What Halo is

Halo is a business intelligence platform. Connect a database or upload a file, shape the data into datasets, build charts and reports, then share or embed them.

Halo turns the data your company already keeps into charts and reports people can read, filter and act on. It reads your database where it lives, remembers what the columns mean, and draws the same report on screen, on paper and inside your own website.

A small report over sample data. Click a bar or a slice and the rest of the page follows.

From data to a shared report

Everything in Halo follows one path. Each step builds on the one before, so a change to a field reaches every chart that uses it.

Connect. Give Halo a read-only login to a database, or upload a CSV or Excel file. Either way you have a connection.
Discover. Discovery reads the tables, columns and keys, profiles the values, and suggests what each column means.
Model. A dataset picks the tables a report reads, joins them and names the fields for people: dimensions to group by, measures to add up, and calculated fields.
Chart. A chart is a saved question over one dataset, such as revenue by month.
Report. A report places charts, text, images and filters on pages, laid out as a dashboard, a canvas, a document or one long page.
Share. Publish it, then send colleagues the link, open a public link, embed it on your site, print it, or email it on a schedule.

Your first report walks through all six with a small file.

The products

Name	What it is
Halo	The company and the platform.
Halo Data	Where you work: connections, datasets, charts, reports, sharing and your organization's settings.
Halo CMS	Your organization's public website, using the same brand, images and data as Halo Data.
Halo CRM	Your directory: the businesses, places and events in your region, and your relationship with each. It feeds your website and your reports.
Halo Engine	What runs behind Halo Data: connectors, discovery, datasets, query planning, caching and extracts.
Halo Console	The admin app for Halo's own staff. You won't sign in to it, but it's where Halo sets up your organization and answers your requests.

The same renderer draws a report in Halo Data, on a public link, in an embed and in a PDF, so numbers, formats and colors match everywhere.

How Halo reads your data

Halo only reads. It never writes to your database, and you decide what its login can see.

Live by default. Opening or filtering a report sends a live query to your database. Halo Engine plans it from the dataset and binds every value as a parameter.
Cached for a while. Results are kept for a lifetime you set per dataset, 15 minutes by default, so the next person doesn't wait.
Extracts when you want them. An extract keeps a copy of a dataset's rows and refreshes it on a schedule, so reports don't depend on the source being quick.
Rules travel with the data. A row policy is added to every query against its dataset, including Halo AI's and signed embeds', so each person sees only their rows.

Extracts and caching and Row policies have the detail.

Who does what

Each member of your organization has a role, which sets the most they can do:

Owners and Admins run the organization: members, roles, brand and settings.
Builders connect sources, write SQL, build and publish.
Analysts build datasets, charts and reports where they're given edit access, and ask for publishing.
Viewers read what's shared with them.

Roles and permissions lists every permission, and How Halo is organized explains how sharing follows workspaces and folders.

Halo AI