Update Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Data

Orchestrates the full yearly update workflow: downloads missing years, cleans them, recombines all periods, re-standardizes countries, exports to package format, and validates the result.

Usage

update_rwb_data(
  years = NULL,
  download = TRUE,
  clean = TRUE,
  combine = TRUE,
  standardize = TRUE,
  validate = TRUE,
  verbose = TRUE,
  auto_commit = TRUE
)

Arguments

years: Integer vector. Years to download and clean. Defaults to NULL: auto-detect missing years via get_years_to_download().
download: Logical. If TRUE, download missing years. If FALSE, skip download (useful for testing). Default: TRUE.
clean: Logical. If TRUE, clean newly downloaded years. If FALSE, skip cleaning. Default: TRUE.
combine: Logical. Always TRUE; recombines all periods to recalculate evolution columns. Cannot be skipped. Default: TRUE.
standardize: Logical. Always TRUE; re-standardizes countries to apply consolidation rules consistently. Cannot be skipped. Default: TRUE.
validate: Logical. If TRUE, run validation checks on output. Default: TRUE.
verbose: Logical. If TRUE, print progress messages. Default: TRUE.
auto_commit: Logical. If TRUE, auto-commit changes to git with a descriptive message. Default: TRUE.

Value

Invisible list with class "rwb_update" containing: - status: "success", "partial", or "failed" - years_downloaded: Integer vector of years downloaded - years_cleaned: Integer vector of years cleaned - rows_before: Row count in combined RDS before update - rows_after: Row count in combined RDS after update - consolidations_applied: Number of consolidation rules applied - validation_passed: Logical, TRUE if all checks pass - messages: Character vector of progress messages - git_commit: Commit hash if auto-committed; NA otherwise

Details

This function implements the "minimal disruption principle": only new years are downloaded and cleaned. Phases C-D (combine, standardize) always run because evolution columns depend on year N-1's data.

**Workflow Overview:**

1. **Detection (Phase A pre-check)** - If years = NULL, detect missing years via get_years_to_download() - If no years missing, report and return early (unless standardize = TRUE)

2. **Download (Phase A)** - Only if download = TRUE - Downloads CSVs for detected missing years to inst/extdata/ - Validates each CSV before saving - On download failure: aborts update with error message

3. **Clean (Phase B)** - Only if clean = TRUE and years detected - Cleans newly downloaded years via clean_rwb_single() - Outputs normalized RDS to data/cleaned/period_X/ - On cleaning failure: aborts update and reports which year failed

4. **Combine (Phase C)** - Always runs (required) - Recombines all cleaned periods via combine_cleaned_periods() - Recalculates evolution columns (rank_n_1, score_n_1, etc.) - Output: data/processed/rwb_combined.rds - Cost: ~1-2 seconds

5. **Standardize (Phase D)** - Always runs (required) - Re-standardizes all rows via standardize_rwb_countries() - Applies consolidation rules from inst/extdata/consolidation_mapping.csv - Output: data/processed/rwb_standardized.rds - Cost: ~2-3 seconds

6. **Export** - Regenerates rwb_standardized.rda via data-raw/rwb_standardized.R - Cost: <1 second

7. **Validation** - Only if validate = TRUE - Checks row count increase matches expectations - Verifies no duplicate rows - Ensures all required columns present - On validation failure: reports issues but doesn't abort

8. **Git Commit** - Only if auto_commit = TRUE - Stages updated RDS files - Creates commit with message describing what changed - On commit failure: reports warning but doesn't abort update

**Intelligent Defaults:** - combine = TRUE, standardize = TRUE: Cannot be overridden (always required) - validate = TRUE: Recommended for production workflows - auto_commit = TRUE: Recommended; provides git history of updates - verbose = TRUE: Recommended for interactive use

**Error Handling:** - Download fails -> Aborts with error - Cleaning fails -> Aborts and reports which year failed - Combine/Standardize fail -> Aborts (indicates data corruption) - Validation fails -> Reports issues; doesn't abort - Git commit fails -> Reports warning; doesn't abort update

**Example: Minimal yearly update** “`r # Run once per year when new RSF data available result <- update_rwb_data() # Auto-detects missing years, downloads, cleans, combines, standardizes print(result) “`

**Example: Testing without download** “`r # Test combining/standardizing without network calls result <- update_rwb_data(years = NULL, download = FALSE, clean = FALSE) “`

Usage

Arguments

Value

Details

See also