labbcatCredentials: Sets the username and password for a given LaBB-CAT server

In nzilbb.labbcat: Accessing Data Stored in 'LaBB-CAT' Instances

Sets the username and password for a given LaBB-CAT server

Description

Sets the username and password that the package should use for connecting to a given LaBB-CAT server in future function calls.

Usage

labbcatCredentials(labbcat.url, username, password)

Arguments

labbcat.url	URL to the LaBB-CAT instance
username	The LaBB-CAT username, if it is password-protected
password	The LaBB-CAT password, if it is password-protected

Details

If you are using R interactively, this step is optional, as all functions will prompt the user for the username and password if required. If the script is running in RStudio, then the RStudio password input dialog is used, hiding the credentials from view. Otherwise, the console is used, and credentials are visible.

The recommended approach is to not use labbcatCredentials, to avoid saving user credentials in script files that may eventually become visible to other. Use labbcatCredentials only in cases where the script execution is unsupervised, e.g. if you are executing an R script from a shell script, or using Knit to render an Rmarkdown document.

If you must use labbcatCredentials, avoid including the actual username and password in your script. The recommended approach is to store the username and password (and perhaps the URL too) in your ‘.Renviron’ file (in your home directory, or the project directory), like this:

LABBCAT_URL=https://labbcat.canterbury.ac.nz/demo/
LABBCAT_USERNAME=demo
LABBCAT_PASSWORD=demo

And then call Sys.getenv to retrieve the username/password, as illustrated in the example.

Value

NULL if the username/password are correct, and a string describing the problem if a problem occurred, e.g. "Credentials rejected" if the username/password are incorrect, or a string starting "Version mismatch" if the server's version of LaBB-CAT is lower than the minimum required.

Examples

## Not run: 
## load the LaBB-CAT URL from .Renviron
labbcat.url <- Sys.getenv('LABBCAT_URL')

## load the username/password from .Renviron so secrets are not included in the script:
labbcatCredentials(
    labbcat.url, Sys.getenv('LABBCAT_USERNAME'), Sys.getenv('LABBCAT_PASSWORD'))

## End(Not run)

nzilbb.labbcat documentation built on June 8, 2025, 10:57 a.m.