Paperwork is a free, open-source and self-hosted personal document manager that can be used to manages scanned documents and PDFs. It is alternate solutions to other services like Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, and Google Keep. It comes with lots of features including, Automatic detection of page orientation, Scan, OCR, Document labels, Search, Keyword suggestions, Quick edit of scans and much more.
In this tutorial, we will going to explain how to install Paperwork on Ubuntu 18.04 server.
Requirements
- A server running Ubuntu 18.04 server.
- A non-root user with sudo privileges.
- A static IP address 192.168.0.235 configure on your server.
Install LAMP Server
First, you will need to install Apache, MariaDB, PHP and other required packages to your server. You can install all of them by running the following command:
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install apache2 mariadb-server php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-cli php7.2-gd php7.2-mysql php7.2-curl php7.2-xml php7.2-mbstring php-pear php7.2-zip php-dev git wget libmcrypt-dev php7.2-gd unzip -yNext, you will need to install Nodejs to your system. By default, the latest version of Nodejs is not available in the Ubuntu 18.04 default repository. So, you will need to add Nodejs repository to your system. You can do this with the following command:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo bash -Next, install Nodejs using the following command:
sudo apt-get install nodejs -yNext, you will need to install the mcrypt PHP extension to your system. You can install it with the pecl command:
sudo pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
sudo pecl install mcrypt-1.0.1When asked, just press enter to continue.
Next, add the extension mcrypt.so to php.ini file with the following command:
sudo sed -i.bak '927iextension=mcrypt.so' /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.iniNext, Grab installing path and add to cli and apache2 php.ini configuration.
sudo bash -c "echo extension=/usr/lib/php/20170718/mcrypt.so > /etc/php/7.2/cli/conf.d/mcrypt.ini"
sudo bash -c "echo extension=/usr/lib/php/20170718/mcrypt.so > /etc/php/7.2/apache2/conf.d/mcrypt.ini"Next, verify the PHP mcrypt extension with the following command:
sudo php -i | grep "mcrypt"Output:
mcrypt
mcrypt support => enabled
mcrypt_filter support => enabled
mcrypt.algorithms_dir => no value => no value
mcrypt.modes_dir => no value => no value
Next, restart Apache and MariaDB service and enable them to start on boot with the following command:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo systemctl restart mariadb
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl enable mariadbConfigure Database
By default, MariaDB is not secured. So you will need to secure it first. You can secure it by running the following script:
sudo mysql_secure_installationAnswer all the questions as shown below:
Enter current password for root (enter for none):
Set root password? [Y/n]: N
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Once the MariaDB is secured, log in to MariaDB shell:
mysql -u root -pEnter your root password, then create a database and user for Paperwork:
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE paperwork DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
MariaDB [(none)]>GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON paperwork.* TO 'paperwork'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'paperwork' WITH GRANT OPTION;Next, Flush the privileges with the following command:
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;Next, exit from the MariaDB console with the following command:
MariaDB [(none)]> EXITDowload and Install Paperwork
First, download the latest version of Paperwork by running the following command:
cd /var/www/html
git clone -b 1 https://github.com/twostairs/paperwork.gitNext, instruct PHP to ignore the “mcrypt_get_iv_size has been deprecated” message by running the following command:
cd paperwork/frontend/
sudo sed -i.bak '3ierror_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_DEPRECATED);' app/config/app.phpNext, you will need to install Composer to your system. Composer is a dependency Manager for PHP that can be used to install dependencies required by PHP. You can install Composer with the following command:
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composerNext, install PHP dependencies through composer with the following command:
sudo composer installNext, populate the database with the following command:
sudo php artisan migrateOutput:
PHP Warning: Module 'mcrypt' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
**************************************
* Application In Production! *
**************************************
Do you really wish to run this command? y
Migration table created successfully.
Migrated: 2014_07_22_194050_initialize
Migrated: 2014_07_24_103915_create_password_reminders_table
Migrated: 2014_10_08_203732_add_visibility_to_tags_table
Migrated: 2015_01_21_034728_add_admin_to_users
Migrated: 2015_05_05_094021_modify_tag_user_relation
Migrated: 2015_05_22_220540_add_version_user_relation
Migrated: 2015_06_15_224221_add_tag_parent
Migrated: 2015_06_30_125536_add_sessions_table
Migrated: 2015_07_29_130508_alter_versions
Migrated: 2016_10_21_224100_fix_timestamps_for_postgres_againNext, install npm and bower dependencies:
sudo npm install -g gulp bower
sudo npm installYou should get some warning messages after running above command. Just ignore all of them and run the following command:
sudo bower install --allow-root
sudo gulpNext, give proper permissions to the paperwork directory:
sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/paperwork
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/paperworkConfigure Apache for paperwork
Next, you will need to create an Apache virtual host for paperwork:
You can do this with the following command:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/paperwork.confAdd the following lines:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/paperwork/frontend/public
ServerName example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/paperwork/frontend/public>
Options Indexes FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>Save and close the file. Then, enable apache virtual host with the following command:
sudo a2ensite paperworkFinally, enable Apache rewrite module and restart Apache service to apply all the changes:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2In conclusion
installing Paperwork DMS on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is a practical way to build a reliable and efficient document management system for personal or organizational use. By carefully following each step—from setting up dependencies to configuring the application—you can ensure a smooth deployment process. Once installed, Paperwork provides a powerful yet user-friendly platform to organize, search, and manage documents effectively. With proper maintenance and regular updates, your system will remain secure, stable, and ready to support your long-term document management needs.
Add Comment