1. Module overview

Greenhouse Agricultural Management turns Dolibarr into a complete business solution for farms operating greenhouses. It covers the entire protected-cropping cycle, from the seed lot to the delivery note, including structures, crops, campaigns, climate control, irrigation, fertigation, IoT sensors, crop protection, harvest, packing, traceability, quality, stock, maintenance, workforce, costing and reporting.

The module is built entirely on native Dolibarr architecture. No core file is modified. Third parties, products, stock, warehouses, projects and documents remain those of your ERP, and the greenhouse data attaches to them.

Sixty-five business objects, sixty-five dedicated tables, forty-two permissions across thirteen business groups, five complete languages and an authenticated REST API make it a production-grade vertical rather than a set of custom fields.

2. Business objectives

·       Replace the spreadsheets that scatter compartment, climate, treatment and harvest records.

·       Keep a plant protection register that stands up to a GLOBALG.A.P. or IFS audit.

·       Enforce the pre-harvest interval before a compartment is picked.

·       Know the real production cost per square metre, per plant and per kilogram.

·       Turn sensor readings into documented climate decisions instead of raw curves.

·       Trace any marketed lot back to the seed lot and the compartment that produced it.

·       Measure water and energy consumption per greenhouse, per crop and per kilogram produced.

·       Give every role exactly the data it needs, and nothing more.

3. Target users

The module suits market gardens, horticultural holdings, nurseries, soft-fruit growers, vegetable, flower, aromatic-plant and young-plant producers, hydroponic and soilless farms, cold and heated greenhouse operations, greenhouse management and maintenance companies, agricultural cooperatives and multi-site agricultural groups.

 

4. Functional scope

4.1 Farm management

A farm carries its legal identity, its linked third party, owner and operating farmer, manager, full address, region, province, GPS position, altitude, total, covered and outdoor areas, greenhouse, tunnel and zone counts, activity type, climate type, water and energy resources, certifications and start year.

·       Three distinct areas: total, covered and outdoor

·       Structure counters are consolidated from the real records, never typed twice

·       Nine activity types, from market gardening to hydroponic farming

4.2 Site management

A farm splits into production sites, nursery sites, packhouses, storage sites, experimental sites and logistics platforms. A site carries its area, its greenhouse, compartment and climate-zone counts, its production capacity, its production type, its water and energy resources and its linked Dolibarr warehouse.

·       A site links to a native Dolibarr warehouse for stock operations

·       Production capacity feeds the campaign planning

·       GPS coordinates feed the cartography

4.3 Greenhouse management

Each greenhouse is described through thirty-seven attributes: identity (reference, name, site, model, manufacturer, installation date), geometry (total and growing area, length, width, height, volume, spans, compartments, rows), envelope (cover type, structure, orientation, exposure), equipment (ventilation, heating, cooling, irrigation, fertigation, lighting, thermal screen, automation, sensors), capacity, manager, status, installation cost, warranty end and GPS position.

·       Eleven greenhouse types, from tunnel to photovoltaic and experimental

·       Eight statuses, including sanitary break, disinfection and maintenance

·       Growing area, not total area, is the denominator of every yield

4.4 Tunnels and shade houses

Single tunnels, multi-tunnels, shade houses, mini greenhouses, protection areas and acclimatisation areas are managed alongside the greenhouses, with their own area, capacity, cover, hosted crop, irrigation system, manager and status.

·       Cold protected cropping is followed with the same rigour as heated glass

·       Seven cover types, including insect-proof and shade netting

4.5 Compartment management

The compartment is the operational unit: it carries one crop and one variety, its area, its plant capacity and actual plant count, its rows, its target temperature, humidity, CO2, light level and substrate moisture, its growing mode, its substrate, its manager, its status and its plant health state.

·       Every climate reading, irrigation run, operation and harvest hangs from a compartment

·       Eight compartment statuses follow the crop from empty to quarantine

·       The compartment status always follows its greenhouse status

4.6 Zones

A compartment subdivides into climate zones, irrigation zones, harvest zones, rows, growing benches and quarantine zones, each with its area, plant count, bench count, position and its own climate targets.

·       The finest tracking level of the hierarchy

·       Quarantine zones isolate a suspect batch without stopping the compartment

4.7 Greenhouse cartography

The mapping screen lays out sites, greenhouses and compartments as a schematic plan. Each compartment is a coloured cell; the colouring criterion is selectable between status, crop, cycle stage, plant health, temperature, humidity and yield. Hovering a cell shows crop, variety, plant count, climate targets, open alerts, running pre-harvest intervals, next operation and next harvest.

·       Seven colouring criteria with an automatically generated legend

·       A click opens the compartment record

·       Alert and pre-harvest flags are drawn on the cell itself

4.8 Crop reference

The crop reference describes each species through twenty-five attributes: code, name, latin name, botanical family, category, type, cycle length, minimum, optimum and maximum temperature and humidity, light, CO2, water and nutrient requirements, substrate type, recommended density, target yield, disease susceptibility, training mode and harvest mode.

·       Nine crop categories, from vegetables to hydroponic crops

·       Climate optima feed the setpoints and the deviation detection

·       Thirteen crops supplied in the demonstration dataset

4.9 Variety management

Varieties carry their supplier, origin, genetic type, cycle length, precocity, expected yield, disease resistance, heat, cold and salinity tolerance, commercial grade, size, colour, shape, shelf life and the linked Dolibarr product.

·       A variety links to a native Dolibarr product for sales and stock

·       Shelf life drives the lot expiry date and the expiry alerts

·       Thirty-three varieties supplied in the demonstration dataset

4.10 Substrates and growing media

Natural soil, potting compost, peat, coco fibre, perlite, rockwool, vermiculite, custom mixes and nutrient solutions are managed with their composition, pH, conductivity, water holding capacity, drainage, available quantity, lot number, reception and expiry dates, unit cost and certification.

·       Ten substrate types covering soil, soilless and hydroponic growing

·       Lot number and expiry feed the traceability chain

4.11 Campaign management

Campaigns group a season of production: year, season, farm, site, crop, start and planned and actual end dates, manager, greenhouse count, area, target yield, planned and harvested quantity, budget, planned and actual revenue and cost, and status.

·       Nine campaign statuses, from draft to closed and cancelled

·       Harvested quantity, revenue and cost are consolidated from the real records

·       Three campaigns supplied in the demonstration dataset

4.12 Crop cycles

Each compartment follows an eighteen-stage cycle: greenhouse preparation, disinfection, soil and substrate preparation, sowing, germination, pricking out, planting, rooting, vegetative growth, flowering, fruit set, fruiting, ripening, harvest, end of crop, clearing and sanitary break. Every stage carries planned and actual date and duration, manager, operations, inputs and equipment needed, planned and actual cost and status.

·       Each compartment sits at its own position in the cycle

·       The dashboard reads the running stage straight from this timeline

4.13 Sowing and in-house nursery

Sowing lots record crop, variety, supplier, seed lot, sowing date, quantity sown, trays and cells, substrate, germination area, target temperature and humidity, planned and actual emergence date, germination rate, quantity obtained and rejected, manager and status.

·       Seven sowing statuses, from sown to transferred and emergence failure

·       The germination rate is the entry point of the traceability chain

4.14 Planting and transplanting

Planting operations link a sowing lot to a compartment with planned and actual quantity, density, spacing, growing mode, substrate, manager, team, duration, cost and initial losses.

·       The planting is the bridge between the nursery and the production compartment

·       Initial losses are separated from the crop losses

4.15 Climate setpoints

Setpoints are defined per compartment, per climate parameter and per time band: minimum, optimum and maximum value, tolerance, low and high alert thresholds, unit, priority and automatic mode.

·       Nineteen climate parameters, including dew point and vapour pressure deficit

·       Seven time bands, from night to sunset

·       A night temperature drop is expressed in the setpoint itself

4.16 Climate readings

Readings record inside and outside temperature and humidity, CO2, light level, radiation, soil and substrate temperature and moisture, wind speed and direction, rainfall, dew point, vapour pressure deficit, reading source and an out-of-range flag.

·       Seven reading sources, from sensor to climate computer

·       The out-of-range flag is computed against the compartment setpoints

·       Monthly averages feed the climate charts and the climate report

4.17 Ventilation and airing

Side and roof vents, fans, extractors, air circulators and automatic doors are managed with their power, airflow, control mode, temperature and humidity triggers, opening percentage, running hours, energy consumption, state and next maintenance date.

·       Six vent types and five control modes

·       The opening percentage is shown live on the control centre

4.18 Heating

Hot water networks, air heaters, boilers, heat pumps, electric, solar and biomass heating are followed with their energy type, power, target and actual temperature, running hours, energy consumption and cost, efficiency, state and next maintenance date.

·       Seven energy types, including district heating

·       Energy consumption feeds the cost per kilogram produced

4.19 Cooling and misting

Cooling pads, fogging, high-pressure misting, forced ventilation, shading and evaporative cooling are managed as programs: temperature and humidity trigger, duration, daily frequency, water volume, energy consumption, running hours and state.

·       Water and energy consumption are attributed to the cooling programme

·       Seven cooling technologies covered

4.20 Thermal screens and shading

Thermal screens, shading screens, blackout screens, protection nets and side curtains carry their deployment percentage, opening and closing times, temperature and radiation triggers, energy saving, cycle count and state.

·       The deployment percentage is drawn as a bar on the control centre

·       Energy saving is quantified per screen

4.21 Horticultural lighting

LED, high pressure sodium, grow and photoperiodic lighting programs carry their photoperiod, intensity, start and end times, programme length, power, energy consumption and cost.

·       Photoperiodic control for ornamental crops

·       Lighting energy is isolated in the energy report

4.22 Water resources

Boreholes, wells, basins, storage tanks, mains water, rainwater harvesting, recycled drainage and irrigation canals carry their capacity, available level, flow, pump power, water quality, pH, conductivity, annual quota, consumption, cost and last analysis date.

·       The annual quota is compared with the actual consumption

·       Water quality drives the fertigation correction

4.23 Irrigation zones and programs

An irrigation zone carries its greenhouse, compartment, crop, water source, irrigation system, area, plant and emitter count, emitter flow, nominal flow, pressure, valve and meter reference, recirculation and target drainage. Programs add start date and time, duration, planned volume and flow, target substrate moisture, recurrence, daily frequency, control mode and start condition.

·       Eight irrigation systems, from drip to ebb and flood

·       Seven start conditions, including cumulative radiation and drainage rate

4.24 Irrigation runs

Each run records start and end, duration, planned and actual volume, average flow and pressure, substrate moisture before and after, drainage rate, operator, energy consumption, water cost, incident and status.

·       Eight incident types, from clogged emitters to water shortage

·       The moisture delta proves the run actually watered the crop

4.25 Fertigation

Nutrient recipes carry crop, cycle stage, product list, dose, concentration, target pH and conductivity, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium content, volume, weekly frequency, unit cost and instructions. Runs record water volume, products used, planned and actual quantity, pH and conductivity before and after, operator, cost and anomaly.

·       Eight fertigation anomalies, from overdose to dilution error

·       pH and conductivity are compared with the recipe targets

·       Incompatibility and insufficient stock are explicit anomaly codes

4.26 IoT sensors

The sensor registry covers eighteen sensor types, from temperature and CO2 to leak detectors and meters. Each sensor carries its manufacturer, model, serial number, greenhouse, compartment, location, installation date, protocol, unit, reading frequency, thresholds, last value, last communication, battery, signal, status and calibration dates.

·       Eight communication protocols, including LoRaWAN and Modbus

·       Battery and signal drive two dedicated alert families

·       Seventy-three sensors supplied in the demonstration dataset

4.27 IoT connectors

Connectors describe REST APIs, MQTT brokers, HTTP webhooks, CSV imports, IoT gateways, climate controllers and weather stations, with endpoint, login, synchronisation frequency, data format, sensor mapping, last synchronisation, message and error counters and an active switch.

·       The API key is never stored: the record holds the NAME of the Dolibarr constant

·       Physical commands stay disabled until the IoT switch is explicitly turned on

4.28 Measurements and history

Measurements carry sensor, compartment, date, value, unit, quality code, origin, anomaly flag and aggregation level. Detailed readings are kept over a configurable window and completed by monthly aggregates, so several years of history remain usable.

·       Five aggregation levels, from raw reading to monthly average

·       Five quality codes, including out of range and missing data

4.29 Weather station

Weather records carry minimum, maximum and average temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction, radiation, atmospheric pressure, reference evapotranspiration, dew point, weather condition and source.

·       Reference evapotranspiration supports the irrigation decision

·       Ten weather conditions, including frost, heatwave and hail

4.30 Automation rules

Rules combine a climate parameter, an operator, a threshold and an action, restricted to a greenhouse, a compartment, a crop and a time band, with a priority, a validation mode, a recipient, a trigger counter and the last trigger date.

·       Fourteen actions, from opening the vents to blocking the fertigation

·       Seven operators, including out of range and no communication

·       Three validation modes: automatic, manual approval, notification only

4.31 Crop operations and task planning

Twenty operation types cover the whole crop work, from soil preparation and disinfection to trellising, pruning, leaf removal, desuckering, pollination, thinning, weeding, treatment, scouting, harvest, clearing and packing. Each operation records campaign, greenhouse, compartment, crop, manager, team, worker count, duration, work hours, area and plants handled, inputs, equipment, labour and total cost, result and status.

·       The planning screen adds priority, recurrence, dependency and progress

·       Tasks are attachable to a native Dolibarr project

4.32 Plant protection

The reference covers insects, mites, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, viruses, deficiencies, physiological disorders, weeds and rodents, with symptoms, causes, severity, detection method, prevention, recommended treatment and risk period. Observations record the affected area, plant count and share; treatments record the product, active substance, approval number, dose, quantity, spray volume, treated area, operator, equipment, pre-harvest interval and re-entry period.

·       The pre-harvest interval blocks the compartment for harvest

·       Biological control covers beneficial releases, banker plants, pheromones and traps

·       Eighteen pests and diseases supplied in the demonstration dataset

4.33 Harvest, grading and packing

Harvests record gross, net, marketable, downgraded and rejected quantity, size, quality grade, lot code, manager, team, work hours, yield per square metre, cost and destination. Packing records the stage, grade, size, input and output quantity, net weight, package and pallet count, packaging type, label reference, packing line and destination.

·       Nine packing stages, from sorting to palletising

·       Eight packaging types, from cardboard to horticultural pot

·       Seven harvest destinations, from fresh market to green waste

4.34 Lots and traceability

A lot links campaign, harvest, packing, compartment, crop, variety and native product, with its quantity, available and reserved quantity, grade, size, expiry date, storage location and temperature, QR payload, unit price, total value and status. The traceability screen walks upstream to the seed lot and downstream to the customer.

·       Eight lot statuses, from created to destroyed

·       The traceability chain shows sowing, planting, irrigation, fertigation, treatments, harvest, packing, quality checks, sales and deliveries

·       The same chain is available through the REST API

4.35 Quality management

Quality checks record the stage, controller, sample size, visual grade, size, mean weight, colour index, firmness, sugar content, dry matter, defect rate, residue and pre-harvest compliance, storage temperature, packaging and labelling compliance, score and conformity. Non-conformities add type, origin, severity, quantity concerned, immediate action, root cause, corrective action, owner, due date, cost and result.

·       Six check stages, from in-crop to laboratory analysis

·       Eight non-conformity types and six origins

·       Certifications and audits complete the compliance file

4.36 Stock, inputs and purchasing

Fourteen input families cover seeds, young plants, substrates, fertilisers, plant protection products, beneficials, packaging, crates and pallets, spare parts, sensors, consumables, energy and produce. Movements cover inbound, outbound, transfers, stocktakes, reservations, consumption, scrap and returns.

·       Stock threshold and expiry date drive two alert families

·       Purchases follow the whole procurement flow from draft to paid

·       Suppliers link to native Dolibarr third parties

4.37 Sales and deliveries

Customers carry their type, market channel, contact, required grade and certifications, annual volume, payment terms and year-to-date revenue. Contracts carry the target and delivered volume, price per kilogram, incoterm and status. Orders link a lot to a customer with ordered, reserved, shipped and invoiced quantity, price, amount and margin. Deliveries add carrier, vehicle, transport temperature, destination and document reference.

·       Nine customer types and eight market channels

·       A sales order is always attached to a traceable lot

·       Native Dolibarr proposals, orders, invoices and shipments remain available

4.38 Equipment and maintenance

Seventeen equipment families cover the greenhouse structure, boilers, fans, pumps, valves, injectors, sensors, controllers, lighting, screens, weather stations, irrigation and cooling systems, generator sets, handling equipment, packing lines and cold rooms. Maintenance covers preventive, corrective, condition-based, regulatory, calibration and upgrade interventions. Work requests carry priority, urgency, requester, technician and an eight-state workflow.

·       Critical equipment is flagged and reported separately

·       The next maintenance date drives an overdue-maintenance alert

4.39 Workforce

Fourteen job roles, six contract types and five worker statuses describe the team. Timesheets record date, worker, team, campaign, greenhouse, operation, task type, start and end time, work and overtime hours, hourly rate, labour cost, output and validation.

·       Labour cost feeds the production cost per kilogram

·       Teams carry their own hourly cost and speciality

4.40 Costs, budgets, energy and water

Eighteen cost families and five cost natures structure the analytical accounting. Each cost line carries campaign, greenhouse, compartment, crop, planned and actual amount, quantity, cost per square metre and per kilogram. Budgets add committed amount, variance and alert threshold. Energy and water consumption are recorded per usage, per equipment and per greenhouse.

·       Cost per square metre, per plant and per kilogram are computed, not typed

·       Nine energy usages, from heating to the packing line

·       Drainage, recirculation and loss are separated in the water record

5. Dashboard and steering

The dashboard opens on a Digital Greenhouse view: one interactive card per greenhouse, carrying its crop, variety, cycle stage, temperature, humidity, CO2, plant count, running irrigation, plant health state, open alerts and next operation or harvest. The card is coloured by the worst condition found among its compartments, so a single critical compartment cannot hide behind nine healthy ones.

Below the Digital Greenhouse, the dashboard groups its indicators into eight zones: structures, crops and campaigns, climate and energy, irrigation and fertigation, plant health, harvest and quality, sales, and costs and profitability, followed by the crop cycle strip, the real-time control centre and sixteen charts.

 

The control centre reports, per greenhouse, the live state of ventilation, heating, cooling, screens, lighting, irrigation, fertigation and sensors, together with the automation rules and the IoT connectors. It is read-only by design: physical commands are only ever emitted through a configured and enabled connector, and the screen says so explicitly rather than showing dead buttons.

6. Alerts

Seventeen alert families are recomputed from the data at every display and by a daily scheduled job, so a stored flag can never go stale: climate readings out of setpoint, sensors not communicating, low sensor batteries, failed irrigation runs, fertigation anomalies, open plant health observations, running pre-harvest intervals, overdue tasks, inputs below threshold, inputs close to expiry, broken equipment, overdue maintenance, unhandled work requests, quality-blocked lots, open non-conformities, expiring certifications and overrun budgets.

7. Reporting

Thirteen report families cover structures, crops, production, climate, irrigation, fertigation, plant protection, harvest, quality, stock, maintenance, finance and energy. Each report combines summary cards, two charts and a detailed table with a total row, and honours the filters it declares: campaign, farm, greenhouse, crop, status and period.

Every report exports to CSV, Excel, Word and PDF. Non-HTML exports are decoded cell by cell, so an accented label never reaches the file as an HTML entity.

8. Dolibarr integration

 

9. Multilingual support

The module ships complete French, English, Spanish, Italian and German language files covering menus, buttons, fields, statuses, messages, errors, alerts, reports, dashboard, configuration and the controlled vocabularies. No visible text is hard-coded in the PHP or JavaScript sources.

Every language key is prefixed with the module marker. Dolibarr merges all active modules' language files into a single table and the last loaded module wins, so an unprefixed key would silently render another module's wording on a busy installation.

10. Demonstration data

The configuration page carries two buttons: load the demonstration datasets and clear them. The dataset contains around 11 800 rows across the sixty-five tables: two farms, three sites, ten greenhouses, five tunnels, twenty-nine compartments, seventy-three zones, thirteen crops, thirty-three varieties, eight substrates, three campaigns, seventy-three sensors, five connectors, sixteen automation rules, forty-five equipment items, 529 harvests, 529 lots, 1 540 irrigation runs and twelve months of climate, energy, water, cost and labour history.

Every generated row carries a technical marker. The purge removes exactly those rows, cascades to the records a user created under a demonstration parent, asks for confirmation, reports the number of rows processed and is reserved to holders of the demonstration-data permission. Real data is never touched.

11. Security

·       Forty-two permissions across thirteen business groups, read and write granted by default, delete and administration off by default.

·       CSRF protection on every write action, validated by the Dolibarr core before the module code runs.

·       Every input read through a typed filter, every vocabulary value checked against its allowed code list.

·       Every SQL value escaped, every identifier cast to integer, every API sort field whitelisted against the real column list.

·       Every HTML output escaped; non-HTML exports decoded, HTML exports escaped.

·       No API key, password or token stored in the module tables: the connector holds the name of the Dolibarr constant carrying the secret.

·       Multi-entity support on every table and every query.

·       Physical IoT commands disabled until explicitly enabled.

·       Centralised event log recording date, user, origin, object, previous and new value and result.

12. REST API

The module exposes sixteen authenticated routes under /api/index.php/serreagricole/: greenhouses, compartments, crops, campaigns, sensors, measures (read and write), climate, harvests, lots, traceability by lot code, alerts, open alerts, irrigation programs, equipments, maintenances and consolidated indicators.

Authentication and permissions follow the Dolibarr API framework. The measurement write endpoint updates the sensor's last value and last communication date as well as inserting the measurement, so an IoT gateway can verify that its write actually landed rather than trusting an HTTP status.

13. Installation and deliverables

The module installs from its ZIP archive through the standard Dolibarr external module deployment screen, or by copying its directory into custom/. Activation creates the tables and indexes, inserts the permissions, builds the menu, initialises the settings, self-heals the schema and loads the demonstration dataset.

 

14. Disclaimer

Greenhouse Agricultural Management is a management and decision-support tool. It replaces neither the agronomic diagnosis, nor the prescription of a plant protection treatment, nor the real-time control of a climate computer. Features that depend on physical equipment or an external service require that equipment or service to be installed and configured.

 

Published by DoliResources - www.doliresources.com