check_archive: Check whether an archive meets the Darwin Core Standard via...

In galaxias: Describe, Package, and Share Biodiversity Data

Check whether an archive meets the Darwin Core Standard via API

Description

Check whether a specified Darwin Core Archive is ready for sharing and publication, according to the Darwin Core Standard. check_archive() tests an archive - defaulting to "dwc-archive.zip" in the users' parent directory - using an online validation service. Currently only supports validation using GBIF.

Usage

check_archive(
  file = "dwc-archive.zip",
  username = NULL,
  email = NULL,
  password = NULL,
  wait = TRUE,
  quiet = FALSE
)

get_report(
  obj,
  username = NULL,
  password = NULL,
  n = 5,
  wait = TRUE,
  quiet = FALSE
)

view_report(x, n = 5)

## S3 method for class 'gbif_validator'
print(x, ...)

Arguments

file	The name of the file in the parent directory to pass to the validator API, ideally created using build_archive().
username	Your GBIF username.
email	The email address used to register with gbif.org.
password	Your GBIF password.
wait	(logical) Whether to wait for a completed report from the API before exiting (TRUE, the default), or try the API once and return the result regardless (FALSE).
quiet	(logical) Whether to suppress messages about what is happening. Default is set to FALSE; i.e. messages are shown.
obj	Either an object of class character containing a key that uniquely identifies your query; or an object of class gbif_validator. returned by check_archive() or get_report()
n	Maximum number of entries to print per file. Defaults to 5.
x	An object of class gbif_validator.
...	Additional arguments, currently ignored.

Details

Internally, check_archive() both POSTs the specified archive to the GBIF validator API and then calls get_report() to retrieve (GET) the result. get_report() is exported to allow the user to download results at a later time should they wish; this is more efficient than repeatedly generating queries with check_archive() if the underlying data are unchanged. A third option is simply to assign the outcome of check_archive() or get_report() to an object, then call view_report() to format the result nicely. This approach doesn't require any further API calls and is considerably faster.

Note that information returned by these functions is provided verbatim from the institution API, not from galaxias.

Value

Both check_archive() and get_report() return an object of class gbif_validator to the workspace. view_report() and print.gbif_validator() don't return anything, and are called for the side-effect of printing useful information to the console.

See Also

check_directory() which runs checks on a directory (but not an archive) locally, rather than via API.

galaxias documentation built on Aug. 8, 2025, 7:50 p.m.