GAIA: the method load_data must parse ecsv files

[cosmoJFH]

Dear Astroquery team,

we would like to update the method load_data in the Gaia module, since we have found that it does not return the expected results (an astropy Table) for the format = 'ecsv'. The following example illustrates this issue

from astroquery.gaia import Gaia

user = 'xxxx'
password = 'xxxxx'
Gaia.login(user = user, password = password)


source_ids     = ['6680733225618222592']
retrieval_type = 'EPOCH_PHOTOMETRY' 
data_structure = 'RAW'     
data_release   = 'Gaia DR2'


# The data is retrieved as a csv file
# The returned dictionary contains an astropy Table

datalink = Gaia.load_data(ids=source_ids, 
                          data_release=data_release, 
                          retrieval_type=retrieval_type, 
                          data_structure=data_structure, 
                          verbose=False, 
                          dump_to_file=True,
                          format='csv')

dl_keys = sorted([key for key in datalink.keys()])
print("\nThe Datalink product has been downloaded:")
print('-' * 160)
for dl_key in dl_keys:
    print(f' * {dl_key}')
    print(datalink[dl_key])

INFO: DataLink products will be stored in the /home/jfernandez/datalink_output_20260116T061207.476383.zip file [astroquery.gaia.core]

The Datalink product has been downloaded:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * EPOCH_PHOTOMETRY-Gaia DR2 6680733225618222592.csv
[<Table length=132>
     source_id          transit_id    band ... other_flags    solution_id    
       int64              int64       str2 ...    int64          int64       
------------------- ----------------- ---- ... ----------- ------------------
6680733225618222592 17714070537773976    G ...           1 369295549951641967
...




# The data is retrieved as an ecsv file
# The returned dictionary contains a path to the downloaded file

datalink = Gaia.load_data(ids=source_ids, 
                          data_release=data_release, 
                          retrieval_type=retrieval_type, 
                          data_structure=data_structure, 
                          verbose=False, 
                          dump_to_file=True,
                          format='ecsv')

dl_keys = sorted([key for key in datalink.keys()])
print("\nThe Datalink product has been downloaded:")
print('-' * 160)
for dl_key in dl_keys:
    print(f' * {dl_key}')
    print(datalink[dl_key])
    
The Datalink product has been downloaded:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * EPOCH_PHOTOMETRY-Gaia DR2 6680733225618222592.ecsv
/home/jfernandez/EPOCH_PHOTOMETRY-Gaia DR2 6680733225618222592.ecsv 

cc @esdc-esac-esa-int
Jira: C9GACS-1079

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 71.82%. Comparing base (27a673d) to head (7a1dc3d).
⚠️ Report is 11 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #3500      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   71.73%   71.82%   +0.08%     
==========================================
  Files         235      235              
  Lines       20258    20266       +8     
==========================================
+ Hits        14533    14556      +23     
+ Misses       5725     5710      -15     

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[bsipocz]

This all looks good, thanks you!