Install and configure an open source CRM for your XaaS business

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In this article I will guide you through a full installation and setup of Servicebot application. Servicebot is an open-source platform that will sell any service online. Here is our Github repository.

Servicebot admin dashboard view

Prerequisites

Make sure to have the following items before starting the installation:

Linux server. I used the smallest Ubuntu 16.04 droplet in DigitalOcean for this installation. You could also just use a local server to test this out.

I used the smallest Ubuntu 16.04 droplet in DigitalOcean for this installation. You could also just use a local server to test this out. Stripe account. It is free and you need it to be able to process payments with your Servicebot application.

It is free and you need it to be able to process payments with your Servicebot application. (Optional) Mail Server. Servicebot will use this for sending out automated emails to your clients and yourself.

Servicebot will use this for sending out automated emails to your clients and yourself. (Optional) SSL Cert. Stripe requires SSL certificate for live mode payments. One way you can obtain a SSL cert is using Let’s Encrypt. Make sure to name your certificate as mentioned below.

Certificates should be named as follows:

- Keyfile : servicebot.key

- Certificate : servicebot.crt

- CA : servicebot_bundle.crt

Once you have the above prerequisites, move on to the installation.

Install Servicebot

SSH into your server and run the following commands to install your Servicebot application.

1- Install docker if not installed already

sudo wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh

2- Install docker-compose

sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.11.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)"

3- Set the permissions for docker-compose

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

4- verify that the docker-compose installation was successful by checking the version

docker-compose -v

This will print out the version we installed:

5- Run a git clone of Servicebot docker deployment

git clone https://github.com/service-bot/servicebot-deploy.git

6- git clone command above should create a new directory inside your current working directory. Move into the newly created folder:

cd servicebot-deploy/

7- [Optional] Configure the docker yaml file. There should be a file in this directory called “docker-compose.yaml”. This file obtains the configuration of your Servicebot docker container.

If you have your SSL cert and mail server, go ahead and add them to this .yaml file, if not, skip to step #8.

Let’s modify this file to add your SSL cert and mail server (you can use any other editor you would like, I used nano)

nano docker-compose.yaml

For SMTP mail server, edit and uncomment the following lines to match your SMTP server information:

SMTP_HOST : "localhost"

SMTP_USER : "postmaster@localhost"

SMTP_PASSWORD : "password"

SMTP_PORT : "587"

For SSL: uncomment the two SSL lines and change /path/to/ssl/certs/on/server to the path on your server that you created for the certificates:

CERTIFICATES: "./ssl/"

- /path/to/ssl/certs/on/server:/usr/src/app/ssl

8- Build the docker images

docker-compose build

9- Start the docker container

docker-compose up -d

10- That’s it! Your new Servicebot website should be live now. Open your browser, go to your server IP address or URL and you should be presented with the following page:

Initial Servicebot open source setup page

Setup Servicebot

Once you have installed your Servicebot website, it is time to connect it to your Stripe account and add your business information.

11- Login to Stripe, navigate to the API link on the left hand side, or simply go to this link. You can either use your live or test keys to connect to your Servicebot website. If you haven’t configured your SSL yet, you can only use the test mode keys. Updating Stripe keys in the future is very simple through the Servicebot dashboard.

Simply paste your Stripe keys to your Servicebot setup page and then press next.

12- Once your Stripe keys are configured, you should see the following page:

Enter an email and password for your administrator user. Then enter your business information and press submit.

Congratulations! You are all done. You now have a brand new Servicebot website that you can use to manage your customers, services, and automate your billing.

Initial Servicebot page after setup completion

Alternative installation methods

If you don’t want to go through the effort of installing your own Servicebot server, you could just signup for one through our automated system on the ServiceShop homepage. Just input your email, password, and business name, and you will have a new Servicebot website in less than 20 seconds.

Next steps

In the future posts, I will focus on Servicebot’s features and use-cases and teach you how to use the platform. If you have any questions or would like to talk to our team, you can email us at team@servicebot.io or just use our website instant chat.

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