R/Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.R

In pvsR: An R package to interact with the Project Vote Smart API for scientific research

##' Get a list of candidates according to office type and state representation
##' 
##' This function is a wrapper for the Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState() method of the PVS API Candidate class which grabs a list of candidates according to office type and state representation. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all state IDs, office type IDs and election years given as a function input, extracts the XML values from the returned XML file(s) and returns them arranged in one data frame.
##' @usage Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState(stateId="NA", officeTypeId, electionYear=NULL, all=FALSE)
##' @param stateId (optional) a character string or list of character strings with the state ID(s) (default: "NA", for national) (see references for details)
##' @param officeTypeId a character string or list of character strings with the office type ID(s) (see references for details)
##' @param electionYear (optional) a character string or list of character strings with the election year(s) (default: >= current year)
##' @param all a logical indicator; if TRUE data on all possible combinations of the input variables are returned, if FALSE (default) only the exact combinations of them (see example)
##' @return A data frame with a row for each candidate and columns with the following variables describing the candidate:\cr candidateList.candidate*.candidateId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.firstName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.nickName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.middleName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.preferredName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.lastName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.suffix,\cr candidateList.candidate*.title,\cr candidateList.candidate*.ballotName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionParties,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionStatus,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionStage,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionDistrictId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionDistrictName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionOffice,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionofficeTypeId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionStateId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionOfficeTypeId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionYear,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionSpecial,\cr candidateList.candidate*.electionDate,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeParties,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeStatus,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeDistrictId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeDistrictName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeStateId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeTypeId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeName,\cr candidateList.candidate*.officeTypeId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.runningMateId,\cr candidateList.candidate*.runningMateName.
##' @references http://api.votesmart.org/docs/Candidates.html\cr 
##' Use State.getStateIDs() to get a list of state IDs.\cr 
##' See http://api.votesmart.org/docs/semi-static.html or use Office.getTypes() or Office.getOfficesByLevel() to get a list of office types ID(s). 
##' @author Ulrich Matter <ulrich.matter-at-unibas.ch>
##' @examples
##' # First, make sure your personal PVS API key is saved as character string in the pvs.key variable:
##' \dontrun{pvs.key <- "yourkey"}
##' # get a data frame of candidates according to all state/officeType/electionYear combinations
##' \dontrun{candidates <- Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState(stateId=list("NJ","NY"),
##' officeTypeId=list("C","L"), electionYear=list(2012,2008), all=TRUE)}
##' \dontrun{candidates}
##' # get a data frame of candidates according to the exact state/officeType/electionYear combinations 
##' # (i.e., "NY"/6/2012, "NJ"/7/2008)
##' \dontrun{candidates <- Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState(stateId=list("NJ","NY"),
##' officeTypeId=list("C","L"), electionYear=list(2012,2008), all=FALSE)}
##' \dontrun{candidates}
##' @export







Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState <-
  function (stateId="NA", officeTypeId, electionYear=NULL, all=FALSE) {
    
    
    if (length(electionYear)==0) {
      # internal function
      Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic1 <- function (.stateId, .officeTypeId) {
        
        request <-  "Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState?"
        inputs  <-  paste("&stateId=",.stateId,"&officeTypeId=",.officeTypeId,sep="")
        output  <-  pvsRequest4(request,inputs)
        output$stateId <- .stateId
        output$officeTypeId <- .officeTypeId
        output
        
      }
      
      if (all==TRUE) {
        
        # Main function  
        
        output.list <- lapply(stateId, FUN= function (y) {
          lapply(officeTypeId, FUN= function (s) {
            Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic1(.stateId=y, .officeTypeId=s)
          }
          )
        }
        )
        
        
      } else {
        
        # Main function  
        
        reqdf <- data.frame(o=unlist(officeTypeId), s=unlist(stateId))
        
        output.list <- lapply(1:dim(reqdf)[1], FUN= function (l) {
          
          Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic1(.stateId=reqdf[l,"s"], .officeTypeId=reqdf[l,"o"])
          
        })
        
      }
      
      output.list <- redlist(output.list)
      
      
      
      
      
      
    } else {
      
      # internal function
      Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic2 <- function (.stateId, .officeTypeId, .electionYear) {
        
        request <-  "Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState?"
        inputs  <-  paste("&stateId=",.stateId,"&officeTypeId=",.officeTypeId, "&electionYear=", .electionYear, sep="")
        output  <-  pvsRequest4(request,inputs)
        output$stateId <- .stateId
        output$officeTypeId <- .officeTypeId
        output$electionYear.input <- .electionYear
        output
        
      }
      
      if (all==TRUE) {
        
        # Main function  
        
        output.list <- lapply(stateId, FUN= function (y) {
          lapply(officeTypeId, FUN= function (s) {
            lapply(electionYear, FUN= function (c) {
              Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic2(.stateId=y, .officeTypeId=s, .electionYear=c)
            }
            )
          }
          )
        }
        )
        
      } else {
        
        
        
        # Main function  
        
        reqdf <- data.frame(y=unlist(electionYear), s=unlist(stateId), o=unlist(officeTypeId))
        
        output.list <- lapply(1:dim(reqdf)[1], FUN= function (l) {
          
          Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState.basic2(.electionYear=reqdf[l,"y"], .stateId=reqdf[l,"s"], .officeTypeId=reqdf[l,"o"])
          
        })
        
      }
      
      # reduce lists 
      output.list <- redlist(output.list)
      
      
      
    }
    
    
    output <- dfList(output.list)
    
    
    # Avoids, that output is missleading, because electionYear is already given in request-output, but also a
    # additionally generated (as electionYear.input). Problem exists because some request-outputs might be empty
    # and therefore only contain one "electionYear" whereas the non-empty ones contain two. (see basic function)
    output$electionYear[c(as.vector(is.na(output$electionYear)))] <- output$electionYear.input[as.vector(is.na(output$electionYear))]
    output$electionYear.input <- NULL
    
    output
    
    
    
  }