Upload a File to DataStore

library(NPSdatastore)

Before you start

Before attempting to upload a file to a DataStore reference, there are some conditions that need to be met.

1. Make sure you have edit permissions to the DataStore reference.
2. Make sure the reference permits uploads. Certain types of reference, such as programs and projects, are designed to be containers for organizing other references and therefore cannot directly contain files.
3. Make sure you are on the internal NPS network.

Testing

Consider using the testing version of DataStore [https://irmadev.nps.gov/DataStore] to make sure your code works as expected before uploading to the real DataStore. This is an especially good idea if you are iterating through a large number of files.

Uploading the file

You’ll need the following information:

• The location of the file on your hard drive. Make sure that the path includes the name of the file (not just the folder it lives in), and be sure that the slashes in the path are either single forward slashes (/) or double backslashes (\).
• The reference ID of the DataStore reference you are uploading to. When you navigate to your reference in a web browser, the URL will look something like this: “https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/1234567”. The number at the end of the URL (in this example, 1234567) is your reference ID.
• Whether the file is 508-compliant.

Set that information using the code template below:

file_to_upload <- "C:/your/file/location/here.csv"
reference_id <- 1234567  # Replace this with your reference ID
dev <- TRUE  # Change this to FALSE when you are done testing
is_508_compliant <- FALSE  # If you know your file is 508 compliant, change to TRUE
interactive <- TRUE  # If TRUE, you will be prompted to confirm file upload

Double-check your reference ID! If it’s incorrect, your file upload will either fail, or the file could end up in the wrong reference.

Double-check your file path! Make sure it’s correct, and make sure you aren’t uploading sensitive data to a public reference.

Once you are certain everything is correct, perform the file upload:

uploaded_file_info <- upload_file_to_reference(reference_id = reference_id,
                                               file_path = file_to_upload, 
                                               is_508 = is_508_compliant,
                                               interactive = interactive,
                                               dev = dev)

upload_file_to_reference will return a list containing a direct download URL for your file, as well as the file ID that DataStore uses to uniquely identify your file.

Uploading multiple files at once

If you need to upload many files to the same reference, you just need to generate a vector of file paths that you can iterate over.

my_folder <- "scratchpad"  # The folder containing the files you want to upload
pattern <- "\\.csv$"  # Look for files ending in ".csv"
my_files <- list.files(my_folder, pattern = pattern, ignore.case = TRUE, full.names = TRUE)

Next, use lapply to upload each file:

interactive <- FALSE  # Turn off the interactive confirmation prompt
dev <- TRUE  # It's definitely good to test this out on irmadev first
reference_id <- 1234567  # Replace this with your reference ID

# Iterate through each file and upload it
all_file_info <- lapply(my_files, function(file) {
  file_info <- upload_file_to_reference(reference_id = reference_id,
                                        file_path = file, 
                                        is_508 = is_508_compliant,
                                        interactive = interactive,
                                        dev = dev)
  return(tibble::tibble(original_file = file,
                        url = file_info$url,
                        file_id = file_info$file_id))
})

# Collapse uploaded file info into a single dataframe
all_file_info <- dplyr::bind_rows(all_file_info)