Homebox v0.8.0 Release - Home Inventory Solution
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r/selfhostedu/Akmantainman (474)

Dropping by to announce the v0.8.0 release of Homebox!

Homebox is the inventory and organization system built for the Home User! With a focus on simplicity and ease of use, Homebox is the perfect solution for your home inventory, organization, and management needs.

I've made lots of feature, usability, and UI updates in the last few months, if you haven't looked at it in a while, give it a look now and let me know what you think.

Links

Here's what's new in this version!

New Tree View

New Tree View based on locations! It's in it's early state and now only supports browsing. In future releases we're looking at adding:

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https://preview.redd.it/61d1gsb8p6ia1.png?width=1424&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb61a12344cd6fa66afec36a991369cf33025639

QR Code Label Generator

Best explained on the demo page! https://homebox.fly.dev/reports/label-generator

I've built a configurable interface for printable labels with QR Codes, It's still early does, and a little difficult to fit custom labels but does work by default for Avery 5260 sheet labels which is what I've tested with!

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https://preview.redd.it/6z9hj3n9p6ia1.png?width=916&format=png&auto=webp&s=92f4e3d4961fa42b0312bec29d8eba25242f5afe

New Bill of Materials Report

Export a summary of your inventory with basic information. More report types coming soon, including Import file compatible exports!

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https://preview.redd.it/vrozfnrap6ia1.png?width=1432&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ed258da45454a27f0c9197298cdc4ece2c14dba

Enhanced Search Functions

Previous search filters would not correctly apply filters to results. Search filters have been updated to use a more natural query result where Locations, Labels, and/Or Field/Value must all be matched in order for results to be returned. For example the query:

Would return items that contain the `Home` or `Garage` Location AND the have the `IOT` or `Electronics` labels.

Updated Search User Interface

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https://preview.redd.it/604u755dp6ia1.png?width=1432&format=png&auto=webp&s=f4c95879401dab6283eeb9ee2ef4a5ace404dbed

Custom Field/Value now Filterable

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https://preview.redd.it/mod404dep6ia1.png?width=1434&format=png&auto=webp&s=47eabeb8564a47bd3e1df370663c3a944d4552e7

Selectable Card/Table view for Items

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https://preview.redd.it/bl6m5fufp6ia1.png?width=1171&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c17faa1606a3057a19363591372010e7158457f

What's Next?

Comments (80)

This is getting cooler and cooler!

I wrote a set of scripts and text files I use to manage my own inventory. Always on the lookout for something better, tho.

There's a couple things I do with my own inventory tracking that I don't see reflected here, but maybe I could use locations and custom fields for:

  • I record items I've disposed of. How I got rid of it (i.e. sold, gifted), what it cost to dispose of, monies recouped if any.
  • Things that make up a whole are part of an assembly. Computer parts, for example. I only do this with items that have separate warranty, tho.

When I record purchase costs I track the item cost, taxes, and any fees separately and let my tools calculate the gross cost. Would you consider calculated custom fields like that to be too far out of scope for this project?

I suppose some custom fields might always be visible in item detail even when not relevant, but that's not problem for me.

edit: formatting

Have you checked InvenTree?

That's what I choose to use in my HomeLab and I think it can do everything you asked for.

You can do both assembly's and BOM plus it has the ability to sell inventory or just remove them from inventory if for example you used some screw, and it lets you add a note to each stock change either adding or removing.

And the android app is really well done totally worth the 9.49€, you can do almost everything with the app instead of the browser, really good to check what you have in a box or drawer just by scanning a qr code or barcode.

Edit: link to the project

Thanks for the pointer.

It seems like it could be made to handle the track-this-for-insurance purposes, but I think HomeBox is better for that as-is.

And HomeBox beats it hands down for user friendliness. I think HomeBox could pass the Partner Acceptance Test where I'm certain InvenTree wouldn't.

I never tried home box but I completely agree with Inventree is not as user friendly since its more business oriented and more features.

  • I see you have custom field support. It would be great if you could have item templates with pre-selected additional fields.

  • It would be nice if the save button was more visible/floating when editing an item. I missed it several times since I was scrolled down, and couldn't figure out why the UI wasn't updating when I left edit mode. When I went back into edit mode, some of my (unsaved) changes were still there, but not all.

  • It wants date entry in mm/dd/yyyy, but displays dates in yyyy-mm-dd. Confusing, it should be consistent (and default to standard yyyy-mm-dd)

  • I entered a warranty expiry date of 06/01/2069 (per entry format), and it displays as as 2001-02-06.

  • I did not enter purchase or sale dates, but after editing, they now have values of 2014-01-02 from somewhere.

  • It would be nice if the 'log maintenance' could update a field. For example, if the asset was a generator with an 'hours' indicator, the 'hours' could be updated during service, and show in the maint history (rather than just updating a custom field with no record). Similar for a vehicle with odometer, etc.

Thanks for the feedback!

The date picker format is a browser thing and I can't change it without rolling my own date picker :(

Sorry about all the date time weirdness. It's all saved in the backend correctly, but when it's translated from the backend to the frontend it seemingly always has issues. I'll have to take another look, but when I fix one another always pops up!

Some of the other stuff you mentioned is on the road map 👍

This is looking great! I think I will probably start using this. I have been looking for a good super-simple home inventory app for a while.

Main wishlist I would have is:

  • Sometimes I have something that is kind of... both a container and an object. I wonder if there is a better way to make those act the same way in the UI. For instance, I have a desktop computer, but it actually contains several computer parts inside. Currently in order to make this work I have to set the computer up as a container.

  • It would be nice if the web app didn't need to pull resources from websites online. I would normally expect something like this to host its own copies of images, svgs, etc. Unless I allow access to api.iconify.design, the main sign-in page doesn't display anything for me.

It really looks awesome! Keep up the good work.

1) you can nest items inside other items, which is probably what you're looking for?

2) Yes, I didn't realize it didn't this until recently. Need to add this to my todos for the next release before I forget.

Wow! I actually just found the item nesting hidden beneath the "Advanced" toggle. Amazing. Thanks for all the help and the great software.

I just tried nesting some items inside another one but it seems like when you update the parent item, the child items don't get their location updated. Would that be intended?

Not really intended. not something I thought about though. If you submit a GitHub issue I should be able to get that fixed though.

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It is nicely packaged up in a docker container!

When I say Homes what I really mean, is this isn't a warehouse inventory system, or a IT infrastructure tool like SnipeIT.

Will you also prepare a docker ready to run?

A home is a home regardless of it being a building or a vehicle.

Was looking for a solution like this, nice!

I have two features in mind regarding the barcodes: 1) support for more kinds of barcodes such that one can use the already printed barcodes on the products.

2) Quick scan items to remove or place them into a location, i.e. scan the item then scan the location to place the item into the location (given that locations also have barcodes).

Excellent work! Just keep it up.

I had this installed on my NAS, but my only complaint was, I like to print out some or all of my inventory. Did I miss this option or is it not present?

If you go to the tools page you can export a csv of your items that has some basic information. More reporting for are in the works.

Just reinstalled, full item detail and picture to print or save as pdf would be nice. I did notice in the purchase price field on an item, it will not save if you add $ to the price, not a big deal, just kind of annoying.

Also, I'm NOT a programmer in any sense of the word but would love to contribute, even if it's just financial help. I like to support great projects like this and I have been looking for something like this to replace Memento.

Currently have all my movies in Memento and boy is it showing it's age. You think this is a good replacement?

It's not there yet, but it has the potential. The best part, for me at least, is I host it. I have been moving to host all my services and this beats Memento in that area hands down.

Support for niimbot csv export would be cool, thier little thermal lable printers are the DBs.

I'd also like to have an opton to see al items

This looks really cool! I could catalogue all of my kids' stuff... :looks around in horror:...

I'm sorry if I didn't find it but would it work with a bar code scanner? I don't have one but at one point I did a brief and cursory Google search if it was possible to do a rpi + bar code scanner project.

Also I just checked online regarding the avery 5260 label paper but couldn't figure out of it was compatible with EU /metric format(s) such as A4?

Second the question about the barcode scanner. I’ve got a mountain of books, dvds, and blu-rays I’m trying to inventory and looking for something to help out with this.

I managed to find one forum thread I read about this topic. They didn't exactly solve the question though.

One use I can think of is insurance documentation. Some time ago i read on Reddit about how insurance companies can ask for a home item inventory if let's say you house burnt down.

Having everything in such an inventory can make things so much easier.

Is there an option to backup the excel/csv export to someplace on daily/monthly basis? Or even just plain email it automatically ?

Theoretically if you have backups (ha) they should be off-site, but I agree. Even if there's just a way schedule a CSV export to somewhere outside the container, a different script could take over to back it up to mega, drive or whatever.

From the docker side should be as easy as setting a volume up as a backup dir

This is great, thanks!

Looks interesting, would this scale down to electronic components storage? Like in my garage -> organiser drawer 1 -> row 2, column 3 -> 10kohm resistor

And is there API backend I could theoretically use to say add search functionality to home assistant or would I just have to connect to the db ?

Yes, I want a garage assistant to tell me where my resistors are. If anyone happens to know of any..

Hi sorry for asking here and not on the discord which I don't have an account for.

Can locations/boxes have pictures? I feel that it would be useful to people used to performing visual searches.

It would be awesome if you could scrape some websites and import more information about the things we add. If I add a Garmin Vivoactive 3 Smartwatch - it would be nice if homebox could then add pictures and technical specs from, maybe amazon, or so.
I know that this isn't that easy, but it would be sooooo good.

Very cool.

A suggestion- swap QR code for Data Matrix. It's more efficient in terms of bytes per square inch.

Also consider supporting a label printer. There's a bunch that can be printed to over the network or USB or bluetooth. The ability to print a label with the QR/DM barcode and the item asset tag number would be a useful feature.

I'm testing this out. Been looking for something like this for a long time. Having recently had to do an insurance claim for a complete loss...I want to make it easy if it (god forbid) happens again.

One thing that would be really, really useful is to be able to easily export a selection of items (or all items) in a format you could hand off to an insurance company. A PDF report that has each item along with it's receipt and photos, and relevant fields.

I see on the demo instance people using labels to simulate containers. Do you have a roadmap for supporting something like this:

Location - Attic

Container - Big Plastic Bin 1

Contents: [Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, ...]

You can nest locations and items already, if thats what you mean. Using labels for containers isn't really what I had in mind, so I'm not sure why you would do that 🤷

Labels are more like categories of items in my mind.

I see that now, sorry for missing it the first time. That's excellent.

Thank you!

I discovered homebox recently while browsing Truecharts. I fell in love immediately.

Inventree is cool and all, but when all I want to deal with is "what things are locate where", Homebox is just what I needed.

!remindme 2 days

I will be messaging you in 2 days on 2023-02-17 01:58:57 UTC to remind you of this link

1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

^(Parent commenter can ) ^(delete this message to hide from others.)

|^(Info)|^(Custom)|^(Your Reminders)|^(Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|

Does this app have the option to nest an asset within an asset somehow?

I bought my PC as components and assembled it. Would it be possible to have an entry for each component, but have them "belong" in some way to my PC, without setting it up as a separate "location"?

edit: Oh! Also! Would it be possible to have a "Labels" button on the left navigation bar?

people really use those weak ass electric/"smart" locks? meh maybe they are really nice neighborhoods.

1) docker instance

2) spray binaries on a machine

At what point in your life did you realize you were allergic to rfc2790:4.7 , and did antihistamines help?

I have no idea what you're trying to say?

Are you asking whether you have no idea what I'm trying to say?

I bet you're real fun at parties.

I've been using it for a few months now. Will look to upgrade to this version.

Have you added support for custom currency symbol? It's for home use, so it doesn't matter that it shows USD, but I'd love for the prices to be shown in my own currency INR

You can set the currency on the user profile page, I think INR is supported

Was looking for a solution, thank you :)

This is something I know I should do but man it would be such a beast to get up and running.

It's also nearly impossible to maintain. Good luck remembering to come update this every time you get a new thing or move something to another room. I've tried in the past to keep a home inventory, it's just so much work.

This does seem like the nicest simplest version of a home inventory application though. So good job on that OP. SnipeIT and stuff like it was way overcomplicated for this use.

I just stumbled upon this a few days ago during an extended hospital stay. I'm getting discharged today and plan on taking it for a spin this week.

Is there a way to update the docker container without losing the database, or is it an export/import procedure?

All the data should stay as long as youre handling your data volume correctly. Really depends on how you deployed.

What are the data volume paths? I don't see them listed in the docker-compose.

I am interested in this program. I literally was just thinking about something like this when I was organizing my storage room full of boxes.

Post saved, I'm definitely giving this a shot. Might be a solution for keeping up with all the home maintenance/IT hardware/kitchen utensils I have lying around.

Very grateful for this thanks! Just started using this to keep stock of my home lab stuff.

Just updated on docker and I'm loving the locations tab.

I do exactly same on Google Keep notes - was looking for something like this. Good work!

I do maintain some of the below tasks through various notes and spreadsheet app. If those features also added, it would be a great addition to self-hosted.

  1. Inventory kind of - Adding Appliances with Seller info, date of purchase, warranty expiry date and reminder. After-sales service info will be handy.

  2. Home maintenance plan - Annual / Monthly / Weekly tasks to be done and ownership (one in family) and tracking slippage

  3. Home related payment reminder - Housing Society charges, Home Insurance premium

  4. Car and two wheeler tasks

Again, thanks for your time and efforts.

Excellent - will be installing shortly. Great work.

This is awesome! I was just thinking recently it'd be interesting to have software to do something like this but figured a home use-case would be too niche.

I actually have a use for this at home. Well there you go.

This is cool. Not sure if there are other apps like this around, I should probably use one. Checking out the demo I noticed on an item page you can add attachments, I assume it's disabled for the demo. Can you tag/describe the attachment? Like for example if you upload the item's manual pdf, can you easily search for "manuals" or do you have to return to the item's details page? Just a thought on usage.

Just wanted to say well done for this and keep up the good work! I'll definitely try it out when I get home and play around with it.

This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for! I’ve got shelves in my office with boxes of stuff in them. So I wanted to be able to put labels on the shelves and boxes and use a system where I can search for what I want and it would tell me exactly where the box is. I was going to build myself something but don’t have time and couldn’t be bothered to dedicate the time to it. I’ll definitely check this out.

Is it possible to put instructions on how to install the system in a barebones. I’m using promox with lxc for all my apps and don’t want to install to docker if I don’t have to in a lxc

I'm here for same reason. It seems awesome project!
u/Akmantainman please consider releasing built go binaries arm included.

Could you fill out a Github issue so I can track this? It pretty easy to do, but no one has asked for it so I haven't prioritized. Github issues help me not forget about this kind of stuff!

I've created one. Thanks mate.

This is amazing! Maybe this is too far from the purpose of the tool, but I think it would be cool to be able to add groceries with price and expiration dates, and have those expiration dates appear somewhere. I think it would help reduce waste.

I just started using StoreDown, but this might be a better choice.

Awesome tool! I've been looking for this for months. Thank you so much!

[deleted]

You can just use the default browser printer

[deleted]

Not yet. I'm like 99% done with an import/export rewrite that supports export so it will be in the next versions. Just as soon as I'm done writing tests....

Thanks for the kind words!

Great program. I'm a bit confused though what fields get searched though. I am a bit surprised/disappointed that the manufacturer or model number fields don't seem to be included, unless I'm missing something?

Hello Mate, can/will Homebox support multi-property?

Also, may I suggest reminders, for when something service is expiring or needs renewal?

Great work, Your commitment to something so useful sets a wonderful example!

You can already do multi property by using nested locations, other than that, I'm not looking at adding any other kind of multi-property support

Im working on reminders for scheduled services now actually.

Just discovered it, and I love it already. There is still a lot of work to do and I do have some remarks with the UI, but the idea is simple and could work for my setup very well.

One thing I do miss is the ability to add a to-do (maintenance task) without a scheduled date. Some things you just do when you get round to it...

I'd love to integrate this with Home Assistant: certain automations could trigger maintenance tasks and scheduled maintenance could show up in the HA calendar.

this is exactly what i was looking for. thanks so much for creating it!

Awesome! just installed it on my docker server and can't wait to organize my place.

Hello. I have just stumbled upon HomeBox. Can I use my iPhone as a barcode reader in order to scan my items easier? Is there a native iOS app, or would it be though the browser? Can I manage expiration dates on perishable items, like food?? Ty