DataSHIELD Interface

The DataSHIELD Interface (DSI) defines a set of S4 classes and generic methods that can be implemented for accessing a data repository supporting the DataSHIELD infrastructure: controlled R commands to be executed on the server side are garanteeing that non disclosive information is returned to client side.

Learn more about DataSHIELD.

Class Structure

The DSI classes are:

• DSObject a common base class for all DSI,
• DSDriver drives the creation of a connection object,
• DSConnection allows the interaction with the remote server; DataSHIELD operations such as aggregation and assignment return a result object; DataSHIELD setup status check can be performed (dataset access, configuration comparision),
• DSResult wraps access to the result, which can be fetched either synchronously or asynchronously depending on the capabilities of the data repository server.

All classes are virtual: they cannot be instantiated directly and instead must be subclassed. See DSOpal for a reference implementation of DSI based on the Opal data repository.

These S4 classes and generic methods are meant to be used for implementing connection to a DataSHIELD-aware data repository.

Higher Level Functions

In addition to these S4 classes, DSI provides functions to handle a list of remote data repository servers:

• datashield.login and datashield.logout will make use of the DSDriver paradigm to create DSConnections to the data repositories,
• datashield.aggregate and datashield.assign will perform typical DataSHIELD operations on DSConnections, which result will be fetched through DSResult objects,
• datashield.connections, datashield.connections_default and datashield.connections_find are functions for managing the list of DSConnection objects that will be discovered and used by the client-side analytic functions.
• Other data management functions are provided by the DSConnection objects:
  • datashield.workspaces, datashield.workspace_save and datashield.workspace_rm allow to manage R images of the remote DataSHIELD sessions (to speed up data analysis sessions),
  • datashield.symbols and datashield.symbol_rm offer a minimalistic management of the R symbols living in the remote DataSHIELD sessions,
  • datashield.tables, datashield.table_status list the tables and their accessibility across a set of data repositories,
  • datashield.resources, datashield.resource_status list the resources and their accessibility across a set of data repositories,
  • datashield.pkg_status, datashield.method_status and datashield.methods are utility functions to explore the DataSHIELD setup across a set of data repositories.

These datashield.* functions are meant to be used by DataSHIELD packages developers and users.

Options

Some options can be set to modify the behavior of the DSI:

• datashield.env is the R environment in which the DSConnection object list is to be looking for. Default value is the Global Environment: globalenv().
• datashield.progress is a logical to enable the visibility of the progress bars. Default value is TRUE.
• datashield.progress.clear is a logical to make the progress bar disappear after it has been completed. Default value is FALSE.
• datashiel.error.stop is a logical to alter error handling behavior: if TRUE an error is raised when at least one server has failed, otherwise a warning message is issued. Default value is TRUE.