Ara is an application that allows the transit flows describing the real-time transport offer to be transmitted over one or more networks.

The entities from which the real time data are collected or to which the real time data are disseminated are called Exchange Partners.

From a functional point of view, each Exchange Partner has a specific configuration of the connectors of the Ara SaaS platform.

Referential

The User has one or more referentials which he owns.

Each Ara Referential allows to :

• configure the Exchange Partners desired by the Customer, and thus control the information flows that will be collected and disseminated by Ara

• gather the real time data (stops, lines, trips) collected from the different Exchange Partners

• isolate the data from other referential

• predefine the information (stops, lines, trips) managed by Ara on a daily basis

Exchange Partners

Each Exchange Partner includes :

• A selection of connectors defining the protocols (SIRI, GTFS-RT, SIRI Lite, etc.) and the types of exchanges (subscriptions, queries, etc.), available through this partner;

• A specific setting of these connectors such as remote URLs, types of identifiers, etc;

• The secrets used for the authentication of requests;

• Current status of ongoing exchanges, such as active subscriptions, last transmitted reports, data caches, etc;

• Query tracking: counting and limiting queries associated with this exchange partner.

Settings

The configuration of an exchange partner requires only four parameters:

• The public URL of the SIRI exchange server of the CAD/AVL to transmit the requests

• The identifier used by Ara in its data requests to the CAD/AVL server

• The identifier used by the CAD/AVL server as a data producer in the notifications sent to Ara

• The services to subscribe to for the exchange partner

The step-by-step below details the different steps to configure an exchange partner.

To access the configuration menu of an exchange partner, once connected to your Ara interface, click on your referential in the dashboard (left menu).

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By clicking on the Partners section, the list of already configured exchange partners appears in the central section of the interface.

If you have not yet configured any exchange partners, click on the 'Add New Partner' button in the top right-hand menu.

Once in the partner setup menu, fill in the setup information listed above in the fields provided.

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In addition to the name of your exchange partner, the partner configuration menu includes the following parameters to fill in (see Principles of a collection in SIRI):

• The 'local_url' field is the URL of Ara's SIRI service that is assigned to you upstream.
  ex : https://ara-api.enroute.mobi/client/siri

• It is completed by an identifier, filled in the section 'local_credential' which authorizes the SIRI requests transmitted to the SIRI server of the CAD/AVL.

• The field 'remote_url' indicates the public URL of the SIRI service of your CAD/AVL to transmit the requests to Ara.

• The field 'remote_credential' is the identifier that allows the transmission of notifications from the SIRI server of the CAD/AVL to Ara.

• The field 'Connectors' refer the set of services you want to subscribe to for the exchange partner. It allows the selection of several services by checking or unchecking independently each service in the drop-down menu (icon 'check').

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Once the fields are filled in, click on 'Create a Partner' to save your selection and confirm the creation of your exchange partner.

The information related to your exchange partner is available in the Partners section of your referential. Click on the name of the Exchange Partner you have just created in the list.

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The details of your Exchange Partner will show the settings you made when you set up the partner in the 'Settings' section and the list of services you have subscribed to for this partner in the 'Connectors' section.

It is possible to modify the configuration parameters of the Exchange Partner (adding a connector / SIRI service, for example) by clicking on 'Modify this Partner' in the top right-hand menu.

Status

In the main interface for each real time referential, you can view all the Exchange Partners.

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Among the information displayed, the interface shows the status of the exchange partners, their names, their slugs, and the configuration information of the exchange partners (subscribed service types and configuration parameters).

The exchanges partner status information consists of 3 states :

• The Available status shows that the exchange partner has responded positively to the activity check sent to it by Ara. Therefore, it is up and running and ready to respond to any request.

• The Unavailable state shows that the exchange partner has not responded positively to the activity check sent to it by Ara. Ara is therefore able to communicate with this exchange partner, but it is not available or not in working condition. This unavailability of the exchange partner may be a sign of problems in the operation or setup on the side of the exchange partner.

• The Unknown status shows either that Ara is unable to check the activity of the exchange partner (network issues, etc.) or that the subscribed services do not allow the status to be updated (this is a normal situation).