The purpose of this article is to provide you with a list of comprehensive and defined terminology, including acronyms and abbreviations, you might need to know to understand and start using Borealis and its supporting material.
- Borealis application: This is the Borealis Information Management System which is a web-based software application, built as a single platform which is primarily used to store data related to stakeholders engagement activities and additionally can also use its additional modules to support your management of additional areas such as Environment, Social investment, Compliance management, Grievance and issue management, Land access, or Land management.
- Bookmarks: This is a list item found in the Bookmarks menu and contain quick links to items you flagged for bookmarking.
- Bookmarks menu: Located on the Main menu under the Home page. It contains a list of all your bookmarks created through the Borealis application.
- Browser (web browser): This is a software application used to locate, retrieve and display content on the world wide web and Borealis, including web pages, images and videos. The most popular browsers are Chrome (Google), Edge (Microsoft) and Safari (Apple). You can choose your default browser or customize your browser settings.
- Component: This is a sub-organizational elements of modules and is found in the Component menu. Each component contains of group of related registers. Examples of components are Governance and Investment Portfolio which are components of the Social Investment module.
- Drop-down list: This is a UI element that allows you to select either a single item or in the case of multiselect lists, that allow you to select multiple items from an associated selection list. These are usually found in forms. See also Multiselect list.
- Expand function: This is an option found in the upper right corner of maps, tables, and most widgets which you can use to increase the display size in order to show more information on the screen.
- Field: This is a UI element that allows you to input data into your record. These are usually found in Forms. Examples of fields are First name, Last name, Location, Gender which are found in the Create an individual form.
- Geographic Information System (GIS): This is a system that creates, manages, analyzes, and maps different types of data and connects them to a map by integrating data location with general types of descriptive information. This is used in Borealis when displaying a map with different layers of information.
- Geometries: This is a system used to represent spatial components of geographic features with boundaries on a map. At its basic level, these can be used to represent rivers, countries, streets or parcels. Geometries are usually used as either Points, Polylines, or Polygons and are usually found as layers on map.
- Home page: This is the main page of Borealis and can be found at the top of the Main menu. It contains general information and can be customized to add reports for quick consultation. It provides you quick links to supporting material and provides you with contact information to reach your superusers.
- Hyperlink: This is a UI element that links one Borealis page to another or can lead to an intranet or an external web page. Visual cues such as color can be used to identify hyperlinks. When you mouse over this element, your mouse icon will change, indicating that you can click on it.
- Layer management: This is a list with one or several items, and for which an in-line flag selection is present for each. This flag lets you control whether a layer of information is visible or not on the map.
- Main menu: This is a menu on the left of your screen, which provides access to each of the modules of Borealis.
- Map layer: This is list item found in the layer management section of maps. These contain information to display on you map. You can choose to hide a map layer by unflagging the in-flag selection in the layer management on the left of the map.
- Module: This is the main organizational element of Borealis and can be found the Main menu. Each module opens the component menu which contains its related component and has links to all the registers related to the components of this modules. Examples of modules are Stakeholder Engagements and Land Access.
- Multiselect list (Multiple-select list): This is a UI element that allows you to select either a single or multiple items from an associated selection list. These items can then be removed as needed using the X (delete) icon found besides each of them.
- Navigate: This is a term used to indicate movement from one location to another in Borealis.
- Page (web page): This is a fixed amount of data about one thing displayed on a single page in your web browser. Each page has a unique URL to access it and it can usually be sent to another person to access the same page.
- Page control: These are UI elements, usually found in the upper right side of list pages. They can be used to change how the information is displayed (Summary or Detailed views), how the information is arranged (sort order) and also includes certain import, export and column configuration options.
- Record: This is a sub-organizational element of registers and contains data on a specific item either entered manually in Borealis or uploaded using the Excel template. They are found in the list pages, of a register. Examples of records are a specific individual, a specific organization, a specific communication, and a specific agreement.
- Register: This is a sub-organizational elements of components and contains the records created in Borealis. They are found in the Component menu and lead to a List page of their records. Example of this are the lists of Individuals, Organisations, Communications, and Agreements
- Session: This represents the period of time from the moment you login into Borealis to the moment you logout of Borealis or your sessions times out after a prolonged period of inactivity.
- Superuser: This is a Borealis user with administrator access who can customize certain feature of the application, create users, populate data dictionaries (which populates drop-down lists), and many other things. A list of your superusers can be found on the Borealis home page.
- System administrator: This is an individual responsible for maintaining an information system such as Borealis: duties include setting up user accounts and adding to items to some drop-down lists. (See superuser)
- Tag list: This is a list of keywords (or sentences) that categorize information and often link to or filter information. Examples of tags in Borealis can be found in the calendar which uses tags to filter the visible registers.
- URL (uniform resource locator): This is the unique address for an Internet page and pages on the web. You can enter a URL in the address bar of your web browser.
- Zoom control: These are icons on a map or on a picture, which allows you to zoom in or zoom out of an image or map.