Aizat]

@murgero HI, what do you mean by 3rd party importers? How does it work?

[murgero]

@aizat I believe the feature was removed since my last comment

[Aizat]

@murgero sadly. I actually testing on using ERPnext for my invoicing, they do have bank integration with Plaid. I've requested similar integration in Invoice Ninja forum. Hope they'll integrate it someday

[colonelpanic]

The Firefly III Data Importer does not require any authentication to use. This means anyone with the URL can start importing CSV files.

I run the fireflyiii/data-importer container on a separate server with Traefik as the reverse proxy and Authelia (for ForwardAuth) to force logging in. This is probably overkill for a single user and why I recommend just running this from your workstation. Docker and docker-compose need to be installed.

Copy the docker-compose yaml below and enter your environment variables. Save it in a folder on your workstation.

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3'

services:
  app:
    image: fireflyiii/data-importer:latest
    container_name: firefly-iii-data-importer
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      # See https://docs.firefly-iii.org/data-importer/install/configure/
      - FIREFLY_III_URL=https://sub.domain.tld
      - VANITY_URL=https://sub.domain.tld
      - FIREFLY_III_ACCESS_TOKEN=ey...........
      #- FIREFLY_III_CLIENT_ID=
      #- NORDIGEN_ID=
      #- NORDIGEN_KEY=
      #- SPECTRE_APP_ID=
      #- SPECTRE_SECRET=
    ports:
      - 8081:8080

Once you've modified the file with all of your environment variables you just need to navigate to the folder containing the docker-compose file in a terminal and run docker-compose up -d. This will start the container in detached mode. Once it is up and running you can access the data-importer at http://localhost:8081/

When you're done importing you can go back to the directory with the docker-compose file and run docker-compose down to stop the container.

I can share my Traefik labels for anyone interested in setting up Forward Auth through Authelia.

Hope this helps!

[jagadeesh-s2104]

@colonelpanic Thank you!! Is there a way to schedule it to run daily or something to pull the data?

[colonelpanic]

@jagadeesh-s2104 - Great question. It looks you can map a volume between the docker container and the host. So anything you put in that folder would be picked up and imported. Here is an updated docker-compose with the volume section in the yaml:

version: '3'

services:
  app:
    image: fireflyiii/data-importer:latest
    container_name: firefly-iii-data-importer
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      # See https://docs.firefly-iii.org/data-importer/install/configure/
      - FIREFLY_III_URL=https://sub.domain.tld
      - VANITY_URL=https://sub.domain.tld
      - FIREFLY_III_ACCESS_TOKEN=ey...........
    volumes:
      - /home/colonelpanic/fireflyiii-importer/csvdrop:/import
    ports:
      - 8081:8080

This option is outlined in their docs here - https://docs.firefly-iii.org/data-importer/usage/command_line/

It looks like you could also setup a cron job that use a POST request. Docs on that here - https://docs.firefly-iii.org/data-importer/usage/post/

[jagadeesh-s2104]

@colonelpanic thank you!!