InvoicePlane 1.4.7 was released two weeks ago, about half a year after 1.4.6 and only with a hand full of improvements. Why? Because I couldn’t find any time to work on the software. I haven’t touched InvoicePlane 2 for 3 months now and won’t touch it for next months.
Why I’m searching for a new maintainer
The problem is that I don’t have much time to spare, not now and not in the future. I’m working fulltime, have to study for about 6 months every year with heavy exams at the end. I have other hobbies and don’t want to spend the summer sitting at my desk and writing code.
Even If I could find someone who would like to pay me for working on InvoicePlane, I would not be able to spend more time.
Administration and Support
One of the main reasons why I rarely write code for InvoicePlane is that I’m the only person working on the project. Sure, there are contributors, but only a few with mostly minor improvements or bug fixes.
I spend about 90% of the time I have for administrative tasks and support. And I have to. There is no way to surpass this responsibility because without a healthy community the project would be doomed. And as I’m the only person that’s into the app I’m the only person that’s able to help.
I started InvoicePlane because I wanted to save the project itself and have fun with coding. Now, the project is like a burden to me and I’m searching for a way to have fun again with what I’m doing.
InvoicePlane would need a major rewrite
InvoicePlane is not future-proof. It’s currently about 5-6 years old and uses outdated and partly deprecated libraries and frameworks. Major parts of the software are not working perfectly and cause trouble with various system configurations. That’s why InvoicePlane needs to be rebuild from the ground up.
And I already started with this task. I already did some work on InvoicePlane 2. But finishing this task would require a developer working full time or at least for 15-20 hours a week for a couple of months.
The future of InvoicePlane
The website, the community forums, the issue tracker and the version backend will stay available.
There will be no updates or bug fixes in the near future for the app itself.
The source code will remain on Github no matter what.
### Edit (2016-07-29)
Several users expressed their interest in keeping the project alive. They are discussion what they can do in this thread so you can follow what is happening.
If we find a way to properly split all tasks so nobody get’s overwhelmed with work I may keep my position and continue my work on InvoicePlane.
If you are interested in becoming a new maintainer, feel free to contact me via direct message. You will then be added to the appropriate user group and can join the discussion about the future.
Please take a look at Information for new Maintainers for more information.
Hi @Kovah, a big bravo and many thanks to you for your tremendous work ever since you forked from fusioninvoice. You brought this project back from the dead and did an amazing job improving the app. It’s a real shame the community is going to lose you as the main developer and maintainer of this project. I sincerely hope @macklus and/or other devs will be able to continue this project and I also secretly hope that you’ll stick around in the background.
That being said, I still wish you the very best in the future and I hope you get some time to do the things that really matter in your life. If there’s one thing you’ll never get back, it’s exactly that: time. You’re making the right decision to choose for your life and priorities. Good luck and thanks again for all your hard work.
As a long time InvoicePlane user, I’m willing to give some time to co maintain the current software and might add some new features. InvoicePlane has her roots deep in our company and is connected to all our essential back-office applications.
I’m hoping you will get a bit of time for yourself!
Good luck, and thanks for all your hard work for this beautiful project!
Any update on this? I’ve just started integrating InvoicePlane and would like to see continued maintenance, development, and support because, this is an awesome billing system! Please keep it going!
Kovah, thank you for the heads-up and of course for this great software!
I’m not very confident what a maintener’s job would be, but wouldn’t it be possible to assign different smaller tasks to more people?
For example if someone can write code, they go into development. If someone else has more advanced social skills, they’re responsible for this community, etc, etc. Wouldn’t that work? So it stops being a one-man-show, which should be exhausting!
I’m sure I could contribute in some way… Maybe others too.
The project can’t be managed by one person but at the moment there are four people who want to continue this project. But we could also need some volunteers that are willing to help with community support.
Edit (2016-07-29)
