Our package bcdata (https://cran.r-project.org/package=bcdata) retrieves public
data from British Columbia data services, so the examples are dependent on
successfully hitting web resources. When we initially submitted to CRAN the
examples were wrapped in \dontrun{}, but we were asked to change them to use
\donttest{}.
Now, CRAN is running checks with _R_CHECK_DONTTEST_EXAMPLES_=true, and one of
the examples has failed due to a changed web resource. I got an email asking me
to fix it and reminding me of the CRAN policy:
'Packages which use Internet resources should fail gracefully with an
informative message
if the resource is not available or has changed (and not give a check warning
nor error).'
This needs correction whether or not the resource recovers.
I would prefer that in normal use, the function calling the internet resources
fails with an error so that the user is properly alerted. I also agree that
these failures shouldn't cause a check error. To demonstrate the use of these
functions in examples, is there a preferred method of ensuring that failures
will not cause a check warning or error? Should I try to revert back to using
\dontrun{} and plead my case? Wrap in `if interactive())`?
Thanks very much,
Andy Teucher
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