Frequently Asked Questions¶
Operating Systems supported?¶
Colectica Repository can be deployed on Linux or on Windows Server using IIS.
See also: Hosting Options
Programming Languages used?¶
Most Colectica tools are primarily written using C#. C, Javascript, Typescript, Powershell, Java, Sparql, and SQL are also used.
Query Languages available?¶
The backend data store for Colectica Repository and Portal is a SQL database, supporting SQL.
Sparql is used to query RDF data from an RDF datastore configured with Colectica RDF services.
The Colectica ReST API contains a faceted query language for item relationship and set based search.
Database/Persistence technology used?¶
Colectica Repository uses a multi-model hybrid graph-document design combined with versioned item (document) and relationship tracking, backed by a SQL database.
items are registered with a globally unique id and version
item properties are indexed for full text search
item to item relationships are indexed for versioned graph and relationship search
Available database backends include PostgreSQL, Sql Server, Oracle, and sqlite. See also: Database Options
Elasticsearch is optionally available for use with Colectica Portal for customized high-speed search indexes.
RDF stores that support SPARQL Update can be used with Colectica RDF Services to create a rdf view of the registered items in the Repository. See also: Colectica RDF Services
Local Application API?¶
Colectica’s desktop applications are extensible using the Colectica SDK. For a list of extension points and examples, see the documentation on github at https://github.com/Colectica/ColecticaSampleAddins
See Colectica SDK for detailed information.
Application server environment?¶
On Windows, Colectica Repository uses IIS as an application server.
On Linux, Colectica Repository uses the open source Kestral application server Apache or nginx can be used as a front-end web server.
Application client?¶
There are many application clients that use the Colectica Repository, built by Colectica and third party customers. Colectica distributes Colectica Portal, Colectica Designer, Colectica Questionnaires, and many command line tools which use the Repository’s web services and user management. Colectica has designed numerous custom clients, both desktop thick clients and web thin clients based on customer specific business processes.
Types of authentication supported?¶
Colectica Portal and Repository have an extensible framework for identity and authorization. Out of the box methods include:
OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, including JWT for ReST endpoints.
Windows Active Directory (AD)
Built-in username and password
See Authentication for detailed information.
Security and attack mitigation?¶
See Security and Attack Mitigation for detailed information.
How are deployments handled?¶
Colectica Repository and Portal can be installed on premise on the customer’s own hardware or it can be deployed and managed by Colectica.
Support for recovery, e.g. schema export, replication, etc?¶
Database recovery, mirroring, replication, and backup are handled at the backend database level, and depend on the chosen deployment model (cloud or on premise) and database software.
Treatment of non-unicode data, multiple languages?¶
All text is created as UTF-8 by all Colectica tools. All text stored and indexed in the Colectica Repository is encoded using UTF-8. There are no hard limits on character field lengths within items or the indexed lookup tables. All item text is multilingual capable, and individual text values are tagged with a language and region codes as defined by BCP-47