Getting Started With Arches

Arches is an open-source software platform for data management. This enterprise-level system is freely available for organizations worldwide to install, configure, and extend in accordance with their individual needs and without restrictions. The following are information resources oriented toward those who are new to Arches and wish to learn more about the platform, its evaluation or implementation, and how to participate in the open source community.

 

Learning and Discovery:

The following resources are available on the ArchesProject.org website to learn about Arches and to discover its many robust features.

 

Implementation Considerations:

This section will help guide organizations or projects evaluating or planning to implement Arches. For a detailed overview of requirements and considerations for an Arches implementation, please review the Arches Implementation Considerations.

Technical Considerations

Arches is a powerful enterprise-level platform designed to be used at an organizational or project level and not as an individual desktop application. Each Arches instance is meant to be deployed independently on a server so that it can be accessed by end users using web browsers. As a result, adopters will need to identify a server to host the Arches platform and, as with any enterprise-level system, should expect to engage the services of an appropriate IT specialist to set up and maintain it.

Data Considerations

An implementation of Arches will require consideration of the best ways to load and manage data, whether legacy data to be imported or new data to enter into an Arches database. Some of these considerations include:

  • Legacy data: understand how and where these data are stored and how best to conceptually organize these data to import into Arches
  • Data Modeling: create Arches Resource Models to organize the data within your Arches implementation and optimize data performance
  • Controlled Vocabularies: ensure consistent terminology to help ensure valid and consistent data entry and search
  • Data Migration: follow best practices to convert and migrate legacy data into Arches

 

Installation and Configuration:

After reviewing and installing the required list of system requirements and software dependencies, you are now able to begin an Arches installation. Below are several resources to guide and support this process:

 

Participate in the Community

Join the Arches community and interact with users, implementers, and developers. Before becoming involved with the Arches community, be sure to read and abide by the Arches Open Source Community Code of Conduct.

The Arches Project has a thriving open source community with opportunities for involvement by Arches implementers, developers, and service providers. We encourage participation within our growing community through a number of activities, including:

 

If you have any questions or feedback about this Getting Started with Arches page, please contact us at contact@archesproject.org.

 

 

 

Revised: May 2023