
HLEDGER-WEB(1)               hledger User Manuals               HLEDGER-WEB(1)



NAME
       hledger-web - robust, friendly plain text accounting (Web version)

SYNOPSIS
       hledger-web [OPTIONS]                  # run temporarily & browse
       hledger-web --serve [OPTIONS]          # run without stopping
       hledger-web --serve-api [OPTIONS]      # run JSON server only
       hledger web -- [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS] # start from hledger

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual is for hledger's web interface, version 1.29.99.  See also
       the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.

       hledger is a robust, user-friendly, cross-platform set of programs  for
       tracking  money,  time,  or  any  other  commodity,  using double-entry
       accounting and a simple, editable file format.  hledger is inspired  by
       and  largely  compatible  with  ledger(1), and largely interconvertible
       with beancount(1).

       hledger-web is a simple web application for browsing and adding  trans-
       actions.   It  provides a more user-friendly UI than the hledger CLI or
       hledger-ui TUI, showing more at once  (accounts,  the  current  account
       register, balance charts) and allowing history-aware data entry, inter-
       active searching, and bookmarking.

       hledger-web also lets you share a journal with multiple users, or  even
       the  public  web.   There is no access control, so if you need that you
       should put it behind a suitable  web  proxy.   As  a  small  protection
       against  data  loss  when  running an unprotected instance, it writes a
       numbered backup of the main journal file (only) on every edit.

       Like hledger, it reads data from one or more files  in  journal,  time-
       clock, timedot, or CSV format.  The default file is .hledger.journal in
       your home directory; this can be overridden with one or  more  -f  FILE
       options,  or the LEDGER_FILE environment variable.  For more about this
       see hledger(1).

       hledger-web can be run in three modes:

       o Transient mode (the default): your default web browser will be opened
         to  show  the  app if possible, and the app exits automatically after
         two minutes of inactivity (no requests received and no  open  browser
         windows viewing it).

       o With  --serve:  the  app runs without stopping, and without opening a
         browser.

       o With --serve-api: only the JSON API is served.

       In all cases hledger-web runs as a foreground process, logging requests
       to stdout.

OPTIONS
       Command-line options and arguments may be used to set an initial filter
       on the data.  These filter options are not shown in the web UI, but  it
       will be applied in addition to any search query entered there.

       Note:  if invoking hledger-web as a hledger subcommand, write -- before
       options, as shown in the synopsis above.

       --serve
              serve and log requests, don't browse or auto-exit after timeout

       --serve-api
              like --serve, but serve only  the  JSON  web  API,  without  the
              server-side web UI

       --host=IPADDR
              listen on this IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)

       --port=PORT
              listen on this TCP port (default: 5000)

       --socket=SOCKETFILE
              use  a unix domain socket file to listen for requests instead of
              a TCP socket.  Implies --serve.  It can  only  be  used  if  the
              operating system can provide this type of socket.

       --base-url=URL
              set  the  base url (default: http://IPADDR:PORT).  Note: affects
              url generation but not route parsing.  Can be useful if  running
              behind a reverse web proxy that does path rewriting.

       --file-url=URL
              set the static files url (default: BASEURL/static).  hledger-web
              normally serves static files itself, but if you wanted to  serve
              them  from  another server for efficiency, you would set the url
              with this.

       --capabilities=CAP[,CAP..]
              enable the  view,  add,  and/or  manage  capabilities  (default:
              view,add)

       --capabilities-header=HTTPHEADER
              read  capabilities  to  enable  from a HTTP header, like X-Sand-
              storm-Permissions (default: disabled)

       --test run hledger-web's tests and exit.  hspec test  runner  args  may
              follow a --, eg: hledger-web --test -- --help

       hledger input options:

       -f FILE --file=FILE
              use  a  different  input  file.   For  stdin,  use  -  (default:
              $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal)

       --rules-file=RULESFILE
              Conversion  rules  file  to  use  when  reading  CSV   (default:
              FILE.rules)

       --separator=CHAR
              Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',')

       --alias=OLD=NEW
              rename accounts named OLD to NEW

       --anon anonymize accounts and payees

       --pivot FIELDNAME
              use some other field or tag for the account name

       -I --ignore-assertions
              disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance
              assignments)

       -s --strict
              do extra error checking (check  that  all  posted  accounts  are
              declared)

       hledger reporting options:

       -b --begin=DATE
              include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to
              preceding subperiod start when using a report interval)

       -e --end=DATE
              include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol-
              lowing subperiod end when using a report interval)

       -D --daily
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by day

       -W --weekly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by week

       -M --monthly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by month

       -Q --quarterly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter

       -Y --yearly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by year

       -p --period=PERIODEXP
              set  start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once
              using period expressions syntax

       --date2
              match the secondary date instead (see  command  help  for  other
              effects)

       --today=DATE
              override   today's  date  (affects  relative  smart  dates,  for
              tests/examples)

       -U --unmarked
              include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)

       -P --pending
              include only pending postings/txns

       -C --cleared
              include only cleared postings/txns

       -R --real
              include only non-virtual postings

       -NUM --depth=NUM
              hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep

       -E --empty
              show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa  in
              hledger-ui/hledger-web)

       -B --cost
              convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time

       -V --market
              convert amounts to their market value in default valuation  com-
              modities

       -X --exchange=COMM
              convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM

       --value
              convert  amounts  to  cost  or  market value, more flexibly than
              -B/-V/-X

       --infer-market-prices
              use transaction prices (recorded with @  or  @@)  as  additional
              market prices, as if they were P directives

       --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions.

       --forecast
              generate  future  transactions  from periodic transaction rules,
              for the next 6 months or till report end date.   In  hledger-ui,
              also make ordinary future transactions visible.

       --commodity-style
              Override  the  commodity  style  in the output for the specified
              commodity.  For example 'EUR1.000,00'.

       --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN)
              Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color  codes  in  text
              output.   'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color-
              supporting terminal.  'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg  when
              piping  output  into  'less  -R'.   'never'  or  'no': never.  A
              NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this.

       --pretty[=WHEN]
              Show prettier output, e.g.  using  unicode  box-drawing  charac-
              ters.   Accepts 'yes' (the default) or 'no' ('y', 'n', 'always',
              'never' also work).  If you provide an  argument  you  must  use
              '=', e.g.  '--pretty=yes'.

       When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the
       last one takes precedence.

       Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments.

       hledger help options:

       -h --help
              show general or COMMAND help

       --man  show general or COMMAND user manual with man

       --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info

       --version
              show general or ADDONCMD version

       --debug[=N]
              show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)

       A @FILE argument will be expanded to the contents of FILE, which should
       contain  one  command line option/argument per line.  (To prevent this,
       insert a -- argument before.)

       By default the server listens on IP address 127.0.0.1, accessible  only
       to  local  requests.   You  can  use  --host  to change this, eg --host
       0.0.0.0 to listen on all configured addresses.

       Similarly, use --port to set a TCP port other than 5000, eg if you  are
       running multiple hledger-web instances.

       Both of these options are ignored when --socket is used.  In this case,
       it creates an AF_UNIX socket file at the supplied path  and  uses  that
       for  communication.   This  is  an  alternative way of running multiple
       hledger-web instances behind a reverse proxy that  handles  authentica-
       tion  for  different  users.   The path can be derived in a predictable
       way, eg by using the username within the path.  As an example, nginx as
       reverse  proxy  can use the variable $remote_user to derive a path from
       the username used  in  a  HTTP  basic  authentication.   The  following
       proxy_pass  directive  allows  access to all hledger-web instances that
       created a socket in /tmp/hledger/:

                proxy_pass http://unix:/tmp/hledger/${remote_user}.socket;

       You can use --base-url to change the protocol, hostname, port and  path
       that appear in hyperlinks, useful eg for integrating hledger-web within
       a larger website.  The default is http://HOST:PORT/ using the  server's
       configured host address and TCP port (or http://HOST if PORT is 80).

       With  --file-url  you can set a different base url for static files, eg
       for better caching or cookie-less serving on high performance websites.

PERMISSIONS
       By  default,  hledger-web  allows  anyone  who can reach it to view the
       journal and to add new transactions, but not to change existing data.

       You can restrict who can reach it by

       o setting the IP address it listens on (see --host above).  By  default
         it  listens  on  127.0.0.1,  accessible  to  all  users  on the local
         machine.

       o putting it behind an authenticating proxy, using eg apache or nginx

       o custom firewall rules

       You can restrict what the users who reach it can do, by

       o using the --capabilities=CAP[,CAP..] flag when you start it, enabling
         one  or  more  of  the  following capabilities.  The default value is
         view,add:

         o view - allows viewing the journal file and all included files

         o add - allows adding new transactions to the main journal file

         o manage - allows editing,  uploading  or  downloading  the  main  or
           included files

       o using  the  --capabilities-header=HTTPHEADER  flag  to specify a HTTP
         header from which it will read capabilities to  enable.   hledger-web
         on  Sandstorm  uses  the  X-Sandstorm-Permissions header to integrate
         with Sandstorm's permissions.  This is disabled by default.

EDITING, UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING
       If you enable the manage capability mentioned above, you'll see  a  new
       "spanner"  button  to the right of the search form.  Clicking this will
       let you edit, upload, or download the journal  file  or  any  files  it
       includes.

       Note,  unlike any other hledger command, in this mode you (or any visi-
       tor) can alter or wipe the data files.

       Normally whenever a file is changed in this way,  hledger-web  saves  a
       numbered  backup  (assuming  file permissions allow it, the disk is not
       full, etc.)  hledger-web is not aware of version control systems,  cur-
       rently;  if  you  use one, you'll have to arrange to commit the changes
       yourself (eg with a cron job or a file watcher like entr).

       Changes which would leave the journal file(s) unparseable or  non-valid
       (eg  with  failing balance assertions) are prevented.  (Probably.  This
       needs re-testing.)

RELOADING
       hledger-web detects changes made to the files by other means (eg if you
       edit  it  directly,  outside  of hledger-web), and it will show the new
       data when you reload the page or navigate to a new page.  If  a  change
       makes  a  file  unparseable,  hledger-web will display an error message
       until the file has been fixed.

       (Note: if you are viewing files mounted from another machine, make sure
       that both machine clocks are roughly in step.)

JSON API
       In  addition to the web UI, hledger-web also serves a JSON API that can
       be used to get data or add new transactions.  If you want the JSON  API
       only, you can use the --serve-api flag.  Eg:

              $ hledger-web -f examples/sample.journal --serve-api
              ...

       You can get JSON data from these routes:

              /version
              /accountnames
              /transactions
              /prices
              /commodities
              /accounts
              /accounttransactions/ACCOUNTNAME

       Eg, all account names in the journal (similar to the accounts command).
       (hledger-web's JSON does not include newlines, here we  use  python  to
       prettify it):

              $ curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/accountnames | python -m json.tool
              [
                  "assets",
                  "assets:bank",
                  "assets:bank:checking",
                  "assets:bank:saving",
                  "assets:cash",
                  "expenses",
                  "expenses:food",
                  "expenses:supplies",
                  "income",
                  "income:gifts",
                  "income:salary",
                  "liabilities",
                  "liabilities:debts"
              ]

       Or all transactions:

              $ curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/transactions | python -m json.tool
              [
                  {
                      "tcode": "",
                      "tcomment": "",
                      "tdate": "2008-01-01",
                      "tdate2": null,
                      "tdescription": "income",
                      "tindex": 1,
                      "tpostings": [
                          {
                              "paccount": "assets:bank:checking",
                              "pamount": [
                                  {
                                      "acommodity": "$",
                                      "aismultiplier": false,
                                      "aprice": null,
              ...

       Most  of  the  JSON corresponds to hledger's data types; for details of
       what the fields mean, see the Hledger.Data.Json haddock docs and  click
       on  the  various  data  types,  eg Transaction.  And for a higher level
       understanding, see the journal docs.

       In some cases there is outer JSON corresponding to a "Report" type.  To
       understand  that,  go to the Hledger.Web.Handler.MiscR haddock and look
       at the source for the appropriate handler to see what it  returns.   Eg
       for  /accounttransactions  it's  getAccounttransactionsR,  returning  a
       "accountTransactionsReport ...".  Looking up the haddock  for  that  we
       can see that /accounttransactions returns an AccountTransactionsReport,
       which consists of a report title and a list  of  AccountTransactionsRe-
       portItem (etc).

       You  can  add  a  new  transaction to the journal with a PUT request to
       /add, if hledger-web was started with the add  capability  (enabled  by
       default).  The payload must be the full, exact JSON representation of a
       hledger transaction (partial data won't do).  You can get  sample  JSON
       from  hledger-web's  /transactions  or /accounttransactions, or you can
       export it with hledger-lib, eg like so:

              .../hledger$ stack ghci hledger-lib
              >>> writeJsonFile "txn.json" (head $ jtxns samplejournal)
              >>> :q

       Here's how it looks as of hledger-1.17 (remember, this JSON corresponds
       to hledger's Transaction and related data types):

              {
                  "tcomment": "",
                  "tpostings": [
                      {
                          "pbalanceassertion": null,
                          "pstatus": "Unmarked",
                          "pamount": [
                              {
                                  "aprice": null,
                                  "acommodity": "$",
                                  "aquantity": {
                                      "floatingPoint": 1,
                                      "decimalPlaces": 10,
                                      "decimalMantissa": 10000000000
                                  },
                                  "aismultiplier": false,
                                  "astyle": {
                                      "ascommodityside": "L",
                                      "asdigitgroups": null,
                                      "ascommodityspaced": false,
                                      "asprecision": 2,
                                      "asdecimalpoint": "."
                                  }
                              }
                          ],
                          "ptransaction_": "1",
                          "paccount": "assets:bank:checking",
                          "pdate": null,
                          "ptype": "RegularPosting",
                          "pcomment": "",
                          "pdate2": null,
                          "ptags": [],
                          "poriginal": null
                      },
                      {
                          "pbalanceassertion": null,
                          "pstatus": "Unmarked",
                          "pamount": [
                              {
                                  "aprice": null,
                                  "acommodity": "$",
                                  "aquantity": {
                                      "floatingPoint": -1,
                                      "decimalPlaces": 10,
                                      "decimalMantissa": -10000000000
                                  },
                                  "aismultiplier": false,
                                  "astyle": {
                                      "ascommodityside": "L",
                                      "asdigitgroups": null,
                                      "ascommodityspaced": false,
                                      "asprecision": 2,
                                      "asdecimalpoint": "."
                                  }
                              }
                          ],
                          "ptransaction_": "1",
                          "paccount": "income:salary",
                          "pdate": null,
                          "ptype": "RegularPosting",
                          "pcomment": "",
                          "pdate2": null,
                          "ptags": [],
                          "poriginal": null
                      }
                  ],
                  "ttags": [],
                  "tsourcepos": {
                      "tag": "JournalSourcePos",
                      "contents": [
                          "",
                          [
                              1,
                              1
                          ]
                      ]
                  },
                  "tdate": "2008-01-01",
                  "tcode": "",
                  "tindex": 1,
                  "tprecedingcomment": "",
                  "tdate2": null,
                  "tdescription": "income",
                  "tstatus": "Unmarked"
              }

       And  here's  how  to  test  adding it with curl.  This should add a new
       entry to your journal:

              $ curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/add -X PUT -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-binary @txn.json

DEBUG OUTPUT
   Debug output
       You can add --debug[=N] to the command line to  log  debug  output.   N
       ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to 9 (maximum output).  Typi-
       cally you would start with 1 and increase until you are seeing  enough.
       Debug  output  goes  to stderr, interleaved with the requests logged on
       stdout.  To capture debug output in a log file instead, you can usually
       redirect stderr, eg:
       hledger-web --debug=3 2>hledger-web.log.

ENVIRONMENT
       LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f.

       On unix computers, the default value is: ~/.hledger.journal.

       A  more  typical  value is something like ~/finance/YYYY.journal, where
       ~/finance is a version-controlled finance directory  and  YYYY  is  the
       current  year.  Or, ~/finance/current.journal, where current.journal is
       a symbolic link to YYYY.journal.

       The usual way to set this permanently is to add a  command  to  one  of
       your shell's startup files (eg ~/.profile):

              export LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/current.journal`

       On  some Mac computers, there is a more thorough way to set environment
       variables, that will also affect applications started from the GUI (eg,
       Emacs started from a dock icon): In ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist, add an
       entry like:

              {
                "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal"
              }

       For this to take effect you might need to killall Dock, or reboot.

       On Windows computers, the  default  value  is  probably  C:\Users\YOUR-
       NAME\.hledger.journal.   You  can change this by running a command like
       this in a powershell window (let us know if you need to be an  Adminis-
       trator, and if this persists across a reboot):

              > setx LEDGER_FILE "C:\Users\MyUserName\finance\2021.journal"

       Or,   change   it   in   settings:   see  https://www.java.com/en/down-
       load/help/path.html.

FILES
       Reads data from one or more files in journal,  timeclock,  timedot,  or
       CSV  format.   The default file is .hledger.journal in your home direc-
       tory; this can be overridden with one or more -f FILE options,  or  the
       LEDGER_FILE environment variable.

BUGS
       -f- doesn't work (hledger-web can't read from stdin).

       Query arguments and some hledger options are ignored.

       Does not work in text-mode browsers.

       Does not work well on small screens.



REPORTING BUGS
       Report  bugs  at  http://bugs.hledger.org  (or  on the #hledger chat or
       hledger mail list)


AUTHORS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors.
       See http://hledger.org/CREDITS.html


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2007-2023 Simon Michael and contributors.


LICENSE
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SEE ALSO
       hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), ledger(1)



hledger-web-1.29.99               March 2023                    HLEDGER-WEB(1)
