Introduction

The Registry Query Tool (TABFIND) allows the user to find relevant VO resources from a registry thanks to UCDs, publishers and date of creation. A list of resources can be selected and saved for further processing with the Data Extraction Tool. To help the user in the selection of the resources, their metadata can be retrieved from the registry and visualized.

Here is a snapshot of the tool :

Relevant resources query

Three parameters can be used to search relevant VO resources in a registry:

• UCDs (for tabular resources)
• Publishers of the resource
• Date of creation of the resource

UCDs

VO resources can be searched thanks to a logical condition on their UCDs, using logical separators && (AND) and || (OR). The general syntax is:

UCD1 [&& | ||] UCD2 [&& | ||] ... [&& | ||] UCDN

For example, if the user wants to find "all resources having equatorial coordinates, a radio flux measure and an astronomical identifier", the following expression must be used:

pos.eq.dec;meta.main && pos.eq.ra;meta.main && phot.flux;em.radio && meta.id;meta.main

Publishers

By clicking on the refresh button next to the publishers area, the tool will search among the resources of the registry all the possible kind of publishers and display them in a list. By selecting one or more of them the user can restrict the request : only the resources having one of the selected publishers will be displayed.

Date of creation

The user can specify a range of date of creation to get only the resources that have been created during this period. The syntax for a date is:

yyyy-mm-dd

• yyyy is the year
• mm is the numerical month
• dd is the numerical day

XQuery request

An XQuery request must be done to the registry to get back the wanted resources. Here is an example of what the Registry Query Tool would produce with the following parameters :

- UCD condition :

pos.eq.dec;meta.main && pos.eq.ra;meta.main && phot.flux;em.radio && meta.id;meta.main

- Publisher filter :

CDS

- Date range :

from 2005-05 to 2007-05

- Generated XQuery :

declare namespace vr = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VOResource/v0.10';
declare namespace vor = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/RegistryInterface/v0.1';
declare namespace ri = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/RegistryInterface/v0.1';
declare namespace vs = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VODataService/v0.5';
declare namespace crd = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/STC/STCcoords/v1.20';
declare namespace stc = 'http://www.ivoa.net/xml/STC/stc-v1.30.xsd';
let $resource := //RootResource[(fn:near(vs:table/vs:column/vs:ucd, 'PHOT_FLUX_RADIO*') and
                                                 fn:near(vs:table/vs:column/vs:ucd, 'POS_EQ_DEC_MAIN') and
                                                 fn:near(vs:table/vs:column/vs:ucd, 'POS_EQ_RA_MAIN')) and
                                                 ((match-all(vr:curation/vr:publisher, 'CDS'))) and
                                                 (vr:curation/vr:date[@role='creation']>='2003-05') and
                                                 (vr:curation/vr:date[@role='creation']<='2007-05')]
return <resources>{$resource/vr:identifier}</resources>

Visualization of the resources

All the found resources are displayed as a list of VO identifiers in the Result - Resources interaction panel. The total number of matching resources is indicated. Items from the list can be selected by a simple click (using SHIFT and/or CTRL keys for multiple selections). The following features are available:

• Status management
• Flag management
• Identifier/title switching
• Export the list as an ASCII file
• Display filtering
• Resources duplication
• Undo/Redo
• Metadata visualization

Status management

This tool allows the user to give a VO resource one of the three possible statuses :

• "normal" : the normal status is the default status when no status is set on a resource
• "relevant" : if a resource is relevant for the user he can set its status to "relevant". Note that all relevant resources will be automatically loaded in the Data Extraction Tool thanks to the common workspace.
• "blacklisted" : if the user knows that a resource is not relevant for him he can set its status to "blacklisted".

The user can set the status of the selected resources by cliking on one of the three status buttons on the right of the resources list.

A color code helps the user to see the status of each resource in the list (see above to know what color is for what status).

Flag management

This tool allows the user to flag a VO resource from the list. This flag is nothing but a reminder for the user, it has no other action on the flagged resources. The first letters of each flagged resource appears in red, and this is the only effect of flagging a resource. The flagging state of a resource is saved in the workspace.

Identifier/title switching

By clicking on the switch button on the left of the list of resources, one can toggle between the display of the resources' identifiers and the display of the resources' title.

ASCII file exportation

By clicking on the ASCII export button on the left of the list of resources, the current list of VO resources can be saved as an ASCII file (one resource per line).

Display filtering

By choosing a filter option in the list above the resources list, only resources having corresponding status will be displayed. See the Status management section for more information about the status.

Resources duplication

When clicking on duplicate button on the right of the resources list, all the selected resources will be duplicated. As a result the concerned resources will appears twice in the list, but as entities that can be managed independently.

Undo/Redo

All operation such duplication, change of status... can be undone and redone.

Metadata visualization

When double-clicking on a resource from the list, the tool will fetch this resource's metadata from the registry and add it to a buffer. When simple-clicking on a resource from the list, if the metadata are available in the buffer the "XML" and "Description" buttons become available.

XML button

By clicking on the XML button, the user can visualize the metadata of the selected VO resource. It is displayed as raw XML directly taken from the registry. For example:

<Resource xmlns:cs="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/ConeSearch/v0.3" xmlns="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VOResource/v0.10" >
    <title>RC2 Catalogue (de Vaucouleurs+ 1976) - The RC2 catalogue</title>
    <shortName>VII/112/catalog</shortName>
    <identifier>ivo://CDS/VizieR/VII/112/catalog</identifier>
    <curation>
        <publisher ivo-id="ivo://CDS/VizieR">VizieR</publisher>
        <creator>
            <name>de Vaucouleurs G., de Vaucouleurs A., Corwin H.G.</name>
        </creator>
        <contributor>Francois Ochsenbein [CDS]</contributor>
        <date role="creation">1999-02-27T13:19:40Z</date>
        <version>13-Sep-1995</version>
        ...

Description button

By clicking on the Description button, the user can directly visualize the description of the selected resource. The description is part of the metadata of a resource, and so can also be visualized by clicking on the XML button. But it can be useful to visualize only the description without other metadata and heavy XML around.

Re-requesting checkbox

The checkbox called "Keep resources when searching" allow the user to choose between two behaviours when a second request is done :

• Reseting the list of resources and then do the request
• Keep the exisiting resources in the list and then do the request : in that case only the new resources found will be added to the list with the default "normal" status. Statistics in the status bar will be useful to know how many resources have been found with the new request and how many new resources have been added to the list.

The workspace

At any time the user can save the state of the tool as a workspace file. This workspace can be later loaded in order to resume the previous work session. Here are the element of the tool that are part of the workspace:

• All the parameters of the request to the registry (the UCD logical condition, the publishers and the date)
• All the found resources and their status (normal, relevant or blacklisted + flag)

Link with the Data Extraction Tool

When loading the common workspace in the Data Extraction Tool, all the resources having a relevant status will be automatically loaded in the process list.

Plastic

The Data Extraction Tool implements the Plastic protocol. It will automatically connect to a Hub if one is up and let the user see other connected applications. It can be seen on the right side of the status bar (at the bottom of the tool). The tool is aware of the "list of resources" Plastic messages : if an other tool broadcasts such a list, the Regsitry Query Tool will add them in its list with the default normal state. It can also broadcast itself a list of resources : the user must select the resources he wants to broadcast and then right-click somewhere on the list. A contextual menu will appear and the "broadcast selected resources with Plastic" item must be pressed.

User preferences

Some preferences for the tool can be set in the preference window. To open it, just click on the "Preferences" item of the option menu. The preferences are separated in 2 parts:

• Registry: some options about the registry where the tool searches for VO resources metadata can be set here
• Tool: some options related to the tool itself can be set here

Registry

There are two ways to specify which Registry will be used by the tool:

• Enter a Registry endpoint URI: if the user knows the endpoint URI of the Registry he can enter it directly in this text field.
• Choose from the available Registries: in this section there is a list of the available Registries all over the world, that can be refreshed by pushing on the button on the right of the list. The user has just to choose one of these Registries.

Tool

• Browser shell command: the shell command to launch the browser that will be used in some case (e.g. to display description information for the resources)

Technical requirements

• Java: JRE 1.5+
• A running Registry that supports the XQuery and getResource requests via SOAP (this is an IVOA standard, so every Registry should support that)

Download

Current release

The current release of the Registry Query tool is 1.2.2, released on September 24th, 2008.

Older releases

Webstart

The Registry Query tool can also be launched with java Webstart: Registry Query Tool webstart

Ready to use workspace

Here is a link to download a ready to use workspace: workspace.xml

Release notes and changelog

1.2.2

Changes:

• Externalized the application's files (user preferences and cache of available registries) on a .registryQueryTool directory in the user's home directory
• Add a webstart version of the tool

1.2.1

Changes:

• Improved the registry part of the preferences window:
  • The list of available registries can now be refreshed on demand, avoiding the whole window to be blocked during the request when opened.
  • The text field to enter an endpoint URI has been replaced by an editable list improved with a user history and a default value.

1.2

Changes:

• UCD1+ support
• Registry 1.0 compatibility
• Redefinition of a workspace resource: it is now a table in an IVOA resource, not the IVOA resource itself.

1.1

First release of the Registry Query tool * Changes:

-- BriceGassmann - 01 Oct 2008

• DataPreferencesScreenshot .png: