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R client to UNHCR Raw Internal Data Library

Source: vignettes/ridl_vignette.Rmd
ridl_vignette.Rmd

UNHCR Raw Internal Data Library (RIDL)

The UNHCR RIDL platform is UNHCR internal platform to easily store, find and analyze raw data. This package is not on yet on CRAN and to install it, you will need the remotes package. You can get ridl from Gitlab or Github (mirror)

## install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_gitlab("dickoa/ridl")

Setup the R package ridl

The ridl package requires you to add your API key and store it for further use. The easiest way to do that is to store your API key in your .Renviron file which is automatically read by R on startup.

You can retrieve your API key in your user page.

api_key_img

RIDL concepts

In order to easily use the ridl package, it’s important to understand some key concepts of this platform. RIDL documentation is available here for more details.

Container

A container is a placeholder where we can share data on RIDL. A container is represented in the ridl package as a RIDLContainer object and can hold zero or multiple datasets.

Most functions are prefixed by ridl_container or rc

  • Get metadata of a resource: ridl_container_show or rc_show
  • Get the list of the names of all containers in the server: ridl_container_list or rc_list

Dataset

A dataset is a placeholder where we can share data files (resources). In a dataset page there’s some metadata that give you enough context and information to properly store the data files and use them. A data file e.g an Excel file is called a resource and many of them can be shared in dataset page. In the ridl package, a RIDLDataset object is used to represent a dataset.

Most functions are prefixed by ridl_dataset or rd:

  • Get metadata of a dataset and its resources: ridl_dataset_show or rd_show
  • Get the list of the names of all datasets in the server: ridl_dataset_list or rd_list
  • Check whether a dataset exists or not: ridl_dataset_exist or rd_exist
  • Searches for datasets satisfying a given search criteria: ridl_datasets_search or rd_search

Resource

A resource is a file shared in dataset page, it includes microdata and supporting documents like reports or survey forms. A RIDLResource class is used to implement all the logic needed to manipulate RIDL resource.

Most functions are prefixed by ridl_resource or rr

  • Get metadata of a resource: ridl_resource_show or rr_show