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Retrieve Transcripts from the Austrian Parliament API

Source: R/get_transcripts.R
get_transcripts.Rd

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

Usage

get_transcripts(
  search_string = NULL,
  legis_period = NULL,
  session_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).

session_type

Optional character string specifying the type(s) of session. Permissible values are "NRSITZ" (National Council - Plenary sessions) and "BRSITZ" (Federal Council - Plenary sessions). 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 sessions.

Value

A tibble containing transcript data with the following columns:

date

Date of the session

session_url

URL to the session page

legis_period

Legislative period

session_type

Type of session

session_number

Session number/citation

session

Session description

session_transcript_html

URL to HTML transcript (if available)

session_transcript_pdf

URL to PDF transcript (if available)

Details

Session Type ('Art der Sitzung')

Permissible values for session_type:

  • NRSITZ: Nationalrat - Plenarsitzungen (National Council - Plenary sessions)

  • BRSITZ: Bundesrat - Plenarsitzungen (Federal Council - Plenary sessions)

Note: Querying for other session 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 sessions, 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_SessionType_SessionNumber.pdf. A summary of successful and failed downloads is printed at the conclusion of the download.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  # Get transcripts using a search string and specifying a legislative period.
  get_transcripts(search_string = "gesundheit",
                  legis_period = 28,
                  session_type = "NRSITZ",
                  echo=TRUE)

 # Get transcript data for a specific period of time.
 get_transcripts(session_type = "BRSITZ",
                 date_start = "01-01-2024",
                 date_end = "30-06-2024",
                 echo = TRUE)

  # Retrieve all transcripts of National Council plenary sessions
  # and download PDFs to default "transcripts" folder.
  get_transcripts(
    session_type = "NRSITZ",
    legis_period = 26,
    export = "pdf"
  )

} # }