IVOA Recommendation: Table Access Protocol Version 1.0

Understand

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.