This package provides an R wrapper to the cartodb.com APIs.

For more information on the these APIs see http://developers.cartodb.com/

Why use CartoDB with R?

• All the power of PostgreSQL/PostGIS without the need to install all the libraries locally

• No, seriously, power! Make queries on huge datasets only grabbing the bits and pieces formatted just as you need them

• Database simplicity, turn CartoDB tables directly into data.frames without any hassle

• Portability! Now share your code with collaborators without having to transfer databases etc

Contact

Andrew Hill

• Email: andrew@vizzuality.com

Requirements

The CartoDB R package requires the following external packages

• RCurl

• RJSONIO

Suggested

Using rgeos can greatly improve mapping capability in R. It also plays nice with CartoDB, as queries accept geomAs='WKT', which can be directly used in rgeos.

• rgeos

Installation from source

To install this package from the source code available here

• download the file

• change directory to the location downloaded

> install.packages("CartoDB_1.4.tar.gz", repos=NULL, type="source")

Installation using devtools

• alternatively you can install straight from GitHub using devtools (untested, please let me know!)

> install_github("cartodb-r", "Vizzuality")

Methods

Connecting

cartodb("your-account-name", api.key="optional-key-for-writes")

• api.key enables writes and also lets you read from private tables

Testing a connection

cartodb.test()

Getting table data

cartodb.collection("table_name")

Getting select columns

cartodb.collection("table_name", columns=c("column1","column2"))

Other parameters for cartodb.collection

geomAs

• String type of geometry to return with records, doesn't work with sql

• default = NULL, same as "WKB" and "the_geom"

• "XY", returns the_geom_x and the_geom_y

• "GeoJSON", return the_geom as GeoJSON text

• "WKT", returns the_geom as Well-known text (for rgeos)

omitNull

• Boolean if TRUE omits all records with NULL the_geom, doesn't work with sql

• default = FALSE

limit

• Integer limit to number of records returned, doesn't work with sql

• default = NULL

asJson

• Boolean whether to convert your data from a JSON string to data.frame

• default = TRUE

urlOnly

• Boolean whether to only create and return the URL

• default = FALSE

sql

• String of SQL to query records directly

• default = NULL

• Overrides all other parameters except asJson

• example: cartodb.collection(sql = "SELECT column1 FROM your_table")

Examples for CartoDB in R

Set up your first read-only CartoDB connection

# Import required packages
library(RCurl)
library(RJSONIO)
library(CartoDB)

# Setup your connection
cartodb_account_name = "examples"
cartodb(cartodb_account_name)

# You can quickly test that your connection works
cartodb.test()
# #     success
# #  1    TRUE

Create a new data.frame out of one of your tables

# Setup your connection
cartodb_account_name = "examples"
cartodb(cartodb_account_name)

# Download the first 10 records of a table with the_geom transformed to X,Y coordinates
table_name <- "monarch"
data <- cartodb.collection(table_name, geomAs="XY", limit=10)

Calculate the upper half of a distance matrix for one of your tables, based on meters on a spherical geometry

# Setup your connection
cartodb_account_name = "examples"
cartodb(cartodb_account_name)

# Download a the pairwise distances for all records in your table.
table_name <- "nuclear_power_plants"
data <- cartodb.spatial.dm(table_name)

A very simple map of butterflies in Mexico

library(RCurl)
library(RJSONIO)
library(CartoDB)
library(maps)

# Setup your connection
cartodb_account_name = "examples"
cartodb(cartodb_account_name)

# Grab your data
data <- cartodb.collection("monarch", geomAs="XY", omitNull=TRUE)

# Create a very basic map
map(regions="mexico", lwd=0.05, lty=1)
points(data$the_geom_x, data$the_geom_y, col="red")
title("Monarch butterfly records in GBIF -- Mexico Region")

Get a specific tile from a table

library(RCurl)
library(RJSONIO)
library(CartoDB)

img <- readPNG(cartodb.tiles.tile("california_zips",41,100,8))
r = as.raster(img[,,1:3])
r[img[,,4] == 0] = "white"

plot(0:1,0:1,type="n",xlab='',ylab='',axes=FALSE, frame.plot=FALSE)
rasterImage(r,0,0,1,1)

The below is a bit more advanced method for plotting geospatial data onto a properly projected map. This requires a few extra external libraries, but the results can be very useful.

library(rgdal)
library(maptools)
library(RCurl)
library(RJSONIO)
library(CartoDB)

# Setup our CartoDB Connection
cartodb_account_name = "viz2"; 
cartodb(cartodb_account_name)

# CartoDB the_geom columns are always the following proj string
crs <- "+proj=longlat +ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +no_defs"

# Get OSM polygons for Riyadh
polyUrl <- cartodb.collection("riyadh_osm_polygon", columns=c("cartodb_id","the_geom"), omitNull=TRUE,method="GeoJSON", urlOnly=TRUE)
riyadh.poly<-readOGR(polyUrl,p4s=crs,layer = 'OGRGeoJSON')

# Get OSM roads for Riyadh
roadUrl <- cartodb.collection("riyadh_osm_roads", columns=c("cartodb_id","the_geom"), omitNull=TRUE,method="GeoJSON", urlOnly=TRUE)
riyadh.roads<-readOGR(roadUrl,p4s=crs,layer = 'OGRGeoJSON')

# Get OSM railways for Riyadh
railUrl <- cartodb.collection(sql="SELECT cartodb_id, the_geom FROM riyadh_osm_line WHERE railway IS NOT NULL",method="GeoJSON",urlOnly=TRUE)
riyadh.rails<-readOGR(railUrl,p4s=crs,layer = 'OGRGeoJSON')

# Plot the polygons and roads on a small map
plot(riyadh.poly,axes=TRUE, border="gray",col="#A2CD5A",bg="white")
lines(riyadh.roads, col="#3a3a3a", lwd=1)
lines(riyadh.rails, col="burlywood3", lwd=3)

Writing data to CartoDB using R

To write data to your CartoDB tables, you will need to get and API Key, you can find it by clicking "Your api keys" in your CartoDB dashboard.

Below, see how we insert a new record into CartoDB and then update some values in that record.

library(RCurl)
library(RJSONIO)
library(CartoDB)

# Setup a CartoDB connection with authenticated API Key access
your_api_key = "{your_api_key}"
cartodb_account_name = "examples"; 
cartodb(cartodb_account_name, api.key=your_api_key)

# Insert a new row into a table called us_cities that has columns name, latitude, and longitude. Inserts return the cartodb_id of the newly created record
cartodb_id <- cartodb.row.insert(name="us_cities",columns=list("name","latitude","longitude"),values=list("New York",40.714,-74.006))

# You could perform this in the same insert, but to demonstrate updates, here we will turn the coordinates into a geometry with an update
cartodb.row.update(name="us_cities",cartodb_id=cartodb_id,columns=list("the_geom"),values=list("ST_SetSRID(ST_Point(longitude,latitude),4326) "),quoteChars=FALSE)

# Now we can get the full record we just created
record <- cartodb.row.get(name="us_cities",cartodb_id=cartodb_id)
record

TODOs

• add instructions on putting API keys in ENV

• Add direct row (data.frame) -> insert or -> update methods. E.g. cartodb.row.update(row=my.data.frame), cartodb.row.insert(row=my.data.frame)

• Set remote map style method?

• Move to an external SQL package for handling R types -> SQL types for insert statements