# What is Seascape Flex?

## Get to know Seascape Flex

Seascape Flex is a lightweight server that automatically extends the capabilities of standalone Web Archives. It provides additional features including full-text search, advanced search across multiple databases, user management and access permissions, advanced performance and scalability.

Seascape Flex can be installed on a Windows **server** or a **workstation**. Once it is installed and linked to an existing Web Archive, it will automatically index the Web Archive’s PDF files, attachments, and metadata, and make them available for full-text searches via the advanced search dialog.

User management is handled either by connecting Seascape Flex to the organization's Active Directory or by creating internal users and groups in the Flex database. Once the user accounts have been set up, administrators can assign access permissions by simply selecting users or groups in each database.

Seascape Flex is built around the industry standard Elasticsearch engine, which provides organizations with uncompromising fast document searches and flexible options for scaling their archives.

Below is a quick comparison of the features supported by a standalone Web Archive and the advanced features that are enabled by deploying both a Web Archive and Seascape Flex on a server.

|                                           | Web Archive                                                                                                       | Web Archive with Seascape Flex                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Deployment method                         | Copy the archive to a web server, shared network folder, SharePoint library, or a local folder on a PC or laptop. | Copy the archive to a server (or PC) on which Seascape Flex has been installed.                                                                                 |
| View column search                        | Yes                                                                                                               | Yes                                                                                                                                                             |
| Any field (metadata) search               | No                                                                                                                | Yes                                                                                                                                                             |
| Full-text search                          | No                                                                                                                | Yes                                                                                                                                                             |
| Search across multiple archived databases | No                                                                                                                | Yes                                                                                                                                                             |
| Access permissions                        | Not available. Access can be managed by configuring folder permissions.                                           | Access permissions are assigned in Seascape Flex. Users are authenticated by Active Directory. Alternatively, users and groups can be created in Seascape Flex. |
| Scalability                               | For best performance, it is recommended to keep the exported document views to under 500K view entries.           | There are no limitations on view sizes.                                                                                                                         |
| Audit log                                 | No                                                                                                                | Yes                                                                                                                                                             |


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