LoginSign Up
← Back to all sparks
A

austraits

ANALYTICS
Velocity0.0

Helpful functions to access the AusTraits database and wrangle data from other traits.build databases

github.com/traitecoevo/austraits ↗

The R client for AusTraits spends its releases chasing the dataset it reads.

plant-traitsopen-dataecologyzenodoapi-migration
◆Current state
austraits is the R access layer for the AusTraits plant trait database, and its release history is almost entirely a record of keeping pace with two upstream systems it does not control: the austraits.build data releases and the Zenodo archive that hosts them. The most recent release adds a version-dispatch layer so the same package can read both v4.x and v5.0.0 data. Three of the four visible tags were backfilled to GitHub within 23 minutes of each other, so version order and publication order do not agree.
◆Where it's heading
The package is converging on a stable public vocabulary and a versioned internal. Sites became locations across every join, plot and extract function; the extract_ and print family filled out at 1.0.0; and by 2.2.2 the core functions each carry a switch on the detected data version rather than assuming one schema. The visible cost of that is dependency churn — plotting packages moved to Suggests, which the notes admit can leave core functions unable to run.
◆Prediction
Given that every release so far has been triggered by an upstream austraits.build or Zenodo change, the next one most likely follows the next data release rather than any independent roadmap. The entries do not indicate new analysis capability being planned in the client itself.

◆Recent moves

  1. 2y ago

    Support for AusTraits 5.0.0 data and the rebuilt Zenodo API

    Adds version switching so trait_pivot_wider, join, as_wide_table, extract_ and trait_pivot_longer each dispatch on the detected data version, allowing v4.x and v5.0.0 data to coexist. It also repairs the download feature after Zenodo changed its record URLs, id semantics and JSON format. Substantial work, but all of it is upstream compatibility rather than new capability.

    View source ↗
  2. 3y ago

    extract_taxa, lookup_trait and print methods arrive

    The 1.0.0 milestone adds extract_taxa, lookup_trait, print_versions, print_austraits and summarise_trait_means, filling out the discovery and inspection side of the API. Backfilled to GitHub two years late, which is why it sits out of order against the 2.x tags around it.

    View source ↗
  3. 3y ago

    Vignette build and extract_ function polish

    Vignette build process, extract_ function polish and a website rebuild. Housekeeping, backfilled alongside the other two tags in the same 23-minute window.

    View source ↗
  4. 3y ago

    site becomes location across the API; AusTraits 3.0.2+ support

    Renames site to location throughout — functions, arguments and the austraits$sites object itself — with deprecation shims on plot_site_locations and join_sites, and extends roughly fifteen functions to work with AusTraits above v3.0.2 while retaining support below it. The dual-version support here is the pattern that 2.2.2 later formalises into explicit version switches.

    View source ↗