[R] The Future of R | API to Public Databases

[Roy Mendelssohn]

HI Benjamin:

What would make this easier is if these sites used standardized web services, so it would only require writing once.  data.gov is the worst example, they spun the own, weak service.

There is a lot of environmental data available through OPenDAP, and that is supported in the ncdf4 package.  My own group has a service called ERDDAP that is entirely RESTFul, see:

http://coastwatch.pfel.noaa.gov/erddap

and

http://upwell.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap

We provide R  (and matlab) scripts that automate the extract for certain cases, see:

http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/xtracto/

We also have a tool called the Environmental Data Connector  (EDC) that  provides a GUI from with R  (and ArcGIS, Matlab and Excel) that allows you to subset  data that is served by OPeNDAP, ERDDAP, certain Sensor Observation Service (SOS) servers,  and have it read directly into R.  It is freely available at:

http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/products/EDC/

We can write such tools because the service is either standardized  (OPeNDAP, SOS) or is easy to implement  (ERDDAP).

-Roy


On Jan 13, 2012, at 1:14 PM, Benjamin Weber wrote:

> Dear R Users -
> 
> R is a wonderful software package. CRAN provides a variety of tools to
> work on your data. But R is not apt to utilize all the public
> databases in an efficient manner.
> I observed the most tedious part with R is searching and downloading
> the data from public databases and putting it into the right format. I
> could not find a package on CRAN which offers exactly this fundamental
> capability.
> Imagine R is the unified interface to access (and analyze) all public
> data in the easiest way possible. That would create a real impact,
> would put R a big leap forward and would enable us to see the world
> with different eyes.
> 
> There is a lack of a direct connection to the API of these databases,
> to name a few:
> 
> - Eurostat
> - OECD
> - IMF
> - Worldbank
> - UN
> - FAO
> - data.gov
> - ...
> 
> The ease of access to the data is the key of information processing with R.
> 
> How can we handle the flow of information noise? R has to give an
> answer to that with an extensive API to public databases.
> 
> I would love your comments and ideas as a contribution in a vital discussion.
> 
> Benjamin
> 
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**********************
"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
**********************
Roy Mendelssohn
Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
NOAA/NMFS
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
1352 Lighthouse Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA 93950-2097

e-mail: Roy.Mendelssohn at noaa.gov (Note new e-mail address)
voice: (831)-648-9029
fax: (831)-648-8440
www: http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/

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"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.