XRechnung Addon for Alfresco – Installation & Usage Guide

The XRechnung LNSolutions addon extends Alfresco with full support for German XRechnung electronic invoices. It automatically detects XRechnung XML documents, enriches them with metadata, and generates high-quality HTML and PDF renditions via a dedicated Transform Engine (T‑Engine).

1. Components & Download Links

The solution consists of three main components:

  1. License Module (mandatory)
    Provides license validation for all LNSolutions addons.
    Download:  lnsolutions-alfresco-license-1.0.0.jar
  2. XRechnung Platform Addon (mandatory)
    Alfresco Repository extension for XRechnung detection, metadata aspect xr:xrechnungMetadata, and integration with the T‑Engine.
    Download:  xrechnung-lnsolutions-platform-1.0.jar
  3. XRechnung T‑Engine (mandatory for HTML/PDF)
    Standalone Spring Boot microservice that transforms XRechnung XML to HTML and feeds Alfresco’s PDF pipeline.
    Download JAR:  xrechnung-tengine-1.0.jar
    or Docker Image:  xrechnung-tengine:latest

2. Prerequisites

  • Alfresco Content Services 7.x+ (Repository)
  • Java 11+ on the Alfresco side and T‑Engine side
  • Access to deploy JARs (Tomcat WEB-INF/lib or custom Docker image)
  • Valid LNSolutions license key (or trial license)

To request a trial license, use:
Request XRechnung trial license

3. Installing the License Module

  1. Stop Alfresco.
  2. Copy lnsolutions-alfresco-license-1.0.0.jar to:
    • <TOMCAT>/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/lib/ (non-Docker)
    • or bake it into your custom Alfresco Docker image.
  3. Start Alfresco and verify the license module is loaded (check logs).
  4. Install or upload your license key using the key xrechnung.license.public.key in your alfresco-global.properties file

4. Installing the XRechnung Platform Addon

  1. Stop Alfresco.
  2. Copy xrechnung-lnsolutions-platform-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar to:
    • <TOMCAT>/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/lib/ (non-Docker)
    • or into your custom Alfresco Docker image.
  3. Ensure the license module is loaded before this module (the XRechnung module declares a dependency on lnsolutions-alfresco-license).
  4. Start Alfresco and check logs for XRechnung module initialization.

4.1. Alfresco Configuration

In alfresco-global.properties (or equivalent Docker environment), add the XRechnung T‑Engine URL:

# URL of the XRechnung Transform Engine
localTransform.xrechnung.url=http://xrechnung-tengine:8091

Adjust the host/port to your environment (e.g. http://localhost:8091 for standalone testing).

5. Deploying the XRechnung T‑Engine

5.1. Run as Docker Container (recommended)

  1. Load or build the Docker image: 
    docker run -d -p 8091:8091 --name xrechnung-tengine xrechnung-tengine:latest
  2. Verify the service is running: 
    curl http://localhost:8091/ready

5.2. Run as Standalone JAR

  1. Start the service: 
    java -jar xrechnung-tengine-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
  2. Verify readiness: 
    curl http://localhost:8091/ready

5.3. T‑Engine Configuration (License & Core Transform)

Configure the following environment variables for the T‑Engine (e.g. in a .env file or service configuration):

XRECHNUNG_TRANSFORM_CONFIG=/opt/xrechnung-tengine/config/xrechnung-transform-config.json
CORE_AIO_TRANSFORM_URL=http://transform-core-aio:8090/transform
LICENSE_VALIDATION_URL=http://<alfresco-host>:8080/alfresco/service/lnsolutions/admin/license-status

The T‑Engine calls LICENSE_VALIDATION_URL before each transform to enforce your license via Alfresco.

6. Using the XRechnung Addon

6.1. Automatic Detection & Metadata

  1. Log into Alfresco as an administrator or user.
  2. Upload an XRechnung XML invoice (UBL or CII) to any folder.
  3. The XRechnungDetectionBehavior inspects the content and, if valid, automatically applies the XRechnung Metadata aspect (xr:xrechnungMetadata).
  4. In the document properties, you will see XRechnung-specific fields such as: Digital Invoice Profile, Digital Invoice Profile Description (Short), and Is Digital Invoice.

6.2. HTML Preview

  1. Open the document details page in Alfresco.
  2. Use the built-in preview: Alfresco requests an HTML rendition from the XRechnung T‑Engine and displays a nicely formatted invoice.
  3. For technical testing, you can also call the web script: 
    http://<alfresco-host>:8080/alfresco/service/lnsolutions/node/xrechnung-html?id={nodeId}


6.3. PDF Renditions

The addon also supports a PDF pipeline: XRechnung XML → HTML (T‑Engine) → PDF (Alfresco pdfRenderer).

  1. Upload an XRechnung XML document.
  2. Wait for Alfresco to generate renditions.
  3. Download the PDF rendition from the document details page and verify layout and characters (e.g. umlauts) are correct.

7. XRechnung Indicator & Behavior

The XRechnung addon uses the XRechnung Metadata aspect (xr:xrechnungMetadata) as the technical indicator that a document is a valid XRechnung invoice.

  • Is Digital Invoice (xr:isDigitalInvoice): Boolean flag that is set when a document is detected as XRechnung.
  • Digital Invoice Profile (xr:digitalInvoiceProfile): Stores the detected digital invoice profile identifier.
  • Digital Invoice Profile Description (Short) (xr:digitalInvoiceProfileDescShort): Short, human‑readable label for the detected profile (e.g. displayed as “Digital Invoice Profile Description (Short)” in Alfresco).

The XRechnungDetectionBehavior listens to document creation and updates for cm:content nodes. When an uploaded XML file matches the XRechnung patterns (based on its content, metadata, or filename), the behavior automatically adds the xr:xrechnungMetadata aspect and sets xr:isDigitalInvoice = true.

Only documents that carry this XRechnung indicator (the xr:xrechnungMetadata aspect with xr:isDigitalInvoice=true) are treated as XRechnung by the HTML/PDF transformation pipeline. Generic XML files remain unaffected until they are positively identified as XRechnung.

8. Requesting a Trial License

If you want to evaluate the XRechnung addon before purchasing a full license, request a trial here:

Request XRechnung Trial License

Or contact us for a permanent license.