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FAQ

What is ARLAS?

ARLAS is a software solution for searching, analyzing and visualizing very large amount of geo-spatial data.

It aims at providing clear and instantaneous insights on your Geo Spatial BigData with a an elegant and pleasant carto-centric web interface. Filters, analytics and geo-analytics are extensively used for providing a blazing fast view on your BigData with an engaging and inspiring user experience.

Who should use ARLAS ?

Anyone wanting a crystal clear and exhaustive understanding of their geo-spatial data, especially if those are numerous.

  • Geo-tracked objects (trucks, vessels, packages) or trafic data
  • Network (telecom, energy or public transportation)
  • Earth Observation data
  • Anything else having a timestamp and a latitude/longitude or a x/y

What do I need to do for having ARLAS operational?

You will need to:

  • Have an elasticsearch cluster up and running
  • Index your geo-referenced data within the elasticsearch cluster.
  • Run and configure ARLAS Server
  • Run and configure ARLAS Web User Interface

The software solution has been designed in order to be simple to deploy and operate so that any developper can set it up.

See Deploying ARLAS Documentation

The Gisaïa team can help you deploying ARLAS in your environment, contact us: contac@gisaia.com.

Do I need to modify my data or move to an other database?

No, your existing database can remain unchanged. You simply need to index your database in the free and opensource search engine elasticsearch. logstash can help you with this.

Note

When indexing your database, you will have to build NoSQL documents out of your relational table in order to index them.

Is ARLAS able to handle several data sources?

Yes, you can index your different data sources in one or multiple Elasticsearch indices. ARLAS Exploration handles multiple indices that are within the same alias or have the same name pattern.

ARLAS also handle multiple collections

Is ARLAS able to provide only a sub-set of data for certain categories of users?

We provide a way to implement an ACL by using filters in the header of the requests : You need to intercept the requests and add the ACL filter applicable for the user to their headers and forward them to ARLAS Server.

In other words, you have to implement the authentication and role mapping and from the role inject the suitable ACL filter in the request header. ARLAS applies an AND operator between the ACL filter and your ARLAS Server request filter.

Does ARLAS Exploration ensure security and data access?

ARLAS security policy can be based on ARLAS IAM or Keycloak (see Securing ARLAS section).

Can I build an application with ARLAS ?

Yes, it is meant for that! ARLAS Exploration has a highly modular architecture so that you can take what you need, leave what you don't want and extend it with what is missing.

You can use ARLAS Server for serving your geo-referenced data. ARLAS Server offers a REST API and OGC services (WFS and CSW).

Also, the ARLAS WUI Toolkit makes it easy to setup a customized Web Application based on ARLAS WUI but with all your domain specific functions and your own look & feel.

Is it difficult to run ARLAS ?

Not at all, especially if you have an elasticsearch cluster running. It takes a minute to start ARLAS Exploration with docker. No need to install anything else. Check out the Run ARLAS Stack page.

Is it difficult to configure ARLAS Dashboards?

Not at all, use ARLAS Builder to configure your dashboards.