4.1.3 Custom I/O Formats

It is in principle possible to configure TOPCAT to work with table file formats and schemes other than the ones listed in this section. It does not require any upgrade of TOPCAT itself, but you have to write or otherwise acquire an input/output/scheme handler for the table format in question.

The steps that you need to take are:

1. Write java classes which constitute your input/output/scheme handler. Such classes must have a no-arg constructor and implement the appropriate interface: uk.ac.starlink.table.TableBuilder for input handlers, uk.ac.starlink.table.StarTableWriter for output handlers, uk.ac.starlink.table.TableScheme for scheme handlers.
2. Ensure that these classes are available on your classpath while TOPCAT is running (see Section 10.2.1).
3. Set the relevant system property to the name of the handler class (see Section 10.2.3): startable.readers for input handlers, startable.writers for output handlers, startable.schemes for scheme handlers.

Explaining how to write such handlers is beyond the scope of this document - see the user document and javadocs for STIL.