VOTable

General description
VOTable is an XML-based table format used for interchange within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) suite of standards.

The current version (as of late 2012) is VOTable 1.2, standardised in an IVOA Recommendation

Other information
The IVOA acts as a standardisation body for Virtual Observatory projects. In a process modelled on the W3C's, it provides a forum for standards documents to be proposed, discussed, and eventually promoted to Recommendations.

The IVOA's VOTable Working Group maintains an informal list of versions and implementations.

The MIME type  is often used for VOTable documents, but has not been registered with the IETF.

File extensions  and   are reasonably common, but there is no recommendation or fixed convention.

Software
See the IVOA Working Group page mentioned above.

Sample files
No collections known.

Identification
The v1.2 VOTable XML-Schema uses the namespace