The New York Times web site provides a rich set of APIs, as described here: https://developer.nytimes.com/apis. Your task is to choose one of the New York Times APIs, construct an interface in R to read in the JSON data, and transform it into an R DataFrame.
We created an account with the NYTimes and requested an API key. The key was saved in a config.yml file which will be read into the project using the config package. To reproduce this work, you would need to follow the instructions to create a key here: https://developer.nytimes.com/get-started. Then save the key into your own config.yml file.
library(tidyverse)
library(config)
library(httr)
library(jsonlite)cfg <- config::get()
base_url <- 'https://api.nytimes.com/svc/books/v3/lists/'
api_key <- paste('?api-key=',cfg$nytimes$api_key,sep = '')The lists/names service returns a list of all the NYT Best Sellers Lists. Some lists are published weekly and others monthly. The response includes when each list was first published and last published.
list_names <- 'names.json'
list_html <- httr::GET(paste(base_url,list_names,api_key,sep = ''))
list_json <- fromJSON(content(list_html,'text'))
if (list_json$status == 'OK') {
lists <- as_tibble(list_json$results)
lists
}## # A tibble: 59 x 6
## list_name display_name list_name_encoded oldest_publishe~ newest_publishe~
## <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
## 1 Combined P~ Combined Pri~ combined-print-a~ 2011-02-13 2021-10-31
## 2 Combined P~ Combined Pri~ combined-print-a~ 2011-02-13 2021-10-31
## 3 Hardcover ~ Hardcover Fi~ hardcover-fiction 2008-06-08 2021-10-31
## 4 Hardcover ~ Hardcover No~ hardcover-nonfic~ 2008-06-08 2021-10-31
## 5 Trade Fict~ Paperback Tr~ trade-fiction-pa~ 2008-06-08 2021-10-31
## 6 Mass Marke~ Paperback Ma~ mass-market-pape~ 2008-06-08 2017-01-29
## 7 Paperback ~ Paperback No~ paperback-nonfic~ 2008-06-08 2021-10-31
## 8 E-Book Fic~ E-Book Ficti~ e-book-fiction 2011-02-13 2017-01-29
## 9 E-Book Non~ E-Book Nonfi~ e-book-nonfiction 2011-02-13 2017-01-29
## 10 Hardcover ~ Hardcover Ad~ hardcover-advice 2008-06-08 2013-04-21
## # ... with 49 more rows, and 1 more variable: updated <chr>The lists/{date}/{name} service returns the books on the best sellers list for the specified date and list name. To read from the most recent list, use current in place of the date. The name of the list can be found in the list_name_encoded attribute.
The json that is returned contains details about the list as well as the list of books that are on it.
current_nf_html <- httr::GET(paste(base_url,'current/hardcover-nonfiction.json',api_key,sep = ''))
current_nf_json <- fromJSON(content(current_nf_html,'text'))
if (current_nf_json$status == 'OK') {
current_nf <- as_tibble(current_nf_json$results$books)
current_nf %>%
select(rank,rank_last_week, weeks_on_list, title, author)
}## # A tibble: 15 x 5
## rank rank_last_week weeks_on_list title author
## <int> <int> <int> <chr> <chr>
## 1 1 1 2 THE STORYTELLER Dave ~
## 2 2 0 1 TO RESCUE THE REPUBLIC Bret ~
## 3 3 0 1 THE BOYS Ron H~
## 4 4 2 4 PERIL Bob W~
## 5 5 0 1 MIDNIGHT IN WASHINGTON Adam ~
## 6 6 0 1 THE BEATLES: GET BACK the B~
## 7 7 3 2 TASTE Stanl~
## 8 8 5 4 VANDERBILT Ander~
## 9 9 6 14 AMERICAN MARXISM Mark ~
## 10 10 0 1 IT'S BETTER TO BE FEARED Seth ~
## 11 11 0 1 E.R. NURSES James~
## 12 12 9 2 THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE Fiona~
## 13 13 0 1 WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY Nick ~
## 14 14 0 1 RIGGED Molli~
## 15 15 7 2 THE DYING CITIZEN Victo~There are a number of details about each book on the list as seen in the list of attributes.
glimpse(current_nf)## Rows: 15
## Columns: 26
## $ rank <int> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
## $ rank_last_week <int> 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 3, 5, 6, 0, 0, 9, 0, 0, 7
## $ weeks_on_list <int> 2, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4, 14, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2
## $ asterisk <int> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
## $ dagger <int> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0
## $ primary_isbn10 <chr> "0063076098", "0063039540", "006306524X", "198218~
## $ primary_isbn13 <chr> "9780063076099", "9780063039544", "9780063065246"~
## $ publisher <chr> "<U+200E>Dey Street", "Custom House", "Morrow", "Simon & ~
## $ description <chr> "A memoir by the musician known for his work with~
## $ price <chr> "0.00", "0.00", "0.00", "0.00", "0.00", "0.00", "~
## $ title <chr> "THE STORYTELLER", "TO RESCUE THE REPUBLIC", "THE~
## $ author <chr> "Dave Grohl", "Bret Baier with Catherine Whitney"~
## $ contributor <chr> "by Dave Grohl", "by Bret Baier with Catherine Wh~
## $ contributor_note <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ book_image <chr> "https://storage.googleapis.com/du-prd/books/imag~
## $ book_image_width <int> 331, 329, 329, 331, 329, 417, 331, 329, 324, 329,~
## $ book_image_height <int> 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500,~
## $ amazon_product_url <chr> "https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063076098?tag=NYTBSRE~
## $ age_group <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ book_review_link <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ first_chapter_link <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ sunday_review_link <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ article_chapter_link <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "~
## $ isbns <list> [<data.frame[2 x 2]>], [<data.frame[2 x 2]>], [<d~
## $ buy_links <list> [<data.frame[6 x 2]>], [<data.frame[6 x 2]>], [<d~
## $ book_uri <chr> "nyt://book/93914c6c-1313-51de-aa16-047a120720a9"~The API also allows you to go back in time to view older lists. Here is the hardcover fiction list from last year.
old_f_html <- httr::GET(paste(base_url,'lists/2020-10-25/hardcover-fiction.json',api_key,sep = ''))
old_f_json <- fromJSON(content(old_f_html,'text'))
if (old_f_json$status == 'OK') {
old_f <- as_tibble(old_f_json$results$books)
old_f %>%
select(rank,rank_last_week, weeks_on_list, title, author)
}The NY Times API allows us to programmatically access data in a standardized format for further analysis.