I am trying to submit a postForm request using RCurl from the following website, however the form attribute names are in a format that does not seem to be readable with the function because it uses brackets and single quotations.
url = "http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?id=2820001"
postForm(url, MBR['GEOGRAPHY'], style = "post")
Which results in the following error:
Error: unexpected '=' in "postForm(url, MBR['GEOGRAPHY'] ="
I can append the url with the url encoded names and associate value like so:
postForm(paste(url, "&MBR%5B%27GEOGRAPHY%27%5D=2", sep=""), style = "post")
However this only allows me to select one geography, whereas in reality I want to select multiples (i.e. values 1,2,3, and 4). There are other form names, but the same issue applies so I have simplified it using only geography. I would also include the action%3Aa47 name to submit the form.
If anyone knows how I can still use the postForm function with these [] form names or a way to use the work around but select multiple values I would be very appreciative.
Thank you.
This may help get you started:
library(httr)
library(rvest)
POST(url = "http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26",
body = list(id = "2820001",
lang = "eng", retrLang = "eng",
accessible = "false", previewOutput = "false",
outputFrequency = "UNCHANGED",
whenConvertingFrequency = "USE_CALENDAR_YEAR",
manipulationOption = "DATA_AS_RETRIEVED",
tabMode = "customize",
pattern = "", p1 = "-1",
viewId = "1", `D1-picklist-containerL1` = "1",
`MBR['GEOGRAPHY']` = "6",
`MBR['GEOGRAPHY']` = "7",
`MBR['CHARACTERISTICS']` = "3",
`D3-picklist-containerL0` = "1",
`MBR['SEX']` = "1", `D4-picklist-containerAll` = "1",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "1",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "2",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "3",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "4",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "22",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "5",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "6",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "7",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "8",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "9",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "10",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "11",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "12",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "13",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "14",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "15",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "16",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "17",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "18",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "19",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "20",
`MBR['AGEGROUP']` = "21",
smonth = "9", syear = "2016",
emonth = "1", eyear = "2017",
exporterId = "TABLE_HTML_TIME_AS_COLUMN",
verificationOption = "NORMAL_RETRIEVAL",
`action:a47` = "Apply"),
encode = "form") -> res
Working with the output:
content(res) %>%
html_table(fill=TRUE)
## [[1]]
## Geography Age group 2016 2016 2016 2016 2017
## 1 Geography Age group September October November December January
## 2 footnotes <NA> <NA> <NA> <NA> <NA> <NA>
## 3 Quebec 15 years and over 4,208.1 4,203.9 4,178.8 4,160.5 4,112.2
## 4 Quebec 15 to 24 years 540.8 545.3 531.5 544.5 518.4
## 5 Quebec 25 years and over 3,667.2 3,658.6 3,647.4 3,616.0 3,593.8
## 6 Quebec 25 to 44 years 1,852.7 1,849.4 1,842.4 1,848.5 1,837.2
## 7 Quebec 45 to 64 years 1,663.1 1,662.1 1,658.8 1,621.8 1,612.3
## 8 Quebec 45 years and over 1,814.5 1,809.2 1,805.0 1,767.5 1,756.6
## 9 Quebec 25 to 54 years 2,807.8 2,785.7 2,779.7 2,763.3 2,753.9
## 10 Quebec 55 years and over 859.4 872.9 867.7 852.7 839.9
## 11 Quebec 15 to 64 years 4,056.7 4,056.9 4,032.7 4,014.8 3,967.9
## 12 Quebec 15 to 19 years 163.6 161.9 170.8 176.5 174.4
## 13 Quebec 20 to 24 years 377.3 383.4 360.6 368.1 344.0
## 14 Quebec 25 to 29 years 445.8 429.8 429.7 432.3 435.6
## 15 Quebec 30 to 34 years 470.8 464.8 457.0 460.4 447.7
## 16 Quebec 35 to 39 years 481.6 501.8 508.1 506.3 515.5
## 17 Quebec 40 to 44 years 454.5 453.0 447.5 449.4 438.5
## 18 Quebec 45 to 49 years 449.9 441.8 441.5 435.1 430.8
## 19 Quebec 50 to 54 years 505.2 494.5 495.8 479.7 485.9
## 20 Quebec 55 to 59 years 449.4 456.8 457.2 446.4 441.4
## 21 Quebec 60 to 64 years 258.7 269.1 264.3 260.6 254.2
## 22 Quebec 65 years and over 151.4 147.0 146.2 145.7 144.3
## 23 Quebec 65 to 69 years 95.1 99.2 97.1 90.9 92.6
## 24 Quebec 70 years and over 56.3 47.8 49.0 54.8 51.7
## 25 Ontario 15 years and over 6,989.5 7,041.4 7,049.9 7,033.5 6,972.5
## 26 Ontario 15 to 24 years 874.5 902.8 905.7 890.5 856.8
## 27 Ontario 25 years and over 6,115.0 6,138.6 6,144.2 6,143.0 6,115.7
## 28 Ontario 25 to 44 years 3,007.5 3,013.2 3,040.7 3,039.5 3,024.8
## 29 Ontario 45 to 64 years 2,793.3 2,811.9 2,791.7 2,791.2 2,791.1
## 30 Ontario 45 years and over 3,107.5 3,125.4 3,103.5 3,103.5 3,090.9
## 31 Ontario 25 to 54 years 4,611.5 4,630.8 4,666.9 4,670.4 4,647.4
## 32 Ontario 55 years and over 1,503.5 1,507.8 1,477.3 1,472.6 1,468.3
## 33 Ontario 15 to 64 years 6,675.4 6,727.9 6,738.1 6,721.2 6,672.7
## 34 Ontario 15 to 19 years 265.0 279.0 271.6 264.2 258.2
## 35 Ontario 20 to 24 years 609.6 623.8 634.1 626.3 598.6
## 36 Ontario 25 to 29 years 773.7 761.1 766.0 761.6 751.9
## 37 Ontario 30 to 34 years 746.8 756.1 770.8 778.0 781.2
## 38 Ontario 35 to 39 years 759.3 757.3 754.3 756.2 739.4
## 39 Ontario 40 to 44 years 727.7 738.7 749.6 743.7 752.3
## 40 Ontario 45 to 49 years 733.2 745.6 741.9 747.8 750.0
## 41 Ontario 50 to 54 years 870.8 872.0 884.3 883.1 872.6
## 42 Ontario 55 to 59 years 727.8 732.9 728.6 723.9 727.7
## 43 Ontario 60 to 64 years 461.5 461.3 436.9 436.4 440.8
## 44 Ontario 65 years and over 314.1 313.5 311.8 312.3 299.8
## 45 Ontario 65 to 69 years 206.4 206.3 205.7 206.4 195.4
## 46 Ontario 70 years and over 107.7 107.2 106.1 105.9 104.4