Data Repositories are locations where Ergo looks for and stores all of the data that it uses and creates. A Repository can be located locally, as a file on the local machine drive, or be remote. By default, Ergo creates a local cache repository on the user's system, where any remote data that is accessed is cached for local use.
Local Repository
Local repositories are simply folders on the local machine's drive, which are formatted in a particular format so that Ergo recognizes and knows how to read/write them. You can create a new local repository by using the File->New->Repository function in Ergo. Once you select "local repository" and select a drive location, Ergo will set up the appropriate folder structure and initialize the repository. This is useful for creating and editing test data run locally. It is recommended to let Ergo manage the folder and file structure of the repository. There are implicit links between certain files, and certain formats that are expected. Modifying it by hand might corrupt the repository if you don't have an understanding of how the repository format works.
Remote Repositories
To share or publish data to other Ergo users, you will want to use a Remote Repository. These are servers that can be connected to by multiple Ergo users.
WebDAV repository
The most common type of remote repository is a WebDAV repository. To connect to a WebDAV repository, you simply need to enter the WebDAV url that is provided by the repository owner. If necessary, you can enter a username/password if it is password protected. The most common case for ERGO WebDAV repositories is that the data is publicly accessible for reading without a password, but a username/password must be supplied for writing to the repository.
To create a WebDAV repository, you will need to set up a WebDAV server, which is beyond the scope of this article. Once it is set up, you can provide a URL to the webDAV root, or a subfolder in webDAV, where you'd like the repository to live. (Please note that if you allow un-authenticated write access, you expose yourself to possible abuse from 3rd parties on the internet.) Because you can set up subfolders as their own Ergo repository, it is possible to have multiple different Ergo repositories on a single WebDAV server.
PostGIS Repository
You may also connect to special repositories that are hosted by Posgresql databases with the PostGIS extension. This allows for some advanced behavior, just as geospacial querying. Setting up a postGIS repository is a relatively complicated procedure, and beyond the scope of this document.