read.csv fails to read a CSV file from google docs

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
[mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of David Winsemius
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 10:36 AM
To: Tal Galili
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] read.csv fails to read a CSV file from google docs


On Apr 29, 2011, at 11:19 AM, Tal Galili wrote:

Hello all,
I wish to use read.csv to read a google doc spreadsheet.

I try using the following code:

data_url <- "

http://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=en&ke
y=0AgMhDTVek_sDdGI2YzY2R1ZESDlmZS1VYUxvblQ0REE&single=true&gid
=0&output=csv

"
read.csv(data_url)

Which results in the following error:

Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection

I'm on windows 7.  And the code was tried on R 2.12 and 2.13

I remember trying this a few months ago and it worked fine.

I am always amused at such claims. Occasionally they are 
correct, but  
more often a crucial step has been omitted. In this case you 
have at a  
minimum embedded line-feeds in your URL string and have not  
established a connection, so it could not possibly have succeeded as  
presented.

But now it's time to admit I do not know why it is not 
succeeding when  
I correct those flaws.

 > closeAllConnections()
 > data_url <- 

url("http://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=
en&key=0AgMhDTVek_sDdGI2YzY2R1ZESDlmZS1VYUxvblQ0REE&single=tru
e&gid=0&output=csv 
")

 > read.csv(data_url)

Error in open.connection(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection

 > closeAllConnections()
 > dd <- read.csv(con <-  

url("http://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=
en&key=0AgMhDTVek_sDdGI2YzY2R1ZESDlmZS1VYUxvblQ0REE&single=tru
e&gid=0&output=csv 
"))
Error in open.connection(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection


So, I guess I'm not reading the help pages for `url` and 
`read.csv` as  
well I thought I was.

Any suggestion what might be causing this or how to solve it?

-- 
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT