[R-pkg-devel] Submission to CRAN when package needs personal data (API key)

[Joshua Ulrich]

Hi Rainer,

On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 2:28 AM, Rainer Krug <Rainer using krugs.de> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a package at GitHub (https://github.com/rkrug/ROriginStamp) which I am
> pre[paring for CRAN.
>
> It creates a trusted timestamp using the API fro OriginStamp
> (https://originstamp.org/home) which requires an API key. Now this API should
> not be made public, as to much traffic through one API key will lead to it’s
> blocking.
>
> I have stored the key encrypted in the travis.yml, and the package passes all
> tests.
>
> But if I send it to CRAN, it would fail the tests, as the api key is not in
> the package itself.
>
> I could disable all tests for CRAN which need the API key, but I think it
> would be better tu run the tests there as well (as an additional check to
> travis).
>
> My question:
>
> Is there a way of storing the API key encrypted, so that only the CRAN test
> servers can decrypt it, or is there another way can steal with this?
>
I have a similar issue with quantmod.  I need API keys to test some
functionality and I would like the tests run regularly, so I can know
when something breaks without having to wait for a user to report the
change.

I store the API keys in encrypted environment variable in TravisCI,
and I check for those environment variables before running the tests
that require them.

Then I added a cron job on TravisCI to run the build if there hasn't
been a build in the past 24 hours.  That solves the problem adequately
for my purposes without adding any burden to CRAN.  Hopefully it works
for your purposes too.

Best,
Josh

> Thanks,
>
> Rainer
>
>
>
> --
> Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN),
> MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
>
> University of Zürich
>
> Cell:       +41 (0)78 630 66 57
> email:      Rainer using krugs.de
> Skype:      RMkrug
>
> PGP: 0x0F52F982
>
>
>
>
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