Inspired by the functions that Barry Rawlingson and Dave Forrest posted for
searching Rwiki and R-help archive, I've made up a function that does the
search on Prof. Baron's site (Thanks to Prof. Baron's help on setting up
the
query string!):
RSiteSearch <- function(string, restrict="Rhelp",
format="long",
sortby="score", matchesPerPage=10) {
URL <- "http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch"
qstring <- paste(URL, "?config=htdigrun1", sep="")
## replace spaces with "%20" in the query
string <- paste("words=", gsub(" ", "%20",
string), sep="")
mpp <- paste("matchesperpage=", matchesPerPage,
sep="")
format <- charmatch(format, c("long", "short"))
if (format == 0) stop("format must be either long or short")
format <- paste("format=builtin-", switch(format,
"long", "short"),
sep="")
sortby <- charmatch(sortby, c("score", "time",
"title", "revtime"))
if (sortby == 0) stop("wrong sortby specified")
sortby <- paste("sort=",
switch(sortby, "score", "time",
"title", "revtime"),
sep="")
res <- charmatch(restrict, c("Rhelp", "doc",
"function", "doc/fun"))
if (res == 0) stop("wrong restriction specified")
res <- switch(res,
"Rhelp00/archive|Rhelp01/archive|Rhelp02a/archive",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/doc",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/library",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/doc|finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/library")
res <- paste("restrict=", res, sep="")
qstring <- paste(qstring, res, format, sortby, string, mpp,
sep=";")
browseURL(qstring)
invisible(qstring)
}
The options roughly correspond to the options on that search page. Hope
some people find this somewhat helpful. Comments/suggestions for
improvement are much appreciated.
Best,
Andy
Gabor Grothendieck
2004-Nov-24 04:55 UTC
[R] an R function to search on Prof. Baron's site
Liaw, Andy <andy_liaw <at> merck.com> writes: : : Inspired by the functions that Barry Rawlingson and Dave Forrest posted for : searching Rwiki and R-help archive, I've made up a function that does the : search on Prof. Baron's site (Thanks to Prof. Baron's help on setting up the : query string!): It would be nice if this and the other search functions recently posted were collected into a package or even integrated into R itself. In the case of the Windows Rgui, it would be nice if they appeared on a menu with the other search and help functions.
Thanks to Tom and Andy for pointing this out and chasing it down. I tried
replacing "|" by "%7C" and that seems to fix the problem (at
least on a
somewhat outdated release of Firefox). Please let me know if the following
works.
With regard to Gabor's comment: I'd guess R-core would be reluctant to
have
functions in base that depends on something outside the official R site, the
excellent service that Prof. Baron provide not withstanding. Although I'd
vote for suggesting the use of these in the FAQ or the R-help posting guide.
Best,
Andy
RSiteSearch <- function(string, restrict="Rhelp",
format="long",
sortby="score", matchesPerPage=10) {
URL <- "http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch"
qstring <- paste(URL, "?config=htdigrun1", sep="")
## replace spaces with "%20" in the query
string <- paste("words=", gsub(" ", "%20",
string), sep="")
mpp <- paste("matchesperpage=", matchesPerPage,
sep="")
format <- charmatch(format, c("long", "short"))
if (format == 0) stop("format must be either long or short")
format <- paste("format=builtin-", switch(format,
"long", "short"),
sep="")
sortby <- charmatch(sortby, c("score", "time",
"title", "revtime"))
if (sortby == 0) stop("wrong sortby specified")
sortby <- paste("sort=",
switch(sortby, "score", "time",
"title", "revtime"),
sep="")
res <- charmatch(restrict, c("Rhelp", "doc",
"function", "doc/fun"))
if (res == 0) stop("wrong restriction specified")
res <- switch(res,
"Rhelp00/archive%7CRhelp01/archive%7CRhelp02a/archive",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/doc",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/library",
"finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/doc%7Cfinzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/library")
res <- paste("restrict=", res, sep="")
qstring <- paste(qstring, res, format, sortby, string, mpp,
sep=";")
browseURL(qstring)
invisible(qstring)
}
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Tom Mulholland
> Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 8:54 PM
> To: Andy Bunn
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] an R function to search on Prof. Baron's site
>
>
> The problem appears to be associated with the "|" in
> "Rhelp00/archive|Rhelp01/archive|Rhelp02a/archive". When you run
the
> function in Firefox with restrict set to "doc" it gives the
> right response.
>
> This function eventually uses system. So I decided to see if
> I could get
> this to work by hand using the code from browseURL
>
> > cmd
> [1] "\"C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/iexplore.exe\"
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch?config=htdigrun1
> ;restrict=Rhelp00/archive|Rhelp01/archive|Rhelp02a/archive;for
> mat=builtin-long;sort=score;words=Ripley;matchesperpage=10"
> > system(cmd, wait = FALSE)
>
> Works as expected since it does anyway. I make the assumption
> that I at
> least have the code correct.
>
> > cmd
> [1] "\"C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe\"
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch?config=htdigrun1
> ;restrict=Rhelp00/archive|Rhelp01/archive|Rhelp02a/archive;for
> mat=builtin-long;sort=score;words=Ripley;matchesperpage=10"
> > system(cmd, wait = FALSE)
>
> Falls over as previously described
>
> I then thought that maybe quoting the search term would work,
> but this
> appears not to be the case.
>
> As is noted in ?system "The command is run directly as a
> Windows command
> by the Windows API call 'CreateProcess'" Who knows what goes
> on in these
> processes. This is as far as I can go. It looks as if the API
> connection
> between system and Mozilla does not function the same way as with IE,
> and it is not obvious to me where the problem might be.
>
> Tom Mulholland
>
> R R version 2.0.1, 2004-11-15
> OS.type windows
> GUI Rgui
>
> Andy Bunn wrote:
> > Using this function with 2.0.0 XP and Firefox 1.0 (I've
> rediscovered the
> > internet) produces a curious result.
> >
> >
> >>myString <- RSiteSearch(string = 'Ripley')
> >>myString
> >
> > [1]
> >
> "http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch?config=htdigrun
> 1;restrict=Rhe
> >
> lp00/archive|Rhelp01/archive|Rhelp02a/archive;format=builtin-l
> ong;sort=score
> > ;words=Ripley;matchesperpage=10"
> >
> >>version
> >
> > _
> > platform i386-pc-mingw32
> > arch i386
> > os mingw32
> > system i386, mingw32
> > status
> > major 2
> > minor 0.0
> > year 2004
> > month 10
> > day 04
> > language R
> >
> > If no browser is open, then this is the URL that is browsed
> in Firefox:
> >
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch?config=htdigrun1
> ;restrict=Rhel
> > p00/archive
> >
> > Oddly, these two other windows are opened too:
> > http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp01/archive/1000.html
> >
> > and:
> > http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch/msg17461.html
> >
> > This happens regardless of what the search string is. If a
> browser window is
> > open then everything works as planned. The sticky bit,
> obviously, is parsing
> > browseURL which has the same behavior if I try:
> >
> >>browseURL(myString)
> >
> >
> > However, the searches:
> >
> >>RSiteSearch(string = 'browseURL Firefox')
> >>RSiteSearch(string = 'browseURL Mozilla')
> >
> >
> > don't turn up much help! If I change browseURL to use IE
> then browseURL
> > behaves as expected:
> >
> >
> >>browseURL(myString, browser="C:/Program Files/Internet
> >
> > Explorer/iexplore.exe")
> >
> > Specifying Firefox explicitly in browseURL doesn't help -
> It still opens
> > three windows as above (if no browser is open):
> >
> >
> >>browseURL(myString, browser="C:/Program Files/Mozilla
> >
> > Firefox/firefox.exe")
> >
> > So, under Windows the 'NULL' argument in 'browser'
which
> determines the
> > browser via file association isn't the problem.
> >
> > Anybody know how I can make Firefox work a little more smoothly?
> >
> > Thanks, Andy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >>[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch]On Behalf Of Gabor
> Grothendieck
> >>Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 11:56 PM
> >>To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >>Subject: Re: [R] an R function to search on Prof. Baron's site
> >>
> >>
> >>Liaw, Andy <andy_liaw <at> merck.com> writes:
> >>
> >>:
> >>: Inspired by the functions that Barry Rawlingson and Dave
> >>Forrest posted for
> >>: searching Rwiki and R-help archive, I've made up a function
> >>that does the
> >>: search on Prof. Baron's site (Thanks to Prof. Baron's
help on
> >>setting up the
> >>: query string!):
> >>
> >>It would be nice if this and the other search functions recently
> >>posted were collected into a package or even integrated into
> >>R itself. In the case of the Windows Rgui, it would be nice if
they
> >>appeared on a menu with the other search and help functions.
> >>
> >>______________________________________________
> >>R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> >>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >>PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> >>http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >>
> >
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>
>