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



NAME
       hledger-web  is  a web interface (WUI) for the hledger accounting tool.
       This manual is for hledger-web 1.20.99.

SYNOPSIS
       hledger-web [OPTIONS]
       hledger web -- [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION
       hledger is a reliable, 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).

       hledger-web  is hledger's web interface.  It starts a simple web appli-
       cation for browsing and adding transactions, and optionally opens it in
       a  web browser window if possible.  It provides a more user-friendly UI
       than the hledger CLI or hledger-ui interface, showing more at once (ac-
       counts, the current account register, balance charts) and allowing his-
       tory-aware data entry, interactive searching, and bookmarking.

       hledger-web also lets you share a ledger 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 hledger  journal,
       timeclock,  timedot,  or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE,
       or       $HOME/.hledger.journal       (on       windows,        perhaps
       C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).   For  more about this see hledger(1),
       hledger_journal(5) etc.

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

       --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 op-
              erating system can provide this type of socket.

       --base-url=URL
              set the  base  url  (default:  http://IPADDR:PORT).   You  would
              change this when sharing over the network, or integrating within
              a larger website.

       --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 de-
              clared)

       hledger reporting options:

       -b --begin=DATE
              include postings/txns on or after this date

       -e --end=DATE
              include postings/txns before this date

       -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 ef-
              fects)

       -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-value
              with -V/-X/--value, also infer market prices from transactions

       --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.

       --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.

       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, hledger-web starts the web app in "transient mode" and also
       opens it in your default web browser if possible.  In this mode the web
       app will keep running for as long as you have it open in a browser win-
       dow,  and will exit after two minutes of inactivity (no requests and no
       browser windows viewing it).  With --serve, it just runs  the  web  app
       without  exiting,  and logs requests to the console.  With --serve-api,
       only the JSON web api (see  below)  is  served,  with  the  usual  HTML
       server-side web UI disabled.

       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 ma-
         chine.

       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  in-
           cluded 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  in-
       cludes.

       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 un-
       til 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 un-
       derstanding, see the journal manual.

       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 "ac-
       countTransactionsReport ...".  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 en-
       try to your journal:

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

ENVIRONMENT
       LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f.  Default:
       ~/.hledger.journal  (on  windows,  perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour-
       nal).

       A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal,  where  DIR  is  a  version-con-
       trolled  finance directory and YYYY is the current year.  Or ~/DIR/cur-
       rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal.

       On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a
       more  thorough  way that also affects applications started from the GUI
       (say, an Emacs dock icon).  Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a ~/.MacOSX/en-
       vironment.plist file containing

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

       To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot.

FILES
       Reads  data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock, time-
       dot,  or  CSV  format  specified   with   -f,   or   $LEDGER_FILE,   or
       $HOME/.hledger.journal           (on          windows,          perhaps
       C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).

BUGS
       The need to precede options with -- when invoked from hledger  is  awk-
       ward.

       -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 IRC channel
       or hledger mail list)


AUTHORS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2007-2020 Simon Michael.
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


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



hledger-web-1.20.99              December 2020                  HLEDGER-WEB(1)
