ihatemoney/docs/configuration.rst

.. _configuration:

Configuration
=============

"ihatemoney" relies on a configuration file. If you run the application for the
first time, you will need to take a few moments to configure the application
properly.

The default values given here are those for the development mode.
To know defaults on your deployed instance, simply look at your
``ihatemoney.cfg`` file.

"Production values" are the recommended values for use in production.

Configuration files
-------------------

By default, Ihatemoney loads its configuration from ``/etc/ihatemoney/ihatemoney.cfg``.

If you need to load the configuration from a custom path, you can define the
``IHATEMONEY_SETTINGS_FILE_PATH`` environment variable with the path to the configuration
file.
For instance ::

    export IHATEMONEY_SETTINGS_FILE_PATH="/path/to/your/conf/file.cfg"

The path should be absolute. A relative path will be interpreted as being
inside ``/etc/ihatemoney/``.

`SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI`
-------------------------

Specifies the type of backend to use and its location. More information on the
format used can be found on `the SQLAlchemy documentation`_.

- **Default value:** ``sqlite:///tmp/ihatemoney.db``
- **Production value:** Set it to some path on your disk. Typically
  ``sqlite:///home/ihatemoney/ihatemoney.db``. Do *not* store it under
  ``/tmp`` as this folder is cleared at each boot.

For example, if you're using MariaDB, use a configuration similar to the following::

    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'mysql+pymysql://user:pass@localhost/mydb'

If you're using PostgreSQL, your client must use utf8. Unfortunately,
PostgreSQL default is to use ASCII. Either change your client settings,
or specify the encoding by appending ``?client_encoding=utf8`` to the
connection string. This will look like::

    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'postgresql://myuser:mypass@localhost/mydb?client_encoding=utf8'

.. _the SQLAlchemy documentation: http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/core/engines.html#database-urls

`SECRET_KEY`
------------

The secret key used to encrypt cookies and generate secure tokens.  They are used
to authenticate access to projects, both through the web interface and through the API.

As such, you should never use a predictible secret key: an attacker with the knowledge
of the secret key could easily access any project and bypass the private code verification.

- **Production value:** `ihatemoney conf-example ihatemoney.cfg` sets it to
  something random, which is good.

`SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE`
-----------------------

A boolean that controls whether the session cookie will be marked "secure".
If this is the case, browsers will refuse to send the session cookie over plain HTTP.

- **Default value:** ``True``
- **Production value:** ``True`` if you run your service over HTTPS, ``False`` if you run
  your service over plain HTTP.

Note: this setting is actually interpreted by Flask, see the
`Flask documentation`_ for details.

.. _Flask documentation: https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/config/#SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE

`MAIL_DEFAULT_SENDER`
---------------------

A python tuple describing the name and email address to use when sending
emails.

- **Default value:** ``("Budget manager", "budget@notmyidea.org")``
- **Production value:** Any tuple you want.

`ACTIVATE_DEMO_PROJECT`
-----------------------

If set to `True`, a demo project will be available on the frontpage.

- **Default value:** ``True``
- **Production value:** Usually, you will want to set it to ``False`` for a
  private instance.

`ADMIN_PASSWORD`
----------------

Hashed password to access protected endpoints. If left empty, all
administrative tasks are disabled.

- **Default value:** ``""`` (empty string)
- **Production value:** To generate the proper password HASH, use
  ``ihatemoney generate_password_hash`` and copy the output into the value of
  *ADMIN_PASSWORD*.

`ALLOW_PUBLIC_PROJECT_CREATION`
-------------------------------

If set to ``True``, everyone can create a project without entering the admin
password. If set to ``False``, the password needs to be entered (and as such,
defined in the settings).

- **Default value:** : ``True``.


`ACTIVATE_ADMIN_DASHBOARD`
--------------------------

If set to `True`, the dashboard will become accessible entering the admin
password, if set to `True`, a non empty ADMIN_PASSWORD needs to be set.

- **Default value**: ``False``

`APPLICATION_ROOT`
------------------

If empty, ihatemoney will be served at domain root (e.g: *http://domain.tld*),
if set to ``"somestring"``, it will be served from a "folder"
(e.g: *http://domain.tld/somestring*).

- **Default value:** ``""`` (empty string)

`BABEL_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE`
------------------------

The timezone that will be used to convert date and time when displaying them
to the user (all times are always stored in UTC internally).
If not set, it will default to the timezone configured on the Operating System
of the server running ihatemoney, which may or may not be what you want.

- **Default value:** *unset* (use the timezone of the server Operating System)
- **Production value:** Set to the timezone of your expected users, with a
  format such as ``"Europe/Paris"``. See `this list of TZ database names`_
  for a complete list.

Note: this setting is actually interpreted by Flask-Babel, see the
`Flask-Babel guide for formatting dates`_ for details.

.. _this list of TZ database name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List

.. _Flask-Babel guide for formatting dates: https://pythonhosted.org/Flask-Babel/#formatting-dates

`ENABLE_CAPTCHA`
---------------

It is possible to add a simple captcha in order to filter out spammer bots on the form creation.
In order to do so, you just have to set `ENABLE_CAPTCHA = True`.

`LEGAL_LINK`
------------

You may want to point to a special legal page, for instance to give information
about GDPR, or how you handle the data of your users.

If you want to do this, you can use the `LEGAL_LINK` setting. Set it to the URL
you want.

Configuring emails sending
--------------------------

By default, Ihatemoney sends emails using a local SMTP server, but it's
possible to configure it to act differently, thanks to the great
`Flask-Mail project <https://pythonhosted.org/flask-mail/#configuring-flask-mail>`_

* **MAIL_SERVER** : default **'localhost'**
* **MAIL_PORT** : default **25**
* **MAIL_USE_TLS** : default **False**
* **MAIL_USE_SSL** : default **False**
* **MAIL_DEBUG** : default **app.debug**
* **MAIL_USERNAME** : default **None**
* **MAIL_PASSWORD** : default **None**
* **DEFAULT_MAIL_SENDER** : default **None**