TAP: the next steps

[Keith Noddle]

Following the Baltimore Interop the TAP specification has taken a 
further step forwards. In order that everyone can see what is happening 
and to give their contributions in a timely fashion, I have uploaded the 
latest revision + some suggested restructuring ideas to the TWiki:

http://www.ivoa.net/cgi-bin/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/TableAccess

*Please, everyone with an interest take a look and have your say.*

To remind everyone what was agreed in Trieste and what we have been 
working towards, here are the salient points from my plenary presentation:

* A TAP V1.0 Service must implement querying using ADQL
* A TAP V1.0 Service may optionally implement a simple (V1 style)
   Parametrised querying interface
* TAP V1.0 will reach REC by the Q3 Interop at the latest
* The specification will include the optional Param interface in
   the same time frame if at all possible

We also agreed the following recommendations:

* All VO Projects should endeavour to implement TAP support in their
   toolkits, services etc
* All VO Projects should encourage the deployment of complete TAP
   services
* Investigate lowering cost of entry for small data providers –
   e.g. provide web services that:
     - Return an ADQL query given a Param query string
     - Return SQL suitable for a specified RDBMS given an ADQL query
     - Return a Param query given and ADQL query

What TAP needs now is your attention and contributions. As I said above, 
I urge everyone to get involved, make suggestions, supply ideas and help 
get TAP to REC as soon as we possibly can. Work on prototypes is already 
well under way and they teach us much about the practicalities of the 
standard.

I look forward to getting this thing done!

Keith.

-- 
Keith Noddle                    Phone:  +44 (0)116 223 1894
AstroGrid Project manager       Fax:    +44 (0)116 252 3311
Dept of Physics & Astronomy     Mobile: +44 (0)7721 926 461
University of Leicester         Skype:  keithnoddle
Leicester                       Email:  ktn at star.le.ac.uk
LE1 7RH, UK                     Web:    http://www.astrogrid.org