Load a distributions registry — ds_registry • DSInstaller

Reads and validates a registry of DataSHIELD distributions from a JSON file or URL.

Usage

ds_registry(source = NULL, refresh = FALSE)

Arguments

source: Path or URL of the registry JSON document.
refresh: If `TRUE`, download the registry again even if it was already downloaded in this R session.

Value

A validated registry, an object of class `ds_registry` with elements `schema`, `aliases` (named character vector) and `distributions` (list named by distribution name).

Details

When `source` is `NULL`, the registry location is taken from the `dsinstaller.registry` option, then from the `DSINSTALLER_REGISTRY` environment variable, and finally defaults to the registry published on the DSInstaller website.

A registry downloaded from a URL is kept for the rest of the R session, and a copy is saved in the user cache directory (see [tools::R_user_dir()]). When the download fails, that copy is used instead, with a warning. For the default registry, if there is no such copy either, the registry bundled with the package is used, also with a warning.

Examples

reg <- ds_registry()
names(reg$distributions)
#> [1] "2026.04" "2026.10"