Astrogrid DSA/Catalog Component Overview

This component consists of a set of java library jars to help data owners publish their RDBMS catalog data to the International Virtual Observatory.

It currently provides the following IVOA interfaces:

  • CEA - an AstroGrid Common Execution Architecture interface for use by the AstroGrid Job Execution Service. This interface accepts incoming queries in the IVOA's ADQL query language.
  • ConeSearch - An NVO Cone Search, a simple search on sky position. (This interface is optional, and can be disabled in your DSA/catalog configuration.)

The DSA/Catalog component can be configured to connect to any RDBMS system for which a JDBC driver is provided.

It uses an XSLT stylesheet to perform translation from the input ADQL/xml query language to the system-specific SQL required by the RDBMS, and a number of stylesheets are pre-embedded in the DSA distribution..

The table below shows the RDBMS, JDBC driver and embedded stylesheet combinations against which the DSA/Catalog has been known to operate succesfully (with any caveats listed).

RDBMSJDBC driverXSLT stylesheetComments
HSQLDB 1.8.0hsqldb-1.8.0.jarHSQLDB-1.8.0.xslWorks.
MySQL 4.1.16mysql-connector-java-3.1.12-bin.jarMYSQL-4.1.16.xslWorks.
PostgreSQL 7.2.3pg72jdbc2.jarPOSTGRES-7.2.3.xslWorks, but streaming data transfers from RDBMS don't work (so setting low return row limit recommended to avoid DSA running out of memory).
PostgreSQL 8.1.4postgresql-8.1-407.jdbc3.jarPOSTGRES-7.2.3.xslWorks.
Microsoft SQL Server 8.00mssqlserver.jar, msbase.jar, msutil.jar (unsure of provenance of these, presume from appropriate distro)SQLSERVER-8.00.xslWorks.
Microsoft SQL Server 2000mssqlserver.jar, msbase.jar, msutil.jar (from SQL Server 2000 distro.)SQLSERVER-8.00.xslWorks.
Sybase ASR 15.0jconnect55.jarSYBASE-ASE-15.0.xslDoesn't work (JDBC driver too old)
Sybase ASR 15.0jconnect60-exclude.jarSYBASE-ASE-15.0.xslWorks, but TRUNCATE() function not supported.
Sybase ASR 15.0jconn3.jarSYBASE-ASE-15.0.xslWorks, but TRUNCATE() function not supported.

We are always grateful to hear of other combinations of RDBMS, driver and XSLT stylesheet that have been shown to work / not work. We also welcome community contributions of stylesheets for other RDBMS systems.

The DSA/Catalog component is downloaded as a "web archive" (WAR) file, which should be installed into a tomcat container. By default, it is configured to run against a small sample dataset stored in an embedded HSQLDB RDBMS.

The documents on this website describe how to obtain and install the DSA/Catalog web application. Once installed, the application provides its own documentation explaining how to configure the web application to serve your own data.

You will need to do the following: