DetailsΒΆ

ASDF makes use of an abstract data type definition called a tag, which is a formed from a schema or collection of schemas. Each schema encodes part of the information that ASDF uses to both validate and identify the organization and types of data within an ASDF file. Tags are assigned to specific a specific schema or collection of schemas within a manifest. Finally, ASDF requires converter classes which implement the logic of serializing and deserializing of objects (in this case astropy classes) into and out of their respective ASDF tag representations.

The asdf-astropy package primarily defines converters for many astropy types, and then properly registers them with ASDF. Users should never need to refer to converter implementations directly. Their presence should be entirely transparent when processing ASDF files.

The converters in asdf-astropy related to transforms implement the tags that are defined by the asdf-transform-schemas package. Similarly, the converters in asdf-astropy related to coordinates implement the tags that are defined by the asdf-coordinates-schemas package. Moreover, many of the converters in asdf-astropy related to units implement tags that are defined in the ASDF-standard. Finally, there are converters in asdf-astropy whose tags are defined within asdf-astropy itself. See asdf-astropy Manifest for a listing of all these tags. Documentation of the individual schemas defined by asdf-astropy, which are used to assemble these tags can be found in asdf-astropy Schemas.

Note

Not all astropy types are currently serializable by ASDF. Attempting to write unsupported types to an ASDF file will lead to a RepresenterError. In order to support new types, new tags and converters must be created. A basic example can be found in Example, for additional details please refer to Extensions. If you do write additional converters or schemas please consider contributing them to asdf-astropy.