[acs-r] acs version 2.1.1 update

[Ezra Haber Glenn]

acs.R users:

Short Summary: acs v.2.1.0 users who are experiencing problems with
  acs.fetch (especially on windows) may want to consider updating to
  version 2.1.1, now on CRAN.

Shortly after releasing acs version 2.1.0, I'd heard from some Windows
users that the package was unable to connect to the API to fetch data.
After troubleshooting a bit, it became clear that the problem stemmed
from the package's switch to https (which will be required by the
Census API in late summer) and its reliance on the RCurl package,
which didn't seem to be playing nicely with Windows https and TLS
authentication.  Sorry!

To address the issue I've modified the package to use the httr package
instead of RCurl, which I am told works better.  CRAN confirms that
this seemed like a wise approach, and some initial user testing
confirms this -- thanks, user community!  The new version (2.1.1) is
now live on CRAN; windows binaries expected soon.

If you've recently installed or updated to 2.1.0 and the functions are
working for you, no need to update again; if you're getting errors
when trying to fetch data, I'd recommend you run another update:

> install.packages("acs", clean=T)

Don't forget to reinstall or "api.key.migrate()" your api key if it
doesn't seem to have been migrated during install.  I also strongly
recommend you run "acs.tables.install()" as well -- you only need to
do this once per installation (or update), and it will really speed up
the package.

   
--Ezra


--
Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-346
Cambridge, MA 02139
eglenn at mit.edu 
http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn
617.253.2024 (w)
617.721.7131 (c)