Templating in VOTable

[Roy Williams]

Francois and Tom

I have been using SIAP extensively for the Atlasmaker project. Extensively
in terms of quantity (several TB in thousands of calls), although only three
actual services. However, my project can read ANY properly built SIAP.

The template method seems backwards. A request is made, then the response is
all the possible requests you can make! Why not simply add keywords to the
specific Skyview SIAP so that you can specify format, size, center
coordinates, etc? Those non-standard keywords will then be defined in the
registry along with the possible values of BANDPASS, etc. If you don't use
the extra keywords, then you get a default.

The templated access as written seems pretty complex. It would mean for me a
lot of non-XML syntax and semantics to absorb, then new code to be built.

My collaborators in San Diego have built a service to return arbitrary FITS
cutouts from the large (23500x23500) DPOSS images. I have asked them to
SIMPLIFY the interface, so that you can ask for the image to be chopped into
1, 4, 16, or 64 subimages. Now we have a normal SIAP service that has one
extra parameter. The simple interface is wanted, not the sophisticated
one -- at least by me.

Can I ask to see the use cases and requirements that justify the templated
access protocol? Who is asking for it?

Roy

--------
Caltech Center for Advanced Computing Research
roy at cacr.caltech.edu
626 395 3670