Hi Guys

for a while we've been having problems with generating PDF that contain utf8/non-latin tyle characters - accented/euro symbol etc.. in Simple Invoices

i've just put in a small fix onto our demo site http://www.simpleinvoices.org/demo

if you have had PDF and non-latin character problems please login to the demo site and create some new invoices and try to PDF - let us know if it now works or still has problems - and which characters you used

for the fix refer: http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/689/mysql-utf8-compatibility-bug/#Item_5

Noet: this fix will mess the display of previously entered accented characters. They will have to be fixed manually.

Cheers

Justin

source: http://www.simpleinvoices.org/blog/utf8_and_pdf

Hi Guys

I've just uploaded a preview of the next beta (Beta 2) release of Simple Invoices

• http://www.simpleinvoices.org/beta/
• http://www.simpleinvoices.org/beta/index.php?module=invoices&view=itemised

Also as a result of the Dec 08 vote - http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#december_2008_vote there have been some changes to invoice creations. Basically me and 2 other people are the only ones using the Total style invoices :( - most other people uses Itemised and the rest use Consulting (note: theres been a late charge in the votes for Consulting).

What this means for you is when you click New Invoice it'll default to Itemised style - if you want to add in notes per line item (consulting style) just click the 'Notes Add' to the right of the Unit Price heading and all the description fields will be displayed. How Total style will be selected is stilla work in progress.

Whats new since beta 1?

1. new line item rows can be added dynamically during invoice creation
2. merger of itemised and consulting invoice types
   • to add a description to the line item just click the 'Notes add' icon on the right of unit price
3. tax rates per invoice item
   • note:
     • you can have muliptle taxes per line item
     • taxes can be dollar based or percentage based
     • as an exmaple during invoice creation you can select as many different addon tax rates as you want per line item
     • ie. Product : IBM server - you can select the following GST (10%) | State tax (3%) | Admin fee ($25) | Postage ($50) etc
       • note: in the demo its set at 1 tax per item - a GUI to adjust this is stall a work in progress
4. new UI : in an effort to simplify the UI as much as possible i've removed the old drop down menus with a simple click/tab based menu
5. new invoice template

Note:

• there will probably be 1 or 2 more beta releases of Simple Invoices before the next major release is made public
• theres still another week or so work to be done before Beta 2 will be released

For a status update refer:

• http://simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/trunk
• http://code.google.com/p/simpleinvoices/source/browse/trunk/dev/TODO.txt

Post if you have any comments

Cheers

Justin

source: http://www.simpleinvoices.org/blog/preview_of_beta_2_release_of_simple_invoices

Hi Guys,

To help us understand how you use Simple Invoices (so we can make invoice creation even better) i've put up a vote for which style invoice you use (total, itemised or consulting?) http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#december_2008_vote . If you guys can let us know which style you use it would be great - this will help with the upcoming work we'll be doing on invoice creation

Also in response to July 2008 vote http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#july_2008_vote there has been work started on “Better invoice creation” - namely editable prices per line item in itemised and consulting invoices and a few more nice things in the work to make this better

note: re recurring invoices (the current most requested feature) - some work has been done by one of our community members (Grungy) refer http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/127/recurring-billing-for-eg-services/#Item_17 for details and a download - more work will be done on this

Cheers

Justin

Source: http://www.simpleinvoices.org/blog/which_style_invoice_do_you_most_use

Hi Guys,

Some Simple Invoices news:

Progress on the Beta 2 release of Simple Invoices is going slow

• documentation, fixing and completing the postgres code, and make database backup work with PDO are the main things to get done
• there will be a release for Beta 2 pre xmas though

New UI

• i've been thinking about a new UI for Simple Invoices for a long time. i find the current UI - nice looking but to clunky and not intuitive with all those drop down menues and the like
• i'm working on an extension for Simple Invoices to redo the UI in a very simple and friendly way - think wordpress admin page with a mix inspiration from the design provded by Januz in

http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/608/design-for-the-interface-designer-offers-his-skills-/#Item_10

• i'll upload a demo once more work is done
• or you can svn checkout trunk and enable the tab_menu extension

Simple Invoices to hard to install

• given that getting Simple Invoices installed on your server needs some knowledge of mysql/apache/php - this limits our audience quite alot
• i'm working on 2 things to make a change to this
  • 1 - we've been invited to join the beta testing of the new bitnami.org
    • Bitnami makes installing apps like Simple Invoices just a couple of clicks for all platforms - windows uses get a .exe and follow the promts and it'll isntall and config everything etc..
    • If anyone want to help out building the bitnami/Simple Invoices package, let me know - its not that hard - just requries time and patience
  • 2 - another option im working on is offering free Simple Invoices hosting
    • this is still very much a work in progress but i hope to start offerign hosting pre xmas
    • note: this won't replace Simple Invoices from being downloadable and free/open source - just complement it - similar to wordpress.org and wordpress.com

SQLite

• now that were using PDO for database we can use a variety of database servers for Simple Invoices - not just mysql
• the postgres version just needs a few updates and it'll be ready to go
• a SQLite version is also under way - if anyone has sqlite experince or wants to learn - just let me know - i really want to get this on out asap

What to lend a hand?

• There has been some comments that the database upgrade from old versions of Simple Invoices to Beta 1 may have caused some data issues
• We need more people to test upgrading from old versions to Beta 1 and posting if the data was OK after the upgrade
• we need you to use real data and post what version you are upgrading from
• please post your results in this thread http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/670/simple-invoices-news-2008-12-01/ in the forum

Cheers

Justin

Hi All,

I'm very pleased to announce the availablity of the first beta release (2008 09 26 Beta 1) of the next major version of Simple Invoice!! code name for this series is 'Flying Doormat' refer wiki page

This release has been under development for the last year, though there are lots of backend and frontend changes this release signifies more of a new beginning for Simple Invoices rather than an upgrade in features. The changes and work that has gone on under the hood of this release puts us in a good position to advance Simple Invoices and make it a truely kick ass invoicing system.

More will be detailed soon, there will be 3 beta releases before the final version is released.

Whats news:

• Use of PDO for database abstraction
• Addition of a PostgreSQL version of Simple Invoices
• Manage pages have been redeveloped using Flexigrid
• Product price is now editable during invoice creation and editing
• Items can be deleted from an invoice during invoice editing
• Use of various components of the Zend Framework
  • inc. ACL, Auth, DB Table, Locale, Config,..
• Config.php has been replaces with config.ini
  • refer: http:www.simpleinvoices.org/config for details
• Product matrix extension added
• Text_UI extension added

Whats still todo:

• documentation, changelog, and release note to help detail all the changes and new stuff
• testing of PostgreSQL version
• refer http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/trunk for a full list

Download Beta 1 now from http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices_20080926.zip

Note:

• Documentation for this release is still a work in progress but basically there is no more config.php, all db and config details are now stored in ./config.php
• Backup your db first and I wouldnt use this as your production version just yet (unless your really game:) )

Post here for in the forum if you find an bugs with it

Also I hope everyone tunes in for tomorrows AFL ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Football_League ) Grand Final ( http://afl.com.au/ ), Cats v Hawks in a rematch of the classic 1989 Grand Final ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_VFL_Grand_Final ) - what a game, don't expect me to be in any state to answer queries :)

fyi

• the demo site http://simpleinvoices.org/demo/ has been updated to beta 1
• feel free to try it out

Cheers

Justin