memory_beta: Memory Beta API

In leonawicz/rtrek: Data Analysis Relating to Star Trek

Memory Beta API

Description

Access Star Trek content from Memory Alpha.

Usage

memory_beta(endpoint)

Arguments

endpoint

character, See details.

Details

The content returned is always a data frame. The structure changes slightly depending on the nature of the endpoint, but results from different endpoints can be merged easily.

Value

a data frame

Portals

At the highest level, passing endpoint = "portals" returns a data frame listing the available Memory Beta portals supported by rtrek. A column of relative URLs is also included for reference, but can be ignored. Compared to Memory Alpha, Memory Beta does not technically offer "portals", but for consistency in rtrek, several high level categories on Memory Beta are treated as portal options. See memory_alpha() for comparison.

Portal Categories

In all other cases, the endpoint string must begin with one of the valid portal IDs. Passing only the ID returns a data frame with IDs and relative URLs associated with the available categories in the specific portal. Unlike memory_alpha(), there are no group or subgroup columns. Memory Beta offers a more consistent reliance on the simple hierarchy of categories and articles.

Selecting a specific category within a portal is done by appending the portal ID in endpoint with the category ID, separated by a forward slash. You can append nested subcategory IDs with forward slashes, provided the subcategories exist.

Articles

When the endpoint is neither a top-level portal or one of a portal's categories (or subcategories, if available), it is an article. An article is a terminal node, meaning you cannot nest further. An article will be any entry whose URL does not begin with ⁠Category:⁠. In this case, the content returned is still a data frame for consistency, but differs substantially from the results of non-terminal endpoints.

Memory Beta is not a database containing convenient tables. Articles comprise the bulk of what Memory Beta has to offer. They are not completely unstructured text, but are loosely structured. Some assumptions are made and memory_beta() returns a data frame containing article text and links. It is up to the user what to do with this information, e.g., performing text analyses.

Additional Notes

The url column included in results for context uses relative paths to save space. The full URLs all begin the same. To visit a URL directly, prepend it with ⁠https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/⁠.

Also note that once you know the relative URL for an article, e.g., "Worf", you do not need to traverse through one of the portals using an endpoint string to retrieve its content. You can instead use mb_article("Worf").

memory_beta() provides an overview perspective on how content available at Memory Beta is organized and can be searched for through a variety of hierarchical layouts. And in some cases this structure that can be obtained in table form can be useful as data or metadata in itself. Alternatively, mb_article() is focused exclusively on pulling back content from known articles.

See Also

mb_article(), memory_alpha()

Examples

memory_beta("portals") # show available portals
endpoint <- "characters/Characters by races and cultures/Klingonoids/Klingons"

x <- memory_beta(endpoint)
x <- x[grep("Worf", x$Klingons), ]
x
memory_beta(paste0(endpoint, "/Worf")) # return terminal article content

leonawicz/rtrek documentation built on Sept. 18, 2024, 7:21 a.m.