# Connect Ellipsis Drive to your platform

Ellipsis Drive can be integrated into your platform or application to enable a full **Bring Your Own Data (BYOD)** workflow.

This allows your users or clients to upload, manage, visualise, and use their own spatial datasets directly within your environment, without requiring you to build and maintain a custom ingestion and data management system.

***

### Why Ellipsis Drive is used for BYOD

Building a robust BYOD capability is complex. Ellipsis Drive abstracts this complexity by providing a standardised spatial data layer.

* **You do not need to handle data ingestion complexity**\
  Ellipsis Drive automatically validates, sanitises, and standardises user inputs into spatial layers, supporting over 50 file formats.
* **You do not need to normalise heterogeneous data formats**\
  All user inputs are converted into a consistent data model, exposed through a unified API and integration libraries across common frameworks.
* **You do not need to build scalable spatial infrastructure**\
  Because all inputs are structured as Ellipsis Drive layers, performance, scalability, and efficient querying are handled by the platform.
* **You do not need to design a full data management interface**\
  Ellipsis Drive provides an end-user environment for uploading, organising, and visualising spatial data out of the box.
* **You avoid building operational BYOD complexity**\
  This includes edge cases around validation, storage logic, access control, and rendering across diverse datasets.

***

#### Authentication

To connect Ellipsis Drive to your platform, you can use OAuth.

This allows your system to securely access and manage data as part of your application backend.

***

#### Lightweight alternative (no backend required)

You can also redirect users to a login flow:

[https://app.ellipsis-drive.com/logIn?referer={your](https://app.ellipsis-drive.com/logIn?referer=%7Byour) app url}

After login, the user is redirected back with a user token.

This is faster to implement but less robust than OAuth, which is recommended for production systems.

***

#### Implementation approach

To use Ellipsis Drive as a BYOD layer:

1.) [Configure OAuth authentication](https://docs.ellipsis-drive.com/developers/api-v3/oauth) for your application.

2.) [Use the Ellipsis Drive file system package](https://github.com/ellipsis-drive/folders-package) to expose a structured data view in your app.

3.) Render layers [using a mapping library](https://github.com/ellipsis-drive) such as MapLibre or Leaflet.

4.) Embed Ellipsis Drive UI where needed for advanced workflows such as upload, editing, or styling using authenticated sessions.

5.) Extend functionality [using the API](https://docs.ellipsis-drive.com/developers/api-v3) for deeper integration and automation.

***

#### Private deployment option

For tighter integration, Ellipsis Drive can be deployed as a private instance.

This enables:

* dedicated environment per organisation
* full UI branding and styling control
* optional federation with your identity provider

This removes the need for separate user registration and aligns authentication with your existing enterprise systems.

{% hint style="success" %}

### Integration scope flexibility

You can integrate Ellipsis Drive at different levels:

* **platform level** (full BYOD system)
* [**folder level**](/developers/common-integrations/use-ellipsis-drive-to-ingest-client-data.md) (controlled data domains per user or client)

Folder-level integration enables stronger white-labelling by limiting direct exposure to the Ellipsis Drive UI.
{% endhint %}

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