try_to_download: Attempt to download a URL resource, failing gracefully.

In ImperialCollegeLondon/safe_data: Interface to Data from the SAFE Project

Attempt to download a URL resource, failing gracefully.

Description

This function tries to fetch a resource from a URL and handles failure to resolve the resource (bad URLs), timeouts and then actual HTTP error codes.

Usage

try_to_download(url, local_path = NULL, timeout = 10)

Arguments

url	The URL to download.
local_path	A path to a file in which to save the URL content.
timeout	The waiting time in seconds before a request should timeout.

Details

If the download fails, the function returns FALSE and the return value attribute 'fail_msg' is used to provide details. Otherwise, an response object is returned containing the resource If a local path is provided, the resource is downloaded to that path and the function returns TRUE to indicate success.

Value

An response object or a boolean showing if the download attempt was successful.

Note

This function contains code to simulate network failures of varying kinds (no network, no API, specific resource unavailable) for use in unit testing.

ImperialCollegeLondon/safe_data documentation built on Jan. 27, 2024, 9:51 a.m.