Self Hosting
The recommended path for implementing CollectionSpace is via Lyrasis-hosted services. The hosting service ensures that you remain current with the latest release and that your data is secured and protected. A portion of your hosting fees also contributes back to the ongoing development of the software.
Review this checklist to determine if you might be a good candidate for self-hosting:
Do you have dedicated technical staff responsible for system administration related tasks at your institution?
Does the technical staff have time and expertise for installation, upgrading the services 2-3x per year, and ongoing support?
Do you have in-house servers with off-site backup to ensure that your data is protected and secured?
Additional details for the technical requirements are covered below in the FAQ section.
Contribute to CollectionSpace
As a self-hosted community member, we invite you to contribute to the development of CollectionSpace. CollectionSpace relies on contributions from our user community for ongoing development. Recommended annual contributions are based on the number of objects in your collection as follows:
0-1,000 objects: $500
1,001-10,000 objects: $1,000
10,001 – 50,000 objects: $2,000
50,001-100,000 objects: $3,500
Over 100,000 objects: $5,000
Benefits
As a contributing member of the community, you will get access to the CollectionSpace User Manual and be invited to provide input for the roadmap and engage in the development of specifications for software improvement. If you host CollectionSpace, this contribution is bundled with your annual hosting fees.
How to Start Contributions
As the organization home for CollectionSpace, Lyrasis assists with all aspects of invoicing and billing for hosting and contributions to the development fund. Please contact us for details on your initial contribution.
Are you already self-hosting CollectionSpace?
Please take a moment to contact us to introduce yourself.
Are you self-hosting CollectionSpace, and interested in moving to hosting?
Self Hosting FAQ's
What are the technical requirements?
Installing CollectionSpace requires someone comfortable with a command line interface and package manager (for Linux and Mac installations), and who has some familiarity with editing text files.
The CollectionSpace platform is built upon Nuxeo, an open-source content management system. The services architecture is based on Apache Tomcat and a relational database such as PostgreSQL or MySQL; the server-side interface layer is built with Java; and the client-side (or user) interface is developed in HTML and Javascript. Schema are defined using XML.
Can we customize our self-hosted installation of CollectionSpace?
While possible, customizing self-hosted CollectionSpace may make upgrades difficult or impossible depending on the deviations from the standard code.
Configuration, or changing the behavior and the look and feel of the system, can be accomplished by making changes on web-based Administration pages and by editing the text files (HTML templates, CSS stylesheets, configuration files, etc.) that control its behavior and appearance. Familiarity with HTML, CSS, command line interfaces, and editing text files is required.
More extensive customizations that extend the system's functionality require familiarity with Java for the service and server-side interface layers. Client-side customizations require knowledge of HTML, CSS, and the React.js JavaScript framework.
How do I get started with CollectionSpace?
Our automated installer provides an Ansible playbook for setting up CollectionSpace on an Ubuntu server. Visit the CSpace-installer GitHub for details.
Is CollectionSpace open source?
Yes, CollectionSpace source code and related tools are freely available via GitHub. Visit the CollectionSpace GitHub repository at https://github.com/collectionspace.
How often are new releases issued? And how do we upgrade?
CollectionSpace plans 2-3 releases per calendar year. Lyrasis hosting services complete these upgrades for all hosted clients approximately 4 weeks after the release is issued.
For self-hosting clients, documentation for upgrading to the latest version of CollectionSpace is available on the Wiki at https://collectionspace.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/2930125955/Upgrading+CollectionSpace.
Please understand that customizing a self-hosted installation of CollectionSpace will make updates more difficult or impossible depending on the types of customizations.
As a self-hosted client, how can we use the CSV importer?
The Importer Tool is a powerful tool for ingesting and bulk updating CollectionSpace data. The tool is included with annual hosting fees for Lyrasis-hosted clients.
As a self-hosted client, you have two options.
- Contact us at collectionspace@lyrasis.org for information on a subscription for self-hosted clients.
- Visit https://github.com/collectionspace/collectionspace-csv-importer for details on running the Importer in a local development environment.
For more information on the importer, please visit the CSV Importer page.