🏛️ AtoM Extensions

Extending Access to Memory for Modern Archives

The most comprehensive extension suite for AtoM archival software

Installation • Feature Comparison • Extensions • Compliance • Documentation

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Built by The Archive And Heritage Digital Commons Group

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🎯 What is AtoM?

AtoM (Access to Memory) is an open-source, web-based archival description application developed by Artefactual Systems. It's trusted by national archives, universities, and cultural institutions worldwide.

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📊 Feature Comparison

Base AtoM Features (Native)

Feature	Description	Status
Archival Description
ISAD(G) Templates	International Standard Archival Description	✅
RAD Templates	Rules for Archival Description (Canadian)	✅
DACS Templates	Describing Archives: A Content Standard (US)	✅
Dublin Core Templates	Simple metadata standard	✅
MODS Templates	Metadata Object Description Schema	✅
Multi-level Descriptions	Fonds → Series → Files → Items	✅
Hierarchical Browse	Tree-view navigation	✅
Authority Records
ISAAR(CPF)	Corporate bodies, Persons, Families	✅
Actor Relations	Relationships between authorities	✅
Maintenance History	Track changes to authorities	✅
Archival Institutions
ISDIAH	Repository descriptions	✅
Contact Information	Address, phone, email, hours	✅
Holdings Statistics	Collection counts	✅
Functions
ISDF	Functions/activities descriptions	✅
Function Relations	Link functions to records	✅
Access Points
Subject Terms	Controlled vocabulary subjects	✅
Place Terms	Geographic access points	✅
Name Access Points	Link to authority records	✅
Genre Terms	Material types	✅
Digital Objects
File Upload	Images, PDFs, audio, video	✅
Thumbnail Generation	Automatic derivatives	✅
Compound Objects	Multi-page documents	✅
External Links	URI references	✅
Import/Export
CSV Import	Bulk data loading	✅
EAD 2002 Import/Export	Encoded Archival Description	✅
EAD3 Export	Latest EAD version	✅
Dublin Core Export	Simple XML	✅
MODS Export	Library metadata	✅
SKOS Export	Taxonomy terms	✅
Clipboard Export	Select and export	✅
Search & Discovery
Elasticsearch	Full-text search	✅
Faceted Search	Filter by repository, date, subject	✅
Advanced Search	Boolean operators	✅
Browse by Repository	Institution grouping	✅
User Management
User Accounts	Login/registration	✅
User Groups	Role-based permissions	✅
LDAP Integration	Enterprise authentication	✅
Two-Factor Auth	OTP security	✅
Administration
Taxonomy Management	Edit controlled vocabularies	✅
Static Pages	Custom content pages	✅
Theming	Customize appearance	✅
Multi-language	Interface translation	✅
OAI-PMH	Harvesting protocol	✅
Accessions	Acquisition records	✅
Deaccessions	Disposal records	✅
Physical Storage	Location tracking	✅
Jobs	Background processing	✅

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AtoM Extensions Adds

Feature	Base AtoM	+ Extensions
User Interface
Modern Bootstrap 5 UI	❌	✅
Responsive Mobile Design	Partial	✅ Full
Dark Mode Support	❌	✅
Drag-and-Drop Landing Pages	❌	✅
Display Profile System	❌	✅
Architecture
Laravel Query Builder	❌	✅
Extension Manager CLI	❌	✅
Database-driven Plugin System	❌	✅
PHP 8.3 Optimized	Partial	✅ Full
Security & Compliance
Security Classification (5 levels)	❌	✅
GDPR Compliance Tools	❌	✅
POPIA Compliance Tools	❌	✅
CCPA Compliance Tools	❌	✅
PIPEDA Compliance Tools	❌	✅
LGPD Compliance Tools	❌	✅
PAIA Request Management	❌	✅
DSAR Management	❌	✅
Data Breach Register	❌	✅
Consent Management	❌	✅
Comprehensive Audit Trail	❌	✅
GLAM Sector Support
Archives (ISAD/EAD)	✅	✅ Enhanced
Libraries (RDA/MARC)	Partial	✅ Full
Museums (Collections Procedures)	❌	✅
Museums (CCO)	❌	✅
Galleries (CCO/CDWA)	❌	✅
Digital Asset Management	❌	✅
Unified GLAM Browse	❌	✅
Heritage & Finance
GRAP 103 Heritage Accounting	❌	✅
IPSAS 17 (International)	❌	✅
FRS 102 (UK)	❌	✅
GASB 34 (USA)	❌	✅
FASAB (USA Federal)	❌	✅
AASB 116 (Australia)	❌	✅
PSAB/PS 3150 (Canada)	❌	✅
Asset Valuation & Depreciation	❌	✅
Insurance Management	❌	✅
10 Accounting Standards	❌	✅
Research & Access
Research Portal	❌	✅
Researcher Workspace	❌	✅
Reading Room Booking	❌	✅
Access Request Workflow	❌	✅
Embargo Management	❌	✅
Collection Management
Donor Agreement Tracking	❌	✅
Donor Reminders	❌	✅
Condition Assessment	❌	✅
Conservation Tracking	❌	✅
Condition Annotator	❌	✅
Provenance Research	❌	✅
Vendor/Supplier Management	❌	✅
Advanced Features
IIIF Deep Zoom Viewer	❌	✅
3D Model Viewer	❌	✅
3D Thumbnail Generation	❌	✅
Records in Contexts (RiC)	❌	✅
Graph Visualization	❌	✅
AI Entity Extraction (NER)	❌	✅
Automated Backups	❌	✅
TIFF to PDF/A Merge	❌	✅
Metadata Extraction (EXIF/IPTC/XMP)	❌	✅

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Why Both Together?

AtoM = Rock-solid archival foundation trusted by national archives, universities, and cultural institutions worldwide.

AtoM Extensions = Enterprise features, multi-sector support, regulatory compliance, modern UI, and AI capabilities.

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📊 Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     AtoM 2.10 BASE (Symfony 1.x)                │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  LAYER 1: atom-framework (REQUIRED)                             │
│  ├── Laravel Query Builder (Illuminate\Database)                │
│  ├── Extension Manager CLI                                      │
│  ├── Base Repository/Service Classes                            │
│  └── Helper Utilities                                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  LAYER 2: atom-ahg-plugins                                      │
│  ├── ahgThemeB5Plugin (Required - Locked)                       │
│  ├── ahgSecurityClearancePlugin (Required - Locked)             │
│  └── [Optional Plugins...]                                      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  LAYER 3: Provenance AI (Optional - API)                        │
│  └── AI-powered entity extraction for archivists                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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⚡ Installation

⚠️ What the installer changes in your AtoM

bin/install overwrites 38 base AtoM files from atom-framework/patches/, which mirrors the AtoM root. You should know this before you run it on an existing installation.

These patches carry real fixes, several of them security fixes that upstream AtoM 2.10.1 does not have - a cryptographically secure password salt replacing md5(rand(100000, 999999) . $email), escapeshellarg() on a pdftotext call, unserialize(..., ['allowed_classes' => false]) object-injection hardening, and an ACL duplicate-role fix. The patched files include lib/model/QubitUser.php, lib/model/QubitActor.php, lib/model/QubitInformationObject.php, qbAclPlugin/lib/QubitAcl.class.php, apps/qubit/config/security.yml, and 11 South African i18n message files.

Three consequences to plan for:

1. An AtoM version upgrade discards them. Upstream files replace the patched ones and the fixes above silently revert. Nothing warns you.
2. Re-running bin/install after an upgrade can revert upstream fixes, because it copies these files unconditionally. Diff before you install.
3. Patched files carry no marker, so you cannot tell by reading one whether it is patched or pristine.

The full list and the upstream diffs are in issue #274. Take a backup of your AtoM tree and database before installing.

Prerequisites

Component	Minimum	Recommended
AtoM	2.8.0	2.10.x
PHP	8.2	8.3
MySQL	8.0	8.0+
Elasticsearch	5.x	7.10 (AtoM 2.10; ES 8.x not supported)
OS	Ubuntu 20.04	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Also required: Composer 2.x (resolves the framework's 16 PHP dependencies), and ImageMagick + php8.3-imagick, which base AtoM needs to generate digital-object derivatives.

JavaScript and CSS libraries are vendored and committed, so there is no npm step at deploy time and nothing is fetched from a CDN at runtime - the interface works without outbound internet. Node.js 18+ is only needed to rebuild the theme bundle.

Optional per-feature tools (Tesseract, ClamAV, Siegfried, Aspell, Argos Translate, Cantaloupe) are listed in INSTALLATION.md. Each degrades gracefully when absent.

Quick Start

# Download and run installer
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ArchiveHeritageGroup/atom-framework/main/bin/ahg-installer.sh -o ahg-installer.sh
chmod +x ahg-installer.sh
sudo ./ahg-installer.sh

📖 See INSTALLATION.md for all installation options →

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📦 Available Extensions

Required (Core - Locked)

Extension	Description
ahgThemeB5Plugin	Bootstrap 5 responsive theme
ahgSecurityClearancePlugin	Security classification (Public to Top Secret)

GLAM Sector Plugins

Extension	Description	Standards
ahgLibraryPlugin	Library cataloging	RDA, MARC21
ahgMuseumPlugin	Museum cataloging	CCO, Collections Procedures
arGalleryPlugin	Visual arts/gallery	CCO, CDWA
ahgDAMPlugin	Digital Asset Management	Dublin Core, IPTC

Research & Access

Extension	Description
ahgResearchPlugin	Researcher portal, workspace, reading room booking
ahgAccessRequestPlugin	Access request workflow management

Compliance & Governance

Extension	Description
ahgPrivacyPlugin	Multi-jurisdiction privacy (GDPR, POPIA, CCPA, PIPEDA, LGPD)
ahgHeritageAccountingPlugin	Heritage asset accounting (10 standards)
ahgExtendedRightsPlugin	Rights statements & embargo management

Utilities

Extension	Description
ahgBackupPlugin	Automated backup & restore
ahgAuditTrailPlugin	Comprehensive audit logging
ahgDisplayPlugin	Display profiles & viewing modes
ahgDonorAgreementPlugin	Donor agreements with reminders
ahgVendorPlugin	Vendor/supplier management
ahgConditionPlugin	Condition assessment & conservation
ahgLandingPagePlugin	Drag-and-drop landing page builder

AI & Advanced Features

Extension	Description
ahgNerPlugin	Named Entity Recognition
ahg3DModelPlugin	3D model viewer & thumbnails
IiifViewerFramework	IIIF deep zoom image viewer
ahgRicExplorerPlugin	Records in Contexts graph viewer

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🌍 Compliance Support

Privacy Regulations

Jurisdiction	Regulation	Status
🇿🇦 South Africa	POPIA, PAIA, NARSSA	✅ Full
🇪🇺 European Union	GDPR	✅ Full
🇺🇸 California	CCPA	✅ Full
🇨🇦 Canada	PIPEDA	✅ Full
🇧🇷 Brazil	LGPD	✅ Full
🇳🇬 Nigeria	NDPA	✅ Full
🇰🇪 Kenya	DPA	✅ Full

Heritage Accounting Standards

Standard	Region
GRAP 103	South Africa
IPSAS 17	International
FRS 102	United Kingdom
FASAB	USA Federal
GASB 34	USA State/Local
AASB 116	Australia
PSAB/PS 3150	Canada
NZ PBE IPSAS 17	New Zealand
mGAAP	Germany
Custom	Configurable

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🔧 CLI Reference

# Extension Management
php bin/atom extension:discover          # List available
php bin/atom extension:enable <name>     # Enable
php bin/atom extension:disable <name>    # Disable

# Framework Management
php bin/atom framework:version           # Version
php bin/atom update                      # Update
php bin/atom migrate run                 # Migrations

# Maintenance
php bin/atom backup:create               # Backup
php bin/atom cc                          # Clear cache
php bin/atom help                        # Help

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🤖 Provenance AI

AI-powered entity extraction for archivists:

• People - Names, roles, relationships
• Places - Locations, coordinates
• Organizations - Companies, institutions
• Dates - Events, periods

Learn more →

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📖 Documentation

Document	Description
INSTALLATION.md	Complete installation guide
docs/	User guides for each plugin
CHANGELOG.md	Version history

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🏢 About

Developed by The Archive And Heritage Digital Commons Group

🌐 Website	theahg.co.za
📧 Email	info@theahg.co.za
🐙 GitHub	ArchiveHeritageGroup
📦 Releases	Download

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📄 License

GPL-3.0 - see LICENSE for details.

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Made with ❤️ for the archival community