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monthyear | hledger-web(1) |
notinfo({{ # NAME }})
hledger-web - web interface and API for hledger, a
robust, friendly plain text accounting app.
notinfo({{ # SYNOPSIS }})
hledger-web [OPTS] [QUERY]
or
hledger web [OPTS] [QUERY]
notinfo({{ # DESCRIPTION }})
This manual is for hledger’s web interface, version version. See also the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.
hledgerdescription
web({{
}})
hledger-web is a simple web application for browsing and adding transactions. 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, interactive 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 inputfileswithptr
hledger-web can be run in three modes:
--serve-browsemode (the default): the app serves the web UI and JSON API, and opens your default web browser to show the app if possible, and exits automatically after two minutes of inactivity (with no requests received and no open browser windows viewing it).--serve: the app just serves the web UI and JSON API.--serve-api: the app just serves the JSON API.
In all cases hledger-web runs as a foreground process, logging requests to stdout.
OPTIONS
hledger-web provides the following options:
Flags:
--serve --server serve and log requests, don't browse or auto-exit
--serve-api like --serve, but serve only the JSON web API,
not the web UI
--allow=view|add|edit set the user's access level for changing data
(default: `add`). It also accepts `sandstorm` for
use on that platform (reads permissions from the
`X-Sandstorm-Permissions` request header).
--cors=ORIGIN allow cross-origin requests from the specified
origin; setting ORIGIN to "*" allows requests from
any origin
--host=IPADDR listen on this IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)
--port=PORT listen on this TCP port (default: 5000)
--socket=SOCKET listen on the given unix socket instead of an IP
address and port (unix only; implies --serve)
--base-url=BASEURL set the base url (default: http://IPADDR:PORT)
--test run hledger-web's tests and exit. hspec test
runner args may follow a --, eg: hledger-web --test
--help
By default hledger-web listens only on IP address
127.0.0.1, which be accessed only from the local
machine.
To allow access from elsewhere, use --host to specify an
externally accessible address configured on this machine, The special
address 0.0.0.0 causes it to listen on all of this
machine’s addresses.
Similarly, you can use --port to listen on a TCP port
other than 5000. This is useful if you want to run multiple hledger-web
instances on a machine.
When --socket is used, hledger-web creates and
communicates via a socket file instead of a TCP port. This can be more
secure, respects unix file permissions, and makes certain use cases
easier, such as running per-user instances behind an nginx reverse
proxy. (Eg:
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 hledger-web’s hyperlinks. This is useful eg
when 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). Note
this affects url generation but not route parsing.
hledger-web also supports many of hledger’s general options:
generaloptions
hledger-web shows accounts with zero balances by default (like
hledger-ui, and unlike hledger). Using the
-E/--empty flag will reverse this behaviour. If you see
accounts which appear to have a zero balance, but cannot be hidden with
-E, it’s because they have a mixed-cost balance, which
looks like zero when costs are hidden. (hledger-web does not show
costs.)
Reporting options and/or query arguments can be used to set an initial query, which although not shown in the UI, will restrict the data shown (in addition to any search query entered in the UI).
If you use the bash shell, you can auto-complete flags by pressing TAB in the command line. If this is not working see Install > Shell completions.
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
- setting the IP address it listens on (see
--hostabove). By default it listens on 127.0.0.1, accessible to users on the local machine only. - putting it behind an authenticating proxy, such as caddy or apache
- putting it behind a firewall
And you can restrict what the users reaching it can do, by specifying
the --allow=ACCESSLEVEL option at startup. ACCESSLEVEL is
one of:
view- allows viewing the journal file(s)add- also allows adding new transactions to the main journal fileedit- also allows editing, uploading or downloading the journal file(s)sandstorm- (for the hledger-web Sandstorm app:) allows whichever ofview,add, oreditare specified in theX-Sandstorm-PermissionsHTTP header
The default access level is add.
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 visitor) 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, currently; 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": "$",
"aismultiplier": false,
"aprice": null,
...
Most of the JSON corresponds to hledger’s data types; for details of what the fields mean, see the Hledger.Data.Json haddock docs and click on the various data types, eg Transaction. And for a higher level understanding, see the journal docs. There is also a basic OpenAPI specification.
In some cases there is outer JSON corresponding to a “Report” type.
To understand that, go to the Hledger.Web.Handler.MiscR
haddock and look at the source for the appropriate handler to see
what it returns. Eg for /accounttransactions it’s getAccounttransactionsR,
returning a “accountTransactionsReport ...”. Looking
up the haddock for that we can see that /accounttransactions returns
an AccountTransactionsReport,
which consists of a report title and a list of
AccountTransactionsReportItem (etc).
You can add a new transaction to the journal with a PUT request to
/add, if hledger-web was started with the add
capability (enabled by default). The payload must be the full, exact
JSON representation of a hledger transaction (partial data won’t do).
You can get sample JSON from hledger-web’s /transactions or
/accounttransactions, or you can export it with
hledger-lib, eg like so:
.../hledger$ 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). Typically 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 main journal file to use when not
specified with -f/--file. Default:
$HOME/.hledger.journal.
BUGS
reportbugs
Some known issues:
Does not work well on small screens, or in text-mode browsers.