IVOA Recommendation: Universal Worker Service Pattern Version 1.0

The Universal Worker Service (UWS) pattern defines how to manage asynchronous execution of jobs on a service. Any application of the pattern defines a family of related services with a common service contract. Possible uses of the pattern are also described

VOSpace: a Prototype for Grid 2.0

As Grid 1.0 was characterized by distributed computation, so Grid 2.0 will be characterized by distributed data and the infrastructure needed to support and exploit it: the emerging success of Amazon S3 is already testimony to this. VOSpace is the IVOA interface standard for accessing distributed data. Although the base definition (VOSpace 1.0) only relates to flat, unconnected data stores, subsequent versions will add additional layers of functionality. In this paper, we consider how incorporating popular web concepts such as folksonomies (tagging), social networking, and data-spaces could lead to a much richer data environment than provided by a traditional collection of networked data stores

IVOA Recommendation: IVOA Support Interfaces

This document describes the minimum interface that a (SOAP- or REST-based) web service requires to participate in the IVOA. Note that this is not required of standard VO services developed prior to this specification, although uptake is strongly encouraged on any subsequent revision. All new standard VO services, however, must feature a VOSI-compliant interface. This document has been produced by the Grid and Web Services Working Group. It has been reviewed by IVOA Members and other interested parties, and has been endorsed by the IVOA Executive Committee as an IVOA Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference from another document. IVOA's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability inside the Astronomical Community

IVOA Recommendation: Table Access Protocol Version 1.0

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

IVOA Recommendation: IVOA Credential Delegation Protocol Version 1.0

The credential delegation protocol allows a client program to delegate a user's credentials to a service such that that service may make requests of other services in the name of that user. The protocol defines a REST service that works alongside other IVO services to enable such a delegation in a secure manner. In addition to defining the specifics of the service protocol, this document describes how a delegation service is registered in an IVOA registry along with the services it supports. The specification also explains how one can determine from a service registration that it requires the use of a supporting delegation service

IVOA Recommendation: VOResource: an XML Encoding Schema for Resource Metadata Version 1.03

This document describes an XML encoding standard for IVOA Resource Metadata, referred to as VOResource. This schema is primarily intended to support interoperable registries used for discovering resources; however, any application that needs to describe resources may use this schema. In this document, we define the types and elements that make up the schema as representations of metadata terms defined in the IVOA standard, Resource Metadata for the Virtual Observatory [Hanicsh et al. 2004]. We also describe the general model for the schema and explain how it may be extended to add new metadata terms and describe more specific types of resources