Message-ID: <5aa5062e-77c5-695a-0881-99649897b1bc@gmail.com>
Date: 2020-10-20T20:45:27Z
From: Ben Bolker
Subject: [R-pkg-devel] Usage of internet resources in examples
In-Reply-To: <67D95F17-1341-40A5-9DEA-EB3AB45EBE29@gmail.com>
Depending on what you want to do,
if (interactive())
or
try() (in the examples, not in the function)
or
if (testthat::skip_on_cran())
all seem like reasonable solutions.
On 10/20/20 4:28 PM, Andy Teucher wrote:
> Our package bcdata (https://cran.r-project.org/package=bcdata) retrieves public data from British Columbia data services, so the examples are dependent on successfully hitting web resources. When we initially submitted to CRAN the examples were wrapped in \dontrun{}, but we were asked to change them to use \donttest{}.
>
>
> Now, CRAN is running checks with _R_CHECK_DONTTEST_EXAMPLES_=true, and one of the examples has failed due to a changed web resource. I got an email asking me to fix it and reminding me of the CRAN policy:
>
>
> 'Packages which use Internet resources should fail gracefully with an informative message
>
> if the resource is not available or has changed (and not give a check warning nor error).'
>
> This needs correction whether or not the resource recovers.
>
>
> I would prefer that in normal use, the function calling the internet resources fails with an error so that the user is properly alerted. I also agree that these failures shouldn't cause a check error. To demonstrate the use of these functions in examples, is there a preferred method of ensuring that failures will not cause a check warning or error? Should I try to revert back to using \dontrun{} and plead my case? Wrap in `if interactive())`?
>
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Andy Teucher
>
>
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