Alliera Concepts

In Alliera there are certain entities that you need to know about to be able to use DAX efficiently.

CardOwner

A card owner is as the name says a holder of cards. In Alliera a CardOwner is an entity that has certain properties set which defines its validity and what it is allowed to do within the system.

A card owner, as the name implies, also is the owner/user of an access card and can be be divided into two different entities; person and apartment. An apartment is very much like a person but has certain settings with relation to booking and entry phones.

A person is also a card owner but doesn’t necessarily need to be an actual person. In many cases this person could be an entity holding access cards in terms of “lended” cards. In other cases a person might also be a whole company even if we strive to make a card owner as close to one single user as possible to determine explicit responsibility if the cardowner’s card is being used or to cancel a user’s card because it was lost.

If a card owner doesn’t match up with a single physical person it will have negative implications in regards to administration and responsibility like a above.

Cards

The concept of an access card can mean a lot of things. It could be an actual physical card or a key fob; all using different technologies but it could also be a mobile phone or part of a system with just email addresses and electronic lock barrels. In most cases the convention card means a physical key or key fob.

A card owner can have a maximum of 50 cards in Alliera even if that should be kept as low as possible. Usually it should be kept at a level where the card owner easily can remember the number of cards he or she has. If the card owner is an appartment there is usually more access cards (3-5).

Cards can be disabled or archived. A disabled card is usually a temporary action where the card is temporarily lost or can’t be located. Archiving a card is a more permanent action where the card has been lost, destroyed or never again will be used. When a card is disabled or archived it will (in most cases) immediately cease to work and all access grants will be revoked.

A card can also have a start and stop time indicating during which period it will work. Outside of the start and stop times the card will lose all its grants.

Pin codes

A card can have a PIN code to increase security. PIN codes kan be be set individually on any card but can also be set to a cardowner and affect all his or her cards. The PIN code can be used together with a card by the access control system to grant you access through a door, disable alarms etc.

In some systems a PIN code can also be used instead of an access card, also known as a group code.

Access groups

An access group is a combination of doors and schedules. I most cases an access group is a grouping of doors all connected to a physical location, funktion and schedule. In some access control systems this could also be connected to specific functions like disabling alarms, etc.

In essence an access group is an entity determining what parts of an access control system are to be controlled, how they can be controlled and the schedule. Most of this is determined by the underlying access control system.

Access grants

An access grant is the process of granting access to an access group. An access group can preferably be granted directly to a card owner or in special circumstanses to one of the card owner’s issued cards.

In Alliera an access grant can have a start and a stop time meaning the access grant can be granted and revoked at a predetermined time. It can also be open ended to have an undetermined stop time. In addition a grant can also at any time be revoked or archived in order to deny access. Some of these concepts behave differently in some access control systems.

Folders

Folders are a tree like structure with folders and subfolders. These folders can have access control lists to determine what operations an Alliera operator can execute along with what information the operator can see. CardOwners and AccessGroups are always located within this tree.

Organizations

An organization is a “tag” that can be used to show what organization and department a person and appartment is connected to.

Logs

Information about logs.