In the grand scheme of things, the TOC server was nothing but an OSCAR client that happened to listen on a socket, translating messages between the two protocols.
If a connecting client, in place of an HTTP request, writes the string "FLAPON" followed by two CRLFs, TOC would switch gears and start reading FLAP messages.
Server-to-client messages were much simpler: they were sent as colon-separated ASCII strings, in a manner similar to many Unix config files.
Some clients are beginning to offer plugins for TOC2 in light of AOL's recent shutdown of their TOC servers.
Like its predecessor, TOC2 is an ASCII protocol and lacks some features of OSCAR, but unlike TOC, TOC2 is known to support buddy icons and receiving file transfers (not sending).