Glossary of terms

Many of the terms that are used in Siren Investigate are inherited from Elasticsearch terminology. For more terms and definitions, see the Elasticsearch glossary.

acyclic graph: A directed graph in which no node can be traversed back to itself. See also, cyclic graph.
application programming interface (API): A set of definitions that enable one piece of software to communicate with another.
authenticator: A tool that performs the process of verifying the identity of a user or system.
back-end system: Software running on a server that is not directly accessed by a user. In Siren Platform, the back-end system consists of the Siren Federate plugin installed in an Elasticsearch cluster.

choropleth map: A map with areas shaded in proportion to a statistical variable. Also known as a region map.

column: A vertical row of fields in an entity table.
co-mention: A pair of data items that occur together.

cyclic graph: A directed graph that contains a path from at least one node back to itself. See also, acyclic graph.

data model: The data schema that maps out how different entities are related.
datasource: A connection to a database.
document: See record.
edge: The visual representation of a relation in a graph. Each edge has a text associated with it, indicating how the two entities are related. The direction of the arrow is also important, since the relationship commonly flows one way. For example, the direction of the arrow on an edge called mentions looks like this: articles - mentions → companies.
EID: See entity identifier.

Elasticsearch: A distributed document store upon which Siren Platform is built. Instead of storing information as rows of columnar data, Elasticsearch stores complex data structures as JSON documents.

entity: A set of details that are held about a real-world object such as a person, location, or bank account. An entity’s data is either imported or created in Siren Investigate and is read by the system as an entity table.

entity identifier (EID): A virtual entity, which you can use to connect data sets by using a category that exists in the real world. For example, if you have data on companies and investors, you can create an entity identifier for city, because both sets of data contain information about city locations. This can help with connecting some entities in the data model.

entity table: A type of search that accesses the data about entities and which is organized into a table format featuring columns and fields. An entity table represents the link between Siren Investigate and one or more Elasticsearch indices that you intend to explore. Entity tables are a required component in the formation of dashboards and visualizations.

field: A key-value pair in a record, that may contain a unit of data. In Siren Investigate, fields can be included or excluded from entity tables to make your data analysis more refined.
formatter: A process that performs formatting.
geo hash: An alphanumeric string that encodes a geographic location.
geo point: A geographic location, typically expressed in latitude and longitude.
heat map: A graphical data display using colors to represent individual values.
heteroscedastic: The property of a variable whose variability is unequal across the range of values predicted by a second variable.
hostname: A domain name that can be translated into an IP address.

index: An Elasticsearch object, which is like a ‘database' in a relational database. It has a mapping which defines multiple types.
iframe: A frame that is used to place one HTML document inside another.
jitter: Deviation from standard distribution.

keystore: A repository of private key and identity certificates that a specific program should present to both parties (server and client) for verification. See also, truststore.
link: In the Graph Browser, nodes that have a link between them indicate that there is a relation between those entities.
lossy: A file format that has lost some of the original information.
mapping: Defines how a record, its fields, and its metadata are stored in Elasticsearch.
node: The graphical representation of an entity. Nodes allow you to work with entities in the Graph Browser.
partitioner: A process that performs partitioning.

record: An information unit, often presented as a row in a table or spreadsheet, that contains the values that pertain to an entity. For example, the record for a person entity might contain the person’s first and last name, their date of birth, and their address. May also be called a document in some circumstances.

region map: A map with areas shaded in proportion to a statistical variable. Also known as a choropleth map.

relation: A connection between a field of one entity table and another field of a different entity table.

search: A subset of an entity table, which is created by filtering the entity table for specific data. The search then can be used to create dashboards, visualizations, graph browsers and many other ways of interacting with the data.
tile map: A geographic map overlaid with circles that are keyed to data specified in buckets. In Siren Investigate, the Coordinate Map and Enhanced Coordinate Map visualizations are tile maps.

truststore: A repository of certificates issued by Certificate Authorities (CA) that verify the certificate presented by the server in the SSL connection. See also, keystore.