GBIF provides two ways to get occurrence data: through the
/occurrence/search
route (see occ_search()
),
or via the /occurrence/download
route (many functions, see below).
occ_search()
is more appropriate for smaller data, while
occ_download*()
functions are more appropriate for larger data requests.
You'll use occ_download()
to kick off a download. You'll need to
give that function settings from your GBIF profile: your user name, your
password, and your email. These three settings are required to use the
function. You can pass these to the function call or set them as options
either in the current R
session using the options()
function, or by setting them in your
.Rprofile
file, after which point they'll be read in automatically, and
you won't need to pass them in to the function call. If yo set them in your
.Rprofile
file, they won't be available until you restart the R session.
You can not perform that many downloads, so plan wisely. See Rate limiting below.
If you try to launch too many downloads, you will receive an 420 "Enhance Your Calm" response. If there is less then 100 in total across all GBIF users, then you can have 3 running at a time. If there are more than that, then each user is limited to 1 only. These numbers are subject to change.
occ_download
- Start a download
occ_download_meta
- Get metadata progress on a single
download
occ_download_list
- List your downloads
occ_download_cancel
- Cancel a download
occ_download_get
- Retrieve a download
occ_download_import
- Import a download from local
file system