TAP-1.0 Erratum 5: VOTable usage in TAP
Author: DAL WG
Date last changed: 2017-09-28
Rationale
The wording in
TAP-1.0 in §~2.9 and §2.9.1 about the use of
VOTable is somewhat inconsistent about the format of VOTable error documents.
It is clear that §2.9 is discussing both successful and error outputs, and in the case of an error no
TABLE
element will normally be present, only one or more
INFO
elements. However, while the intention is clear from the fourth example in §2.9.1, it is not clear from the wording.
Erratum Content
The wording of §2.9 and §2.9.1 of TAP-1.0 is inconsistent with the rules for VOTable error documents. §2.9 says
- The VOTable must contain a
RESOURCE
element identified with the attribute type='results'
, containing a single TABLE
element with the results of the query.
and §2.9.1 says
- The
RESOURCE
element must contain, before the TABLE
element, ...
The inconsistency comes from the fact that in case of a response error no
TABLE
element will normally be present, only one or more
INFO
elements.
This Erratum removes the inconsistency by changing:
- first sentence in the third paragraph of Sec.~2.9 from
- The VOTable must contain a RESOURCE element identified with the attribute type="results", containing a single TABLE element with the results of the query.
to
- The VOTable must contain a
RESOURCE
element identified with the attribute type='results'
. In case of successful job execution,
this must contain exactly one TABLE element with the results of
the query. [In case of job failure, the TABLE element may be absent.]
- first paragraph of §2.9.1 from
- The
RESOURCE
element must contain, before the TABLE
element, an INFO
element with attribute name="QUERY_STATUS"
. The value attribute must contain one of the following values:
to
- The
RESOURCE
element must contain an INFO
element with attribute name="QUERY_STATUS"
indicating the success of the operation. For RESOURCE
elements that contain a TABLE
element, this INFO
element must appear lexically before the TABLE
. The following values are defined for this INFO
element's value
attribute:
Impact Assessment
Since the wording changes introduced by this Erratum are only meant to better describe the usage of an existing recommendation (the VOTable one) inside the TAP-1.0 protocol, no effects on TAP-1.0 services or consuming applications are foreseen.
Note
This Erratum was previously part of the TAP1Err1 Note still available on
volute. The content presented here started from §6 of that Note at svn revision 2800.