NEWS.md

In ToowoombaTrio/bomrang: Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology ('BOM') Data Client

bomrang archived

As of 10.01.2023 the package, bomrang, has been archived due to the BOM's unwillingness to allow programmatic access to their data

bomrang 0.7.4

Bug fixes

• get_weather_bulletin() now works properly with new versions of tibble and rvest (@mpadge, #134).

• A custom useragent is specified for the bomrang package as the RStudio useragent results in an error 403 (denied) when attempting to connect to BOM servers. This did not appear to affect R running in sessions outside of RStudio (@jonocarroll, #130).

• curl options are now set to handle the slow responses from BOM servers rather than timing out.

• Fixes CRAN NOTE: "'LazyData' is specified without a 'data' directory".

Minor changes and improvements

• Changes to internal databases of BOM metadata for station, radar and forecast locations are now tracked in the data_raw directory of the repository on GitHub with the changes being stored in extdata and available in the package through:
• load(system.file("extdata", "AAC_code_changes.rda", package = "bomrang"))
• load(system.file("extdata", "JSONurl_site_list_changes.rda", package = "bomrang"))
• load(system.file("extdata", "marine_AAC_code_changes.rda", package = "bomrang"))
• load(system.file("extdata", "radar_location_changes.rda", package = "bomrang"))

• load(system.file("extdata", "stations_site_list_changes.rda", package = "bomrang"))

• Station numbers are padded with "0" in output from get_historical_weather() to align with BOM naming conventions and other bomrang functions (@jonocarroll, #127).

• Remove rOpenSci footer from README.

• Corrects incomplete final line found on /inst/CITATION.

bomrang 0.7.3

Bug fixes

• get_current_weather() now returns the correct values for rel_hum, rather than returning a column of NA.

• get_available_imagery() now fails properly if a non-numeric radar_id is supplied.

Minor changes

• Switch GIS raster file support from raster to terra.

• radar_id values in get_available_radar() are now provided as a numeric value. This previously was a character that was internally coerced to numeric.

• get_radar_imagery() now returns a magick-image object rather than a raster object. The files are .gif natively, this is a better way to handle them.

bomrang 0.7.2

• Fixes an example that wrote to R userspace, when it should not in get_radar_imagery().

bomrang 0.7.1

Bug fixes

• For a time BOM was not listing historical rainfall records. A message is emitted now if records are missing or unavailable rather than get_historical_weather() failing, (@rensa).

• Cross-links in the function documentation have been fixed.

Standardised function naming

• get_historical() is now an alias for get_historical_weather() to bring this function into line with the other function names. Neither name is preferred and both will be provided going forward. This is simply to provide a standard nomenclature across the package for function names.

Internal changes

• Update internal databases of station and forecast locations.

• Reorganise functions and files to be more consistent within the package.

bomrang 0.7.0

Bug fixes

• Resolves an issue where select() was not recognised as being re-exported by bomrang from dplyr.

• Fixes bug where precipitation to 9am, column r, in ag bulletin was not reported at 0.01 for "Tce" as documented in vignette.

• Fixes bug where weather bulletin contained empty cells rather than a proper NA value where data was missing.

• Adds skip_on_cran() to all tests causing failures in CRAN checks that should not have been tested on CRAN.

• Corrects (and skips) a test that failed on Solaris and macOS when writing to disk by using tempdir() rather than the userspace.

Major changes

• Requires R >= 3.5.0 now due to changes in serialisation of internal .Rds files used to store databases of station information.

• Adds three new functions to parse local XML files, not relying on R's ability to fetch files from an insecure FTP server (@paulmelloy).

• parse_ag_bulletin()

• parse_coastal_forecast()

• parse_precis_forecast()

• Improved test coverage, ~93 %

• Adds tests for previously untested get_weather_bulletin()

• Adds tests for bomrang_tbl() functionality

• Fail gracefully with message and returns invisble(NULL) if a resource is not available for XML or JSON files, not errorring. In cases where a file is not found, error 404 or on the FTP server, an error message is still returned

Minor changes

• Comprehensive cleaning of the vignette and reformatting of help files for all functions.

• Precompile use_case vignette as well as main vignette.

• Improved matching of possible character strings entered by user for state to include variations of two-letter abbreviations of Australia.

bomrang 0.6.1

Bug fixes

• resolves the group_by issues of #105 reported by Blundys.

• Adds skip_on_cran() to some tests causing failures in CRAN checks that should not have been tested on CRAN.

• Fixes bug in functions returning data.table objects that don't print to console.

• Fixes bugs that removed station locations from internal lists being distributed with bomrang and when user updated them on their own machine.

Minor changes

• Prebuild main vignette with examples depending on Internet connection, which allows for example output to be displayed for more functions.

bomrang 0.6.0

Bug fixes

• Fixes a bug with links to documentation from get_historical() and %>%.

• Updates station location databases to use updated BOM URLs.

• Updates file and error handling for image downloads when downloads fail.

• Ensures that .Rds/.Rda files are saved using version 2, for R from 1.4.0 to 3.5.0 such that users using older versions of R do not have to upgrade to use bomrang.

• Fixes bug that prevents end-user from self-updating internal databases.

Minor changes

• Plots radar images natively using re-exported raster::plot().

• Adds sweep_for_forecast_towns(), which works analogously to sweep_for_stations().

bomrang 0.5.0

Bug fixes

• Update functionality of get_precis_forecast(), get_coastal_forecast() and get_ag_bulletin() to work with latest BOM XML files.

Major changes

• New print method for get_historical() and get_current_weather() using bomrang_tbl class and re-exporting dplyr methods to handle the new class, (@jonocarroll).

• Add new aliases for get_current_weather(), get_current() and get_historical(), get_historical_weather() for consistency.

• Add new aliases for get_radar_imagery(), get_radar() and get_satellite_imagery(), get_satellite() to save typing.

• If images fail to download for any functions, a default image is returned with an error message to try again .

• get_current_weather() no longer has raw or as.data.table parameters, all data are returned with columns in proper class as with all other bomrang functions and the returned data.frame is a bomrang_tbl object. The raw parameter was set to FALSE by default, so the effect should be minimal for most end users.

Minor changes

• Updates documentation formatting and corrects minor issues including spellchecking package and correcting spelling where necessary.

• Uses curl to download XML files before parsing them, rather than reading directly from the server. curl gives more flexibility in handling the server connections.

• Uses curl::curl_download() in place of utils::download.file() for a newer implementation of the same protocols.

• Correct formatting of DESCRIPTION file to conform with CRAN guidelines.

• Replaces \dontrun{} with \donttest{} for examples in documentation.

bomrang 0.4.0

Bug fixes

• get_historical() now fetches data for any station with historical data available corrected an issue where previously it only fetched data for stations that currently reported.

• Enforce standardised output for get_coastal_forecast(). In some cases BOM does not report all fields available, bomrang will always report these with NA if empty.

Minor changes

• Add new functionality to interact with and download radar imagery from BOM, get_available_radar() and get_radar_imagery().

• When using update_station_locations() or update_forecast_towns() the user is now prompted with a message about reproducibility before proceeding.

• Update code of conduct statement in README to reflect that it only applies to the bomrang project.

• Update authors' list in vignette to include Dean Marchiori.

• Add links to on-line versions of vignettes from README.

• Standardise use of vocabulary in README.

• Reorder vignette to have output from functions before maps.

• Add maps of historical data completeness and availability to vignette, Appendix 7.

• Move copyright information from start-up message into CITATION file.

bomrang 0.3.0

Major changes

• Add new function get_coastal_forecast(), which fetches the BOM coastal waters forecast.

Minor changes

• Add spaces between sentences in some error messages when interacting with the BOM servers.

• Enhance testing for get_historical().

• Handle checking multiple imagery files gracefully without returning warning message if more than one file is to be loaded in current session.

• Update citations for package to reflect current package and paper citation.

bomrang 0.2.2

Bug fixes

Fix corrupted zip file download issue for get_historical() on Windows.

Minor changes

• Update citations for package to reflect current package and paper citation.

bomrang 0.2.1

Minor changes

• Reduce R requirement back to >= 3.2.0 from 3.5.0.

• Related to above, check for R version in get_precis_forecast() and adjust field names according to the R version due to tidyr's behaviour.

• Clean up and reformat documentation, standardise references to packages, links and author e-mail addresses.

• Remove deprecated functions.

Bug fixes

• Correct field names in get_precis_forecast() where maximum_temperature and minimum_temperature were reversed.

• Move rappdirs to Suggests to fix NOTEs on CRAN checks.

bomrang 0.2.0

New features

• get_historical() retrieves historical daily rainfall, min/max temperatures, or solar exposure. (@jonocarroll).

Minor changes

• get_precis_forecast() handles states/territories with no/missing precipitation data gracefully.

Bug fixes

• Add rappdirs to Imports section of DESCRIPTION file to fix missing import.

bomrang 0.1.4

Minor changes

• Much faster station location checking using ASDS.foyer::latlon2SA.

• "BoM" is replaced with "BOM" throughout the package for consistency.

• janitor >= 1.0.0 is now required.

bomrang 0.1.3

Minor changes

• Much faster station location checking using sf::st_join().

Bug fixes

• Correct issues with updating internal databases.

bomrang 0.1.2

Minor changes

• The internal stations_site_list now is checked against GADM (Global Administrative Areas), http://www.gadm.org/ to ensure state listed is correct. This is in response to an error where Alice Springs Airport was reported in South Australia in the March 2018 update from BOM. There may be others. The original BOM values for state are in an org_state column. However, bomrang will use the corrected state column values.

• Update code to be compliant with current and future versions of janitor

• Vignettes no longer evaluate code on-the-fly that requires BOM servers to respond in response to CRAN rejecting bomrang for a failure of a vignette to build due to this issue

Bug fixes

• Correct issue with converting the timzeone in ag bulletin to character where the conversion resulted in a vector of numerals, not the expected string of characters, e.g. "EST"

• Remove redundant functionality in update_station_locations() where data were fetched using tryCatch() and then again without

bomrang 0.1.1

Minor changes

• Correct comments for ORCID's in DESCRIPTION at the request of CRAN maintainers

• Update internal databases of metadata for station locations and URLs

• Add new hex-sticker image to README

bomrang 0.1.0

Major changes

• Use hoardr to manage file caching

Minor changes

• Enhanced documentation for the cached files in satellite imagery

• Update internal databases of metadata for station locations and URLs

Bug fixes

• Fix issues with get_precis_forecast() and get_ag_bulletin() where they failed to work properly. This fix lessens internal dependencies on dplyr and removes rlang usage from package.

Deprecated functions

• bomrang_cache_list(), now superseded by manage_cache$list()

• bomrang_cache_details(), now superseded by manage_cache$details()

• bomrang_cache_delete(), now superseded by manage_cache$delete()

• bomrang_cache_delete_all(), now superseded by manage_cache$delete_all()

bomrang 0.0.8

Major changes

• Antarctic stations reporting with a valid .json file are now included in internal database

Minor changes

• Fix typo in DESCRIPTION, Scott's ORCID wasn't given as a full URL

• Update authors in vignettes to credit everyone who helped write them

• Update vignette style to use normal vignette style with table of contents

• Fix error in vignette that referred to update_forecast_locations(), it should instead refer to update_forecast_towns()

• Update internal stations list with latest data from BOM

Bug fixes

• Fix issue where updating internal stations would fail

bomrang 0.0.7

Major changes

• Handle typos in the weather bulletins

Minor changes

• Document get_current_weather() functionality in Appendix 4 of bomrang vignette, (@mpadge)

• Spell checking

• Ready for submission to JOSS

• Update codemeta json file

• Ensure authorship order is the same order in all files

bomrang 0.0.6

Bug Fixes

• Fix typo in check_states()

• Replace warning() with message() in get_states()

Major changes

• Fetch BOM 0900 and 1500 weather bulletins from SHTML sources and create a tidy data frame of the data

bomrang 0.0.5

Bug Fixes

• Recommended station_name values are separated by spaces in get_current_weather()

• Station names and location names are more consistent in the supplied data and returned data frames.

• Lat/Lon values for get_current_weather() results are now reported using the values from the internal database, which has a higher degree of accuracy. The json file values are rounded while the values from the stations list has four decimal places

Major changes

• Fetch BOM satellite images available through public FTP

• New use-case vignette, using bomrang for the WINS project

• Welcome message included with statement regarding BOM copyright

• Concatenate vignettes into a single file with appendices for descriptions of data returned by functions

• Product IDs are included in outputs from get_*() functions that return a tidy dataframe

• Full station names are reported along with BOM's current name used to refer to a station location. In some cases a station "name" may be the same for both a current and retired station.

• Fuzzy matching is used for all functions now when user enters a value for a desired state, station or the whole country for functions that require a state argument

• Onload a message regarding the copyright and data source,

                Data (c) Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology,,
                Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 3.0 licence or,
                Public Access Licence (PAL) as appropriate.,
                See http://www.bom.gov.au/other/copyright.shtml

is displayed

• the bomrang vignette now contains instructions for use along with appendices that document the data fields and units, rather than separate vignettes

• ramifications of updating station lists are now stated clearly in the vignette and help files for applicable functions

• a map of BOM stations is included in an appendix of the bomrang vignette

• Lat/Lon values are specified to be in decimal degrees in get_current_weather() help and vignette

• Databases station locations and other metadata are internal an not exposed to the user

• Use file.path() in place of paste0()

• The package has been linted,

  • line lengths are <80 chars,

  • best practice naming conventions are followed (where possible)

• Lint md files

• Spellchecking in all files

• agrep is now used in all functions where the user enters state or Australia values to query BOM data

• best practices for programming with dplyr 0.7 using rlang are now employed, which reduces the need for the # CRAN NOTE avoidance

• "JSONurl_latlon_by_station_name" has been shortened to "JSONurl_site_list".

• The DESCRIPTION file now states minimum package versions for packages that are undergoing rapid development

• Code has been re-factored to be shorter, e.g., xml_bulletin_url in get_ag_bulletion()

• .get_obs() has been moved out of the .parse_bulletin() function for easier reading/maintenance

• fixed a repeat of return(tidy_df) in get_precis_forecast()

bomrang 0.0.4-1

Major changes

• Update internal functionality for dplyr 0.7.0

bomrang 0.0.4

Major changes

• Use jsonlite library rather than rjson

bomrang 0.0.3-5

Major changes

• Wrap examples for get_precis_forecast() in a \dontrun{} tag due to CRAN NOTE taking too long to run

• Use proper GitHub URL in DESCRIPTION file

bomrang 0.0.3-4

Major changes

• Run examples for all get_* functions in package

• update_precis_locations() is now update_forecast_towns()

bomrang 0.0.3-3

Minor changes

• Add links to vignettes documenting the fields returned in the data frames from the get_*() functions

• Use the DOI that always points to latest version

bomrang 0.0.3-2 2017-06-03

Minor changes

• Add vignettes describing the data returned from get_precis_forecast() and get_ag_bulletin(), remove this from function help files

• Correct documentation reference in README file

bomrang 0.0.3-1

Minor changes

• Add vignette describing the data returned from get_current_weather()

bomrang 0.0.3

Major changes

• Include internal databases of station locations and metadata for get_current_weather() and get_ag_bulletin() both derived from the same BOM station master list

• The new database includes a more complete list of JSON URLs and ag bulletin station locations

• Generation of the JSON URL list is much faster, now can be updated by the user in a few seconds as desired using the new update_station_locations() function

Minor changes

• Better tests written for the package

• Add a new file describing internal database creation for station locations, metadata and JSON URLs, create_BOM_station_list.md

bomrang 0.0.2-1

Minor changes

• Add more information to description field in DESCRIPTION file

bomrang 0.0.2

Major changes

• Hugh Parsonage has joined as a contributor

• Added a new function get_current_weather() to retrieve weather data from specified BOM weather stations

• Added a new function sweep_for_stations() to find stations used in get_current_weather() function, based on distance from a specified latitude and longitude

• Renamed existing functions for more clarity.

• get_forecast() is now get_precis_forecast()

• get_bulletin() is now get_ag_bulletin()

• update_locations() is now update_precis_locations()

Minor changes

• All functions will return a data.frame object, not a tibble

• If a server is not responding, the function returns a more meaningful error message on exit

• All date/times are returned in POSIXct format

• UTC offset is returned in a separate UTC_offset field for get_precis_forecast() for both start_time_local and end_time_local fields

• Spelling and typo corrections

• Enhanced documentation

Bug fixes

• Correct output for ag bulletin where the observation site is listed but has no values. The site will be listed with location data and NA for all meteorological values

bomrang 0.0.1

• Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.

• New package for fetching BOM forecasts and ag information bulletins.

ToowoombaTrio/bomrang documentation built on Jan. 11, 2023, 5:25 a.m.