Simplify a List Imported from an iDAI.field / Field Desktop-Database

The function will take a list as returned by get_idaifield_docs(), idf_query(), idf_index_query(), or idf_json_query() and process it to make the list more usable. It will unnest a few lists, including the dimension-lists and the period-list to provide single values for later processing with idaifield_as_matrix(). If a connection to the database can be established, the function will get the relevant project configuration and convert custom checkboxes-fields to multiple lists, each for every value from the respective valuelist, to make them more accessible during the conversion with idaifield_as_matrix(). It will also remove the custom configuration field names that are in use since iDAI.field 3 / Field Desktop and consist of "projectname:fieldName". Only the "projectname:"-part will be removed.

Usage

simplify_idaifield(
  idaifield_docs,
  keep_geometry = FALSE,
  replace_uids = TRUE,
  find_layers = TRUE,
  uidlist = NULL,
  language = "all",
  remove_config_names = TRUE,
  spread_fields = TRUE,
  use_exact_dates = FALSE,
  silent = FALSE
)

Arguments

idaifield_docs

An idaifield_docs or idaifield_resources-list as returned by get_idaifield_docs() or idf_query(), idf_index_query(), and idf_json_query().

keep_geometry

TRUE/FALSE: Should the geographical information be kept or removed? Defaults is FALSE. Uses: reformat_geometry()

replace_uids

TRUE/FALSE: Should UUIDs be automatically replaced with the corresponding identifiers? Defaults is TRUE. Uses: fix_relations() with replace_uid(), and also: find_layer()

find_layers

TRUE/FALSE. Default is FALSE. If TRUE, adds another column with the 'Layer' (see getOption("idaifield_categories")$layers, can be modified) in which a resource is contained recursively. That means that even if it does not immediately lie within this layer, but is contained by one or several other resources in said layer, a new column ("liesWithinLayer") will still show the layer. Example: A sample "A" in Find "001" from layer "Layer1" will usually have "001" as the value in "liesWithin". With find_layers, there will be another column called "liesWithinLayer" which contains "Layer1" for both sample "A" and Find "001".

uidlist

If NULL (default) the list of UUIDs and identifiers is automatically generated within this function using get_uid_list(). This only makes sense if the list handed to simplify_idaifield() had not been selected yet. If it has been, you should supply a data.frame as returned by get_field_index().

language

The short name (e.g. "en", "de", "fr") of the language that is preferred for the fields. Special value "all" (the default) can be used to return a concatenated string of all available languages. gather_languages() will select other available languages in alphabetical order if the selected language is not available.

remove_config_names

TRUE/FALSE: Should the name of the project be removed from field names of the configuration? (Default is TRUE.) (Should e.g.: test:amount be renamed to amount, see remove_config_names().)

spread_fields

TRUE/FALSE: Should checkbox-fields be spread across multiple lists to facilitate boolean-columns for each value of a checkbox-field? Default is TRUE. Uses: get_configuration(), get_field_inputtypes(), convert_to_onehot()

use_exact_dates

TRUE/FALSE: Should the values from any "exact" dates be used in case there are any? Default is FALSE. Changes outcome of fix_dating().

silent

TRUE/FALSE, default: FALSE. Should messages be suppressed?

Value

An idaifield_simple-list containing the same resources in a different format depending on the parameters used.

Details

Please note: The function will need an Index (i.e. uidlist as provided by get_uid_list()) of the complete project database to correctly replace the UUIDs with their corresponding identifiers! Especially if a selected list is passed to simplify_idaifield(), you need to supply the uidlist of the complete project database as well.

Formatting of various lists: Dimension measurements as well as dating are reformatted and might produce unexpected results. For the dating, all begin and end values are evaluated and for each resource, the minimum value from "begin" and maximum value from "end" is selected. For the dimension-fields, if a ranged measurement was selected, a mean will be returned.

See also

• This function uses: idf_sepdim(), remove_config_names()

• When find_layers = TRUE: find_layer(), this only works when the function can get an index/uidlist!

• fix_dating() with the outcome depending on the use_exact_dates-argument.

• When selecting a language: gather_languages()

• Depending on the spread_fields-argument: convert_to_onehot()

• Depending on the keep_geometry-argument: reformat_geometry()

• Depending on the replace_uids-argument: fix_relations() with replace_uid()

• If uidlist = NULL: get_uid_list()

Examples

if (FALSE) {
connection <- connect_idaifield(serverip = "127.0.0.1",
    project = "rtest",
    user = "R",
    pwd = "hallo")
idaifield_docs <- get_idaifield_docs(connection = connection)

simpler_idaifield <- simplify_idaifield(idaifield_docs)
}