[R] Downloading a csv from Dropbox using the shareable link

Bryan Hanson hanson at depauw.edu
Mon May 23 19:43:02 CEST 2011


Thanks Ian, not too late at all.  I need to do some testing but your  
idea seems like it should work.  Thanks, Bryan

On May 23, 2011, at 12:44 PM, Ian Gow wrote:

> This might be a little late, but one option for this issue might be  
> to add
> a line like
>  Sys.setenv("DROPBOX_PATH" = "/Users/PersonA/Dropbox/")
> to Person A's .Rprofile (on my Mac, this is in my home directory)  
> and the
> equivalent (mutatis mutandis) to Person B's .Rprofile and then use
>  Sys.getenv("DROPBOX_PATH")
> to access the path. It seems from looking at forums for Dropbox that  
> there
> is no easily accessed environment variable that Dropbox sets for the  
> path
> to the Dropbox folder.
>
> -- 
> Ian Gow
> Accounting Information and Management
> Kellogg School of Management
> Northwestern University
> 2001 Sheridan Rd, Rm 6229
> Evanston, IL 60208-2002
> Phone: +1-847-467-4508
> i-gow at kellogg.northwestern.edu
>
> [R] Downloading a csv from Dropbox using the shareable linkBryan  
> Hanson
> hanson at depauw.edu
> <mailto:r-help%40r-project.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BR%5D%20Downloading%20a%20
> csv%20from%20Dropbox%20using%20the%20shareable%20link&In-Reply-To= 
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> AF-8868-4C5E-A47D-1A21C22D0508%40depauw.edu%3E>
> Sat May 21 03:17:42 CEST 2011
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> ________________________________________
> Hi Patrick, here is the set up:
>
> Everyone is already sharing all the files and has full access.  We
> have an Rnw file which generates a report and uses a csv file in a
> "nearby" directory.  Dropbox keeps it all sync'd.  But, if Person A is
> working on the file on their computer the path to the data would be
> (Mac OSX) /Users/PersonA/Dropbox/Project/data.csv  However, to Person
> B the path would be /Users/PersonB/Dropbox/data.csv  I'm looking for a
> way to keep the path to data.csv universal and independent of who is
> actually using the file.  That's why I was looking at the "shareable
> link" feature on Dropbox.
>
> I guess I see two solutions (partially answering my own question now).
>
> 1.  Keep the data file in the same directory as the report and I don't
> think there would be any problems.
> 2. In the Rnw file, use a relative  path.  I know you can do this for
> instance when you specify where the graphics go.  I suppose the same
> approach would allow me to specify the path as going up one level and
> then down into a different directory.  As long as I bury these folders
> deep enough that I don't have to use a relative path that ever hits
> the "PersonX" level I suppose it will work.
>
> I'll try it out.  Further suggestions welcome.  Thanks, Bryan
>
> On May 20, 2011, at 8:24 PM, Patrick Connolly wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 20-May-2011 at 02:05PM -0400, Bryan Hanson wrote:
>>>> Hello Kindred R Spirits...
>>>>> I'm trying to get a file (csv) from Dropbox using their shareable
>>> link
>>> concept.  They issue a short URL that goes to a web page where you
>>> see a
>>> button that says "Download File".  They don't really give you the
>>> URL of
>>> the file itself, just this page.  Is there a way to coax R into
>>> getting
>>> such a file?  I don't even really want the file per se, I just  
>>> want a
>>> Dropbox allows you to share folders with other Dropbox users who  
>>> would
>> then have access to your file/s as a file/s on their individual
>> computers.  It would mean that any collaborator would have to have a
>> Dropbox account and they'd all end up downloading the file.  If there
>> aren't too many for you to individually invite and it's not excessive
>> bandwidth for them to download that many copies of the file, it would
>> be easily done.  (You might even get yourself some more diskspace on
>> Dropbox by inviting other users.)
>>> You'd have to think about whose version has what effect on others  
>>> but
>> without knowing your objectives, it's impossible for me to say what's
>> the best approach.
>>> HTH
>>>>>> path to the file so I can reference it for Sweave purposes and  
>>>>>> read
>>> the
>>> contents into an object.  Seems like a job for RCurl but I have
>>> little
>>> experience and this seems like an odd case anyway.
>>>>> By the way, I want to do this as a way to have several people on
>>> different computers run a .Rnw file that needs to access common
>>> data set
>>> w/o changing the path to the file each time a different person
>>> opens the
>>> file and works on it.  Perhaps there is another way of doing this.
>>>>> Thanks for any suggestions.  Bryan
>>> ****************
>>> Prof. Bryan Hanson
>>> Dept of Chemistry & Biochemistry
>>> DePauw University
>>> Greencastle IN 46135 USA
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org <https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help 
>>> >
>>> mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help>> PLEASE do read the
>>> posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html>> and  
>>> provide
>>> commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>> -- 
>> ~
>> .~
>> .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
>>  ___    Patrick Connolly
>> {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas
>> _( Y )_  	         Average minds discuss events
>> (:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people
>> (_)-(_)  	                      ..... Eleanor Roosevelt
>> 	
>> ~
>> .~
>> .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
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