R devel - Jan 2016 - URL for a vignette on CRAN?

How can I get a full URL for anything on CRAN?


       Using Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox under OS X 10.11.2, I 
select a CRAN mirror from "www.r-project.org" and get a URL like 
"https://cran.rstudio.com/".  Then I select "packages" and
get a
different web page, but the URL displayed doesn't change.  I'd like to 
access the full URL of a vignette in a package, but modern web browsers 
hide that detail.


       Thanks,
       Spencer Graves

Hi Spencer,

The reason is because the R website is doing frame forwarding rather than
URL forwarding.  You'll need to right-click on the Packages and open it into
a new window for the address bar to reflect the change.  In any case the
following link will change accordingly:

https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/

If you really want to know what is happening then below is the difference:

For frame forwarding it will look like this:

<FRAME src="navbar.html" name="contents"
frameborder=0>

While for URL forwarding it will look like this:

<a href="web/packages/"
target="banner">Packages</a><br>

Hope it helps,
~p

-----Original Message-----
From: R-devel [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Spencer
Graves
Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2016 9:28 PM
To: r-devel at r-project.org
Subject: [Rd] URL for a vignette on CRAN?

       How can I get a full URL for anything on CRAN?


       Using Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox under OS X 10.11.2, I select
a CRAN mirror from "www.r-project.org" and get a URL like
"https://cran.rstudio.com/".  Then I select "packages" and
get a different
web page, but the URL displayed doesn't change.  I'd like to access the
full
URL of a vignette in a package, but modern web browsers hide that detail.


       Thanks,
       Spencer Graves

______________________________________________
R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Spencer,

On 23 January 2016 at 20:27, Spencer Graves wrote:
|        How can I get a full URL for anything on CRAN?
|
|        Using Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox under OS X 10.11.2, I 
| select a CRAN mirror from "www.r-project.org" and get a URL like 
| "https://cran.rstudio.com/".  Then I select "packages" and
get a
| different web page, but the URL displayed doesn't change.  I'd like to
| access the full URL of a vignette in a package, but modern web browsers 
| hide that detail.

1)  All CRAN mirrors use the same layout.

2)  Using a CDN such as cran.rstudio.com, or now the equivalent
    cloud.r-project.org is 'A Good Thing (TM)' because the resulting
location
    will almost always be close to any reader -- as it adapts based on the
    reader location. See Wikipedia on 'Content Deliver Networks' for
more details.

3)  http://cloud.r-project.org/package=sos is preferred for any pkg, here
    your sos package

4)  It flattens to https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/sos/index.html

5)  You can derive the vignette from that page or just construct it:
        https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/sos/vignettes/sos.pdf
    This is of the form ${SERVER}/web/packages/${PACKAGE}/${VIGNETTE}

I have been using url such as the one in 5) for a long while. Works like a
charm.

Now, from your vague text above, maybe you prefer NOT to use a CDN. In that
case, insert an _explicit_ server, say Berkeley's mirror and you get
       https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/web/packages/sos/vignettes/sos.pdf
but that is _still_ of the form ${SERVER}/web/packages/${PACKAGE}/${VIGNETTE}
yet simple uses a different value for ${SERVER}.

Makes sense?

Dirk

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

Thanks to both Paul Grosu and Dirk Eddelbuettel for informative and 
useful replies.  Spencer


On 1/23/2016 8:58 PM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> Spencer,
>
> On 23 January 2016 at 20:27, Spencer Graves wrote:
> |        How can I get a full URL for anything on CRAN?
> |
> |        Using Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox under OS X 10.11.2, I
> | select a CRAN mirror from "www.r-project.org" and get a URL
like
> | "https://cran.rstudio.com/".  Then I select
"packages" and get a
> | different web page, but the URL displayed doesn't change.  I'd
like to
> | access the full URL of a vignette in a package, but modern web browsers
> | hide that detail.
>
> 1)  All CRAN mirrors use the same layout.
>
> 2)  Using a CDN such as cran.rstudio.com, or now the equivalent
>      cloud.r-project.org is 'A Good Thing (TM)' because the
resulting location
>      will almost always be close to any reader -- as it adapts based on the
>      reader location. See Wikipedia on 'Content Deliver Networks'
for more details.
>
> 3)  http://cloud.r-project.org/package=sos is preferred for any pkg, here
>      your sos package
>
> 4)  It flattens to https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/sos/index.html
>
> 5)  You can derive the vignette from that page or just construct it:
>          https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/sos/vignettes/sos.pdf
>      This is of the form ${SERVER}/web/packages/${PACKAGE}/${VIGNETTE}
>
> I have been using url such as the one in 5) for a long while. Works like a
charm.
>
> Now, from your vague text above, maybe you prefer NOT to use a CDN. In that
> case, insert an _explicit_ server, say Berkeley's mirror and you get
>         https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/web/packages/sos/vignettes/sos.pdf
> but that is _still_ of the form
${SERVER}/web/packages/${PACKAGE}/${VIGNETTE}
> yet simple uses a different value for ${SERVER}.
>
> Makes sense?
>
> Dirk
>