Retrieve Transcripts from the Austrian Parliament API

get_transcripts() retrieves the transcripts of parliamentary meetings via Parliament's API (see here).

Usage

get_transcripts(
  search_string = NULL,
  legis_period = NULL,
  meeting_type = NULL,
  date_start = NULL,
  date_end = NULL,
  echo = TRUE,
  export = NULL,
  export_destination = "transcripts"
)

Arguments

search_string: Optional character string to filter transcripts by keywords. Defaults to NULL.
legis_period: Legislative period(s). Default NULL queries for all legislative periods. Accepts numeric (10), character ("10") or roman numerals in character format ("X") as well as "KN" (Konstituierende Nationalversammlung) and "PN" (Provisorische Nationalversammlung).
meeting_type: Optional character string specifying the type(s) of meeting. Permissible values are "NRSITZ" (National Council - Plenary meetings) and "BRSITZ" (Federal Council - Plenary meetings). Defaults to NULL, which queries both NRSITZ and BRSITZ. See Details for more information.
date_start: Optional start date for filtering transcripts. Defaults to NULL. Date has to be in dmy-format (e.g. "01.05.2020", "01/05/2020", "01-05-2020", "01052020").
date_end: Optional end date for filtering transcripts. Defaults to NULL. Date has to be in dmy-format (e.g. "01.05.2020", "01/05/2020", "01-05-2020", "01052020").
echo: Logical. If TRUE, the function prints the used search parameters and the url to the pertaining search results on the website of the Austrian Parliament. Default is NULL.
export: Optional character string to enable PDF downloads. Set to "pdf" to download transcript PDFs. Defaults to NULL (no export).
export_destination: Character string specifying the directory path where PDFs will be saved. Defaults to "transcripts" (a folder in the current working directory). If the folder does not exist, the user will be prompted to create it in interactive meetings.

Value

A tibble containing transcript data with the following columns:

date: Date of the meeting
meeting_url: URL to the meeting page
legis_period: Legislative period
meeting_type: Type of meeting
meeting_number: Meeting number/citation
meeting: Meeting description
meeting_transcript_html: URL to HTML transcript (if available)
meeting_transcript_pdf: URL to PDF transcript (if available)

Details

Meeting Type ('Art der Sitzung')

Permissible values for meeting_type:

NRSITZ: Nationalrat - Plenarsitzungen (National Council - Plenary meetings)
BRSITZ: Bundesrat - Plenarsitzungen (Federal Council - Plenary meetings)

Note: Querying for other meeting types (Untersuchungsausschüsse, Enqueten, Bundesversammlung, Ausschüsse, EU-Ausschüsse, Gedenk-/Fest-/Trauersitzungen, Jugend- und Lehrlingsparlament, Veranstaltungen) is currently only possible via the Parliament's website.

Implementation Notes

Queries returning more than 10,000 results will raise an error; in these cases it is recommended to cut your query into multiple steps (e.g. by using the purrr package).

PDF Export

When export = "pdf", the function additionaly downloads the PDF files of the transcripts. The default destination is the folder "transcripts", which will be created in the root of the project. In interactive meetings, users are prompted to create the destination folder if it doesn't exist, and if prefered, to provide an alternative destination name. PDF filenames follow the pattern: YYYY-MM-DD_LegislativePeriod_MeetingType_MeetingNumber.pdf. A summary of successful and failed downloads is printed at the conclusion of the download.

Examples

# \donttest{
  # Get transcripts using a search string and specifying a legislative period.
  result <- get_transcripts(search_string = "gesundheit",
                  legis_period = 28,
                  meeting_type = "NRSITZ",
                  echo = TRUE)
#> {"GP_CODE":["XXVIII"],"NBVS":["NRSITZ"]} 
#> https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/protokolle/index.html?STENO_211GP_CODE=XXVIII&STENO_211NBVS=NRSITZ&STENO_211search=gesundheit
#> [1] 17
  dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 17
#> Columns: 8
#> $ date                    <date> 2024-12-11, 2025-03-26, 2025-04-24, 2025-05-1…
#> $ meeting_url             <chr> "/gegenstand/XXVIII/NRSITZ/5", "/gegenstand/XX…
#> $ legis_period            <chr> "XXVIII", "XXVIII", "XXVIII", "XXVIII", "XXVII…
#> $ meeting_type            <chr> "NRSITZ", "NRSITZ", "NRSITZ", "NRSITZ", "NRSIT…
#> $ meeting_number          <chr> "5/NRSITZ", "13/NRSITZ", "17/NRSITZ", "21/NRSI…
#> $ meeting                 <chr> "5. Sitzung (5/NRSITZ)", "13. Sitzung (13/NRSI…
#> $ meeting_transcript_html <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVIII/N…
#> $ meeting_transcript_pdf  <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVIII/N…

 # Get transcript data for a specific period of time.
 result <- get_transcripts(meeting_type = "BRSITZ",
                 date_start = "01-01-2024",
                 date_end = "30-06-2024",
                 echo = TRUE)
#> {"NBVS":["BRSITZ"],"DATUM":["2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","2024-06-30T00:00:00.000Z"]} 
#> https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/protokolle/index.html?STENO_211NBVS=BRSITZ&STENO_211DATUM=2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&STENO_211DATUM=2024-06-30T00:00:00.000Z
#> [1] 6
 dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 6
#> Columns: 8
#> $ date                    <date> 2024-02-15, 2024-03-14, 2024-04-05, 2024-04-2…
#> $ meeting_url             <chr> "/gegenstand/BR/BRSITZ/963", "/gegenstand/BR/B…
#> $ legis_period            <chr> "XXVII", "XXVII", "XXVII", "XXVII", "XXVII", "…
#> $ meeting_type            <chr> "BRSITZ", "BRSITZ", "BRSITZ", "BRSITZ", "BRSIT…
#> $ meeting_number          <chr> "963/BRSITZ/2024", "964/BRSITZ/2024", "965/BRS…
#> $ meeting                 <chr> "963. Sitzung (963/BRSITZ/2024)", "964. Sitzun…
#> $ meeting_transcript_html <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/BR/BRSIT…
#> $ meeting_transcript_pdf  <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/BR/BRSIT…
# }
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  # Retrieve all transcripts of National Council plenary meetings
  # and download PDFs to default "transcripts" folder.
  get_transcripts(
    meeting_type = "NRSITZ",
    legis_period = 26,
    export = "pdf"
  )
} # }