IVOA Recommendation: Table Access Protocol Version 1.0

TL;DR

This paper details the IVOA TAP v1.0 standard, enabling flexible, multi-language, and spatially-aware access to astronomical and general database tables with support for synchronous, asynchronous, and distributed queries.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive protocol for accessing astronomical and database tables, including support for multiple query languages, spatial indexing, and distributed cross-matching capabilities.

Findings

Supports ADQL and PQL query languages.

Enables spatially indexed and multi-position queries.

Facilitates distributed cross-matching across multiple services.

Abstract

The table access protocol (TAP) defines a service protocol for accessing general table data, including astronomical catalogs as well as general database tables. Access is provided for both database and table metadata as well as for actual table data. This version of the protocol includes support for multiple query languages, including queries specified using the Astronomical Data Query Language (ADQL [1]) and the Parameterised Query Language (PQL, under development) within an integrated interface. It also includes support for both synchronous and asynchronous queries. Special support is provided for spatially indexed queries using the spatial extensions in ADQL. A multi-position query capability permits queries against an arbitrarily large list of astronomical targets, providing a simple spatial cross-matching capability. More sophisticated distributed cross-matching capabilities are possible by orchestrating a distributed query across multiple TAP services.