A public portal through which an archive makes its archival description and digitised records available to researchers. Data is supplied by the archive's processing systems; the portal takes care of presentation, search and permanent links. We take an active part in the portal's development and support archives in its rollout and operation.
Full-text search across the whole archival description, plus filtering by record properties: type of archival material, date range, institution or other description elements the archive configures itself. The portal also knows the relations between records, so from a person, place or institution the researcher can reach every archival record that mentions it.
Attached digital objects are displayed with the records. Large images such as maps, plans and parish registers are served as tiles, so they can be zoomed smoothly even at high resolution without waiting for the whole file to download.
Researchers browse an archival fonds in the form in which it was processed, from the fonds down to the individual units of description. Every record has a permanent link that can be quoted in a citation and keeps working after further data updates.
The name, logo, colours, menu, home page and footer links are configuration, not changes to the program. The same goes for the descriptive model: which description elements are shown, what they are called and which of them can be used as filters. The interface is available in Czech and English; each deployment chooses its default language and researchers can switch.
We develop the portal according to the WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines at level AA, which Czech law (Act No. 99/2019 Coll.) requires of public institutions: keyboard operation, screen reader support, sufficient contrast and a usable interface on mobile devices. The accessibility statement is issued by the portal operator for their own deployment; we have prepared a template for it and maintain an up-to-date overview of the current status.
The portal is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. The archive is therefore not tied to a single supplier: it can run the portal itself, have it adapted to its needs, or take part in its development.
Aron is a public portal for making archival records accessible. It builds on the systems in which the archive processes its holdings: the archival description is created in Elza or another archival system and is passed to the portal automatically. Researchers search the archival description, browse the archival structure as it was processed, and open the attached digitised records.
The archive thus gains a publication layer it does not have to build itself. The portal does not manage or alter the archival description; it displays what the archive has processed in its own system and decided to publish.
The portal’s source code is published under the Apache 2.0 licence.
If you are interested or have any questions, contact us by e-mail at aron-podpora@lightcomp.cz. We will be happy to answer them.
The Aron portal can be operated in several ways. We will gladly help you choose the option that suits you best.
Both the source code and the builds of the portal are freely available under the Apache 2.0 licence. The portal is a single runnable application with its configuration in files next to it, so the archive can deploy and run it on its own. We do not provide technical support for the freely available versions.
We deploy the portal in your infrastructure for you: installation, configuration of the descriptive model and appearance, connection to the archival system, and updates to new versions. Technical support is included.
We run the portal on our infrastructure. The archive does not have to worry about the server, updates or backups and can concentrate on the content it publishes.
From the archival systems in which the archive processes its holdings: the Elza application, the PEvA register and other systems. Data is delivered to the portal automatically by a service that collects it from the archival system; the archivist transfers nothing by hand and enters nothing in the portal.
Elza is the archivist’s tool for processing archival records and creating the archival description. Aron is a public portal for researchers that makes the finished description accessible. The two are used together: whatever is processed in Elza and marked for publication appears in the portal.
The portal is a single runnable application that also contains the web interface; it needs a PostgreSQL database. For full-scale operation we recommend Elasticsearch; smaller deployments can use the built-in search engine, which needs no additional service.
No. The same application can run either at the root of an address or in a subdirectory of an existing website, without a special build.
Yes, both are configuration. The name, logo, colours, menu, home page, displayed description elements and filters are all set in configuration files, with no changes to the program and no custom build of the application.