R/Votes.getVetoes.R

In umatter/pvsR: Interact with the Project Vote Smart API for Scientific Research

##' Get a list of vetoes according to candidate
##' 
##' This function is a wrapper for the Votes.getVetoes() method of the PVS API Votes class which returns a list of vetoes according to candidate. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all candidate IDs given as a function input, extracts the XML values from the returned XML file(s) and returns them arranged in one data frame.
##' @usage Votes.getVetoes(candidateId)
##' @param candidateId a character string or list of character strings with the candidate ID(s) (see references for details)
##' @return A data frame with a row for each veto and columns with the following variables describing the veto:\cr bills.bill*.vetoId,\cr bills.bill*.statusDate,\cr bills.bill*.billId,\cr bills.bill*.billNumber,\cr bills.bill*.billTitle,\cr bills.bill*.vetoCode,\cr bills.bill*.vetoType,\cr bills.bill*.billSummary,\cr bills.bill*.billLink,\cr bills.bill*.vetoLetterLink.
##' @references http://api.votesmart.org/docs/Votes.html\cr
##' Use Candidates.getByOfficeState(), Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState(), Candidates.getByLastname(), Candidates.getByLevenshtein(), Candidates.getByElection(), Candidates.getByDistrict() or Candidates.getByZip() to get a list of candidate IDs.\cr
##' See also: Matter U, Stutzer A (2015) pvsR: An Open Source Interface to Big Data on the American Political Sphere. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0130501. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130501
##' @author Ulrich Matter <ulrich.matter-at-unibas.ch>
##' @examples
##' # First, make sure your personal PVS API key is saved as an option
##' # (options("pvs.key" = "yourkey")) or in the pvs.key variable:
##' \dontrun{pvs.key <- "yourkey"}
##' # get vetoes by Barack Obama
##' \dontrun{vetoes <- Votes.getVetoes(9490)}
##' \dontrun{vetoes}
#' @export


Votes.getVetoes <-
	function (candidateId) {

		# internal function
		Votes.getVetoes.basic <- 
			function (.candidateId) {

				request <-  "Votes.getVetoes?"
				inputs  <-  paste("&candidateId=",.candidateId, sep="")
				output  <-  pvsRequest(request,inputs)
				output$candidateId  <- .candidateId  
				
				return(output)
			}
		
		# Main function  
		output.list <- lapply(candidateId, FUN= function (b) {
			Votes.getVetoes.basic(.candidateId=b)
		}
		)
		
		output.list <- redlist(output.list)
		output <- bind_rows(output.list)

		return(output)
	}