EUCARIS is installed on the national level by the respective Member States and is based on XML and web service technology
The application
The application consists of two parts. A Web client offers the EUCARIS users on the national level the opportunity to send via their browser, in an interactive way, requests to other countries. Normally, the response will be shown within a few seconds.
An important feature of EUCARIS is that the Web client is completely multilingual. All screen items, coded information and messages can be translated into the native language of each individual user.
The second component of the application is the ‘Core’ application. This is a series of web services and a library with generic functions, responsible for the routing of the messages, security, logging etc. Very important is the so-called Multi Country Inquiry, a broadcasting mechanism sending a request to all connected Member States (provided that the inquiry is authorised). This feature is especially useful if it is not known where a car or person originates from. In fact you send an open request to all, e.g.: ‘does anyone know a vehicle with this chassis number’?
In each country, the Core application is connected via an interface to the national registry providing the vehicle and driving licence information on request from other states. In this interface all coded information is translated to standardised values (e.g. colour-code or the indication that the vehicle is stolen).
The Core application can also be connected to other ‘customised’ client applications. This offers the opportunity to request EUCARIS, for instance, from a police application or a registration supporting technical vehicle inspections.
XML messages
All information that is exchanged between the countries that take part in EUCARIS has been specified in the so-called XML message protocol. This means that each data-element has been described in a very exact way. The definitions of the data are derived from the EU directives and guidelines, if possible. Not only the interpretation of each data-element, but also the content of the data has been standardised, so each country will use the same code to indicate to other countries that a car is ‘blue’, even if in their own registry a completely different description or code is used.
Hardware and system software
The minimum hardware requirements consist of a server with at least the following specifications:
- > 2GHz multi core processor
- 8 GB memory or more
- 80 GB disk
The above hardware is sufficient as a starting point for EUCARIS, but it is important to keep in mind that the configuration depends on the number of active users ,the expected message volume and the location of the Database. Scaling might be needed if the number of users or message volume increases.
The following software is required to run EUCARIS:
- Microsoft Windows Server
- Microsoft .NET Framework
- Microsoft SQL Server database or Oracle database
The international network (WAN)
All information is exchanged between the countries via a secured private TCP/IP network. Originally EUCARIS made use of a closed network managed by INFONET. Nowadays, each state is connected TESTA NG, a network managed under the auspices of the European Commission, connecting administrations in the EU Member States.