CollectionSpace Frequently Asked Questions
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- How much does it cost to install?
- The software is free. An IT department could perform an installation, or one could use an implementation partner like Granite Horizon. We suggest budgeting the tiny fee required to be a formal part of the CollectionSpace community, which will, for example, allow the organization to help influence what new features get developed. Sometimes CollectionSpace offers a mini-grant which in some cases covers all the work of installation.
- How can it help us?
- CollectionSpace is a great way to have a general out-of-box CMS that works without much customization, if you’d like to try one out in a short amount of time. The system is both modern and feature-rich, and its development is steered by the communities of practice which use it.
- Collectionspace allows an array of profiles that target specific customers like art museums, herbaria, etc.
- How customizable is it?
- As an open source project, it is possible to customize CollectionSpace tremendously, because all of the code can be edited as needed. Should large-scale customizations be required, a cost-benefit analysis is helpful:
- to evaluate whether it is best to customize CollectionSpace (which will cause a need for developer involvement in porting over customizations at each upgrade)
- or utilize a platform like Nuxeo (which CollectionSpace uses as its data storage engine) and build a custom application (which will be easier to maintain with new Nuxeo upgrades, but which won’t come with the benefits of new CollectionSpace features as they are developed).
- As an open source project, it is possible to customize CollectionSpace tremendously, because all of the code can be edited as needed. Should large-scale customizations be required, a cost-benefit analysis is helpful:
- What do you recommend for hosting CollectionSpace?
- CollectionSpace works well hosted on a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or on a dedicated server on premise. Some clients prefer that we own the AWS account so they have only one vendor to interact with.
- What kinds of organizations can use CollectionSpace?
- Museums, arboreta, public art organizations, botanical organizations, historical societies, religious organizations/churches, nature centers, and others who manage a collection. CollectionSpace can be used with its default configuration or can have a specific profile added (e.g. fine and contemporary art).
- Is CollectionSpace secure?
- The default server is Apache Tomcat which serves the pages over HTTP. We generally recommend installing an Apache or Nginx application as a web server which can then communicate over HTTPS. This will secure the communications between users and the server so that sensitive information like login credentials are encrypted.
- What are the system requirements?
- We generally set up CollectionSpace on an Ubuntu (Linux) server with at least 4GB of RAM (more if it will be used by more than a couple users concurrently). The detailed requirements can be found here.
- Is CollectionSpace open source?
- Yes.
- How much does it cost to install?