Manage your home stocks like a pro with Grocy and Raspberry PI

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Last Updated on 12th June 2022 by peppe8o

IMPORTANT NOTE: I just submitted a GitHub bug notification as the default procedure to install Grocy results into a “SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1 no such table: users” error. Stay tuned with this page for news when the bug will be solved.

Managing home stocks is a common need for all people. How many times did you forget to buy something finished at home from your supermarket?

Grocy aims to help people keep track of their stocks and easily plan shopping for required items. With its built-in barcode scan function, it also allows managing the number of your products by simply scanning their barcode with your smartphone/tablet/pc camera.

It also supports a wider number of items and elements, also letting you define your customized ones.

Its main features include:

  • Google Home Assistant integration
  • Purchases tracking
  • Shopping list automation and optimization
  • Recipes management
  • Meal planning
  • Tasks management
  • … and many other features and addons

In this guide, Grocy will be installed in a cheap Raspberry PI 3 Model A+, but this applies also to newer Raspberry PI computer boards.

What We Need

raspberry pi 3 model A+

As usual, I suggest adding from now to your favourite e-commerce shopping cart all the needed hardware, so that at the end you will be able to evaluate overall costs and decide if to continue with the project or remove them from the shopping cart. So, hardware will be only:

Check hardware prices with the following links:

Amazon raspberry pi boards box
Amazon Raspberry PI 3 Model A+ box
Amazon Micro SD box
Amazon Raspberry PI Power Supply box

Step-by-Step Procedure

Prepare Operating System and Required Packages

Please start installing your OS. You can use Raspberry PI OS Lite (for a fast, headless OS), or you can use Raspberry PI OS Desktop (in this case working from its terminal).

Make your OS up to date. From terminal:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Apache webserver and SQLite:

sudo apt install apache2 -y
sudo apt install sqlite3 -y

Finally, install the required PHP packages:

sudo apt install php7.4 php7.4-sqlite3 php7.4-gd php7.4-intl php7.4-mbstring -y

Install Grocy in your Raspberry PI

Get a copy of Grocy code:

wget https://releases.grocy.info/latest -O grocy.zip

Unzip to the Apache root folder, copy the config file from the template and give correct permission to the folder:

sudo unzip grocy.zip -d /var/www/html/
sudo cp /var/www/html/config-dist.php /var/www/html/data/config.php
sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/

Define the base path in Apache:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

edit from

DocumentRoot /var/www/html/

to:

DocumentRoot /var/www/html/public/

Save and close this file.

Enable Override in Apache:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Edit within the “<Directory /var/www>” section:

AllowOverride None

to

AllowOverride All

Save and close this file.

Enable Rewrite and restart Apache:

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

From your favourite browser, use your Raspberry PI url: “http://<<YourRpiIpAddress>>” (my Raspberry PI address is 192.168.1.78). It is important to use the root URL (without adding, for example, the trailing “/login”), as it initializes the database and avoids the “SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1 no such table: users” error.

The login page will appear:

grocy-login-page

Use default credentials (remember to change the password soon when you will start using Grocy with your info):

  • user: admin
  • password: admin

You will be logged in to Grocy default home page:

grocy-home-page

From here, you can use your Grocy installation.

Enabling Barcode Scanner

If you want to use the convenient Barcode Scanner feature, you need to move your Grocy installation to “https”. To enable SSL and make the barcode scan work, please refer following steps.

You will install certificates generated locally, so your browser will surely notify you that this connection is not secure because it cannot verify with a public certification authority.

Enable Apache ssl, create a folder for certificates and generate local certificates. From terminal: 

sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

The last command will ask some questions for certificates generation. Answers are free…

Setup Apache SSL configuration file with correct root directory: 

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf

Identify the row including “DocumentRoot /var/www/html” and change it to “DocumentRoot /var/www/html/public”. Save and close the file.

Enable SSL and restart Apache:

sudo a2ensite default-ssl.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Back to your browser, you will find the SSL page at “https://<<YourRpiIpAddress>>” (my address is still 192.168.1.78). Your web browser will notify a not verified certificate with a not secure warning:

ssl-not-secure-page-warning

You are using your local Raspberry Pi, so you can go on by clicking on the “Advanced” button and then “Accept the risk and continue” link.

If you want to get a certificate without warnings, you will need to get it from a Certification Authority (like, for example, using Let’s encrypt with Raspberry PI).

A new login page will appear (identical to the previous one), but on the left side of your URL the “Not Secure” warning will change and after clicking it you will reach the certificate details:

grocy-login-page-https-without-valid-certificate

However, you can log in and use your Grocy installation and the Barcode Scanner feature.

Grocy Docs

Please find the Grocy tutorials at https://github.com/grocy/docs/blob/master/tutorial.md.

What’s Next

If you want to discover many other projects for your Raspberry PI, you can take a look at peppe8o Raspberry PI tutorials.

Enjoy!

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