Reduce or remove data download

[pratikunterwegs]

This issue is to request that the package examples and vignettes should reduce the amount of data they download, as this causes delays in local testing and rendering of the package documentation. This could be a barrier for users working through the vignettes without reliable internet (currently the case in London).

Most data is downloaded from {covidregionaldata}, and alternatives to downloads such as making the data available from the package as with the 1976 ebola data should be considered.

[TimTaylor]

Also worth noting that {covidregionaldata} has not been on CRAN since 2022-06-03.

[pratikunterwegs]

I wonder if there is any interest in changing that?

[TimTaylor]

I suspect that a lot of the sources are no longer available. Perhaps some useful data could be vendored in a package (e.g. {outbreaks}) but I suspect there may already be some packaged data around??? I took a snapshot of some data for {incidence2} for that reason. I may see if there's interest in including that little bit within {outbreaks} at some point.

[pratikunterwegs]

Just to re-focus on this discussion, {cfr} uses and I think benefits from data from 20 countries (with > 100K cases) in {covidregionaldata}. Would it be possible to add these to {outbreaks}? I can make a PR if necessary. Alternatively, could/should these be added to {cfr} itself? I can move this to Discussions as well if better there.

[TimTaylor]

@pratikunterwegs I'd raise an issue in {outbreaks} and see what the maintainer says (I'm not involved in that package). Is the format for all 20 countries the same (i.e. can it be in one data frame)?

[pratikunterwegs]

Thanks @TimTaylor, will do. Yes, it's downloaded as a single data.frame.

[pratikunterwegs]

Moving some further considerations to Discussions

[pratikunterwegs]

Closing this as fixed in PRs #55 and #58.