No links have text 'download your files here'

[carriec]

Hello,

I am trying to use icpsrdata to download some datasets from ICPSR. I am following your help file example

library(icpsrdata)

icpsr_download(file_id = 36138)

and receive the following error:

Downloading ICPSR file: 36138 (2019-09-17 17:37:34)
Error: No links have text 'download your files here'

I am wondering if maybe the website has changed since the creation of the package?

Thanks in advance for your help and for writing the package!

[fsolt]

I've just run that code without problem here. Can you confirm that the username and password combination you have saved to your .Rprofile (you have something saved, right? otherwise the fxn would issue a prompt) allow you to download the file if you try directly from the ICPSR website right now? I'm guessing that this may be an issue with your ICPSR account--that is, your username (currently) only works when you're on campus, and you're off campus right now. If I'm right, the fix is pretty easy: downloading from on-campus once will re-enable your account for off-campus downloads.

[carriec]

You're right, it was an email and password issue. Thank you so much for the fast reply. Everything is working fine now.

[lin-jennifer]

Hi:

I am getting this same issue but I am using the correct username/password and logged in to an on-campus VPN (I am also authorized for off-campus download). I tried running the code posted by the original post and I get the same error. I was wondering if you have insights as to how I can fix this.

Thank you!

[fsolt]

As I've dealt with this myself in the past couple of weeks, I'm betting it's still a username/password issue. ICPSR periodically de-authorizes users from off-campus downloads, even with VPN (I don't know how they know, but they know). Contacting your on-campus ICPSR rep and asking them to get you re-authorized will do the trick. Took about a day in my case.

So: please try to download some dataset straight from the ICPSR website—the old-fashioned way, from the web, not in R. If you can do this, then I lose my bet and we'll have to troubleshoot further. If not, email your campus rep.

Either way, let me know.

[lin-jennifer]

Hi:

Thank you for this information.

I can try the campus representative route, but my profile currently says that I am authorized for off-campus download until 2021-01-08.

I also copied/pasted my R email/password specifications to the online login fields and logged into ICPSR just fine. I am also able to download from the online platform, the old-fashioned way, without a problem.

Thank you so much!

[MatthewRichardsonICPSR]

ICPSR off-campus logins basically work for 6 months after your last on-campus login. Due the pandemic, we're working on changing the access model to so that it will be easier to enable student access without any sort of campus visit, but that's still in development. Based upon this comment thread, I'll be letting my boss know that we really should start working on that sooner.

[jbullock35]

Due the pandemic, we're working on changing the access model to so that it will be easier to enable student access without any sort of campus visit, but that's still in development. Based upon this comment thread, I'll be letting my boss know that we really should start working on that sooner.

Thank you, @MatthewRichardsonICPSR. For whatever it's worth, I'm faculty, and I've begun to have the same issue. The example given by @carriec fails for me, too. A week ago, I think that it would have succeeded. (I was successfully using the icpsrdata package a week ago.) And I still have no problem logging on to the ICPSR website from an off-campus location and "manually" downloading datasets.

[fsolt]

Very much appreciated, @MatthewRichardsonICPSR!

Given, though, that I just had my account reauthorized on June 20 (I thought it was even more recent than that, but, you know, Covid time, you can't trust it), and I, too, can now reproduce the error (sigh), it seems the work to do is likely on my end.

Like @jbullock35, I was just using the package successfully quite recently. Oh well . . .

[MatthewRichardsonICPSR]

You're currently using a download script that has been phased out.

url <- paste0("http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cgi-bin/bob/zipcart2?path=ICPSR&study=", item, "&bundle=all&ds=&dups=yes")

The new download setup is a little more involved. If I attempt to download the R package for study 34743, my final URL looks like:

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/34743/versions/V1/download/rdata?path=/pcms/studies/0/3/4/7/34743/V1

Updating the URL may work with your code. I can't be certain, though. Unfortunately, version number is required. :(

[fsolt]

Thanks, Matthew! I figured out a quick fix to get the old code up and going for @lin-jennifer and others who need a quick fix (install from GitHub, please, if you want, y'all). I'm going to keep working on this, though, because that old link may go away at any time (right?) and because having a version number is actually a feature, not a bug, from a reproducibility point of view.

[fsolt]

As the bigger fix is going to take me a while, the quick fix is now on CRAN.