unfortunately I have to tell you that I won’t continue working on InvoicePlane 2. I already started with the planning and the basic structure but it does not make any sense to continue. I’m really sad that this is not an announcement about how good the development is going.
The reasons for the stop
First of all: InvoicePlane 2 is a very large project. Very large. Some months ago I stopped writing code because I started to realise that you can’t just begin with the code for this piece of software. You can read more about this in a Medium.com article. InvoicePlane 2 is a full-time project. A single person would need to work on the software several hours a day to be able to finish it before christmas 2016. I’m working full time at the moment and I start my studies in about a month. I have some clients and another project I’m working on. Currently I’m able to spend about 30 minutes a day for InvoicePlane and this includes all other stuff: the website, the SaaS partnership management, community support.
That’s why I will stop working on InvoicePlane 2 for now.
The Future of InvoicePlane 2
Well, it’s pretty sad but the project will be on hold until we have found several developers that are willing to spend some time on the software. As I already mentioned: several hours per day are needed to finish version 2.0 before any used assets of even the used framework are out of date. I asked a lot of people, wrote several help requests and some people offered their help in the future but I couldn’t find any active and passionate developer who’s familiar with the framework and the assets and can spend an hour per day.
If you are interested and think that you are really able to start this thing again, feel free to contact me.
What about InvoicePlane 1?
InvoicePlane 1 will get my full attention again. I will work on several things that really need to be fixed or improved in the future:
advanced product management and implementation of the expenses
rewrite of the whole save procedure for quotes and invoices
redesign of the invoice edit screen
(maybe) user management with groups
Please notice that some features will not be implemented into InvoicePlane 1 as they are reserved for version 2.
Well, that’s it. If you have any questions or ideas feel free to leave a comment.
Hello
I just read the announcement that the V2 will not be developed
i am an Internet Marketer, not a coder, but i worked some years into Sw/platforms enviroment
1-confirm that the project remains active InvoicePlane?
2-developement can be done using freelancers: if you send me privately a detail of what-to-do+need to develope the V2 i will be interested to find investitors to finance the project
let me know
regards
Marco
This is fair statement. However let me give my example we have a small team with some projects, we are working similar as you, when it is free time, after full time work and etc. We have started to use Invoice Plane 1 and liked it pretty much for its simplicity.
But now we reached the point, where we need to integrate it with other web site. What we are trying to do is to to insert smth. into database directly and get correct values inside Invoice Plane. You would say this is incorrect way. But we have no skills of the framework used. Also it would be fair to say, that we are in exactly similar state with our project, which you have described for Invoice Plane 2. So to connect for the development of invoice plane 2 would be a bad idea for both projects.
Maybe it would be good idea to change the mind and let the way for some features which were intended for InvoicePlane 2 only, on Invoice Plane 1. Like API, which I believe would be a great feature for many projects, which use Invoice Plane 1 or considering start using it.
Would you be prepared to hand the project over as I have a team of developers ready and waiting? We will keep it open source and relay all donations onto you for the first 6months?
@mccshane Why should I hand over the whole project? This thread just about the development on InvoicePlane 2 and if your developers would like to work on the project feel free to contact me.
Sorry Kovah I did not mean to offend at all I meant the development of InvoicePlane2 as you clearly stated above that you do not currently have any excess time to develop a new system. If you need any help at all in development please let me know. As I have said I have a team that would be willing to help with all aspects of development, support and so on.
I think it is a good decision. But I would suggest to skip the idea of developing IP2 (with laravel) and keep focusing to develop IP1 with codeigniter at all. just my opinion.
My business parter and I already implemented a small expenses module for IP1.3, but we changed some other things in the framework for our needs. so it is not that easy to merge it back on github. but if you are interested, I can send you the code (the hmvc module and sql).
I think it would be very useful to implement Invoiceplane to other open source platforms with a very large community of users, such as wordpress.
I use a lot and I know all the available wordpress plugins and I know for sure that it lacks a powerful and flexible management as Invoiceplane, my idea is to create an add-on for woocommerce (that is the best e-commerce plugin) and put it in charge (for a few dollars, such as $ 5 or $ 10) as with all the add-ons by woocommerce.
I know that creating a paid product is not in line with the philosophy of “open source” of Invoiceplane, but in this case it would be enough to create an extra component able to connect two databases and to handle all the billing for woocommerce. Technically it is not difficult to do this and is very useful for the community of wordpress have this tool, it can also provide financial support with little money for each user a large project like invoiceplane.
Why not create a Mod market? I use another script (boonex) for other projects and what keeps the script going are the individual Mod developers. This would allow new and innovative features to be integrated into IP and maybe included in the next release. Not to mention less stress and coding on the IP developers.
@octoma If it would be possible and easy to make InvoicePlane moddable, I would already have done this. But the system is not suitable to be extended by mods, plugins or whatever.
Kovah: I’m guessing that there may be some limitations to the source code but I was recently able to find a calendar script and butcher it enough to get it to work with IP. I now have a service schedule based on IP’s clients contact info and a form option that lines up my clients by service date. Something like this could be a godsend for people starting out in the service industry. Some simple instructions is all that’s needed. Upload this folder, replace <>this</> with <>that</> and Boom! Mod.
This is exactly what a bad application and mod would require. Replacing parts of code is not suitable for any common user and will lead to hundred of support threads like “the calendar mod is not working!”.
A real plugin system would require hooks that can be used for plugin authors to insert code on their own. But as stated: a plugin system is planned for InvoicePlane 2 and will not be implemented into version 1.
