SIARD Suite
Description
SIARD Suite extracts the contents from a relational database and saves them in the SIARD format which is appropriate for archiving.
In this format, the data is stored for future generations and can be uploaded into a new database that may differ from the original.
Therefore, this method allows to retain data independently of the original database and to reuse them in the future in modern database systems.
SIARD format
SIARD stands for Software Independent Archiving of Relational Databases. Originally the Swiss Federal Archives (SFA) have developed the SIARD format as a sustainable solution for the archiving of relations databases.
In early 2013 SIARD format has been adopted as an eCH Standard (eCH-0165: SIARD format specification http://www.ech.ch/vechweb/page?p=dossier&documentNumber=eCH-0165).
eCH is the Swiss organization for standardization in the field of e-government. eCH Standards define guidelines for recurring applications and their results, as for example format definitions or procedural standards. The aim of those standards is to unify and thus facilitate the electronic collaboration between authorities as well as between authorities and organizations, educational and research institutions, firms and private organizations.
Which types of databases does SIARD Suite support?
- Oracle
- Microsoft SQL Server
- MySQL
- DB/2
- Microsoft Access
How can I order SIARD Suite?
You can order SIARD Suite using the form under http://www.bar.admin.ch/dienstleistungen/00823/00825/index.html?lang=en.
Intellectual Property Rights
The SIARD Suite is a development of the Swiss Federal Archives. All rights rest with the Swiss Federal Archives.
The SIARD Suite relies on the following component of other manufacturers:
- JavaHelp 2.0.05 (from http://java.sun.com/products/javahelp, License: in the SIARD folder under doc/JavaHelp LICENSE.HTML)
To ease the installation process, this component is delivered on the SIARD CD as JAR files.
Users of the SIARD Suite are requested to honour these components' license requirements, which can be found in the doc folder.
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User Experiences
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- This user experience is only about SiardEdit, the GUI version of SIARD Suite. The program works fast and because of the minimalistic user interface and the good documentation is the programm easy to use.
- If SIARD has some problems to create the .siard file from a database, then the program will stop and the user gets the message "not successful". A detailed describtion of the error and the reason of this problems is desirable. A useful error message is only avaiable when the error is detected by the database, then SIARD will print out the error message of the database.
- Searching in a .siard file is not possible in a appropriated way. For that the user have to convert the .siard file in a "normal" database and then the user work and search in the database in the typical way.
- Using admin accounts to download a database will cause errors. The best way is to create a achive account which has reading rights to the part of the database which should be archived.
- For converting a MS Access database in a .siard file, SIARD will not store any information about the primary keys. In SIARD only tables can be stored. Views and something like that can't be stored, thats way it is important to make sure the database can be used and read without any extras.