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#### 4.1.3 Custom I/O Formats

It is in principle possible to configure TOPCAT to work with table file formats 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 and/or output handler for the table format in question.

The steps that you need to take are:

1. Write java classes which constitute your input and/or output handler
2. Ensure that these classes are available on your classpath while TOPCAT is running (see Section 10.2.1)
3. Set the `startable.readers` and/or `startable.writers` system property to the name of the handler classes (see Section 10.2.3)

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

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TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk