File access in R

[riccile]

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to access files in R without downloading them locally. I have a large photo database stored on Box and I'm trying to extract detailed metadata from the photos. Is there a way I could direct a function to read file metadata directly from box? Thanks!

[ijlyttle]

Although it works on a directory basis, would box_ls() return the information you are looking for?

[nathancday]

What R tools/function do you use to read meta-data from these files locally? (I know nothing about photo meta info)

[ijlyttle]

Putting this here for later reference: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044196173-Using-Metadata

@laurenricci: It looks like there is a way to get to metadata; I'd want to make sure that the metadata you are looking for is being stored on Box, before we start "digging".

[danielruss]

I was looking into this also. One problem is that the internal function boxGet forcibly sets download to TRUE, we have no way to set this to true and since boxGet is not exported, we cannot call it directly.

Although, I'm not interested in meta data, just the file.

[nathancday]

you can use a triple colon to access internal package functions, boxr:::boxGet(..., download=F)

[danielruss]

@nathancday Thank you. I've been using R for over 10 years and never came across the triple colon syntax. However in the docs:

Note
It is typically a design mistake to use ::: in your code since the corresponding object has probably been kept internal for a good reason. Consider contacting the package maintainer if you feel the need to access the object for anything but mere inspection.

[nathancday]

what docs?

[danielruss]

?`::`

[nathancday]

ahh I see it in base R now. I wouldn't import internal functions into another package, but you could work with for a POC or if you already have boxr in your environment.
https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/ns-dblcolon.html

[danielruss]

I'm hoping to provide a PR back to boxr anyway. I would love to add a boxr::box_stream(fid,callback,...)