Reliability and reproducibility

Bounded retrieval for long histories

arad_get() uses strategy = "auto" by default. When date boundaries are missing, the package resolves them through ARAD /updates. Long histories are then divided into deterministic bounded intervals before calling /data.

x <- arad_get(indicator_ids = "SMV5M603")

For a fixed analytical window, specify the dates explicitly:

x <- arad_get(
  indicator_ids = "SMV5M603",
  from = "2010-01-01",
  to = "2026-01-01"
)

The direct strategy remains available mainly for diagnostics and comparison:

x_direct <- arad_get(
  indicator_ids = "SMV5M603",
  from = "2010-01-01",
  to = "2026-01-01",
  strategy = "direct"
)

Character-first parsing

API fields are ingested as character data first and validated before conversion. This avoids treating a malformed non-missing value as an ordinary numeric NA.

The package checks structural fields, dates, numeric values and observation keys before returning the result.

Missing values are data

A genuine missing value reported by ARAD remains NA. Missingness alone is not treated as retrieval corruption.

This distinction matters for long time series: the package validates structure and overlap consistency without assuming that every missing observation should be re-fetched or replaced.

Chunk boundaries and duplicates

When adjacent retrieval chunks overlap at a boundary, identical observations can be collapsed safely. If the same indicator, snapshot and period appear with conflicting values, aradR stops with an integrity error rather than choosing one value silently.

Transient failures and unavailable Internet resources

HTTP requests use bounded retries for transient failures. Network, proxy, authentication and server failures are converted into package-specific errors with the API key redacted from surfaced diagnostics.

If the public ARAD service is unavailable, the package fails with an informative arad_http_error rather than silently returning incomplete data.

Diagnostics

Every arad_get() result carries an arad_diagnostics attribute:

attr(x, "arad_diagnostics")

It records the retrieval strategy, resolved range, request count and chunk size. The attribute is preserved by arad_wide().

For reproducible analytical work, retain at least:

• indicator IDs;
• requested date boundaries;
• snapshot selection, when relevant;
• the installed aradR version;
• retrieval diagnostics.

Caching

Caching is explicit and off by default. Session caching stays in memory; disk caching uses R’s package-specific user cache directory.

x <- arad_get("SMV5M603", cache = "session")

x <- arad_get(
  "SMV5M603",
  cache = "disk",
  cache_max_age = 3600
)

Clear cached responses with:

arad_cache_clear()

API keys are not stored in cache files. A one-way credential hash is used only to avoid collisions between cached responses belonging to different credentials.

Reliability calibration

The current default chunk size was calibrated against finer-grained reference retrievals across monthly, quarterly, annual and daily histories, including multi-indicator and snapshot-backed requests. Across the completed calibration matrix, the normal chunked retrieval matched the finer references without key, missing-value or numeric-value differences.

The live audit is intentionally bounded and rate-limited. Routine package checks do not require an ARAD API key and do not exercise the live service unless explicitly opted in.