NEWS

---

arealDB 0.9.5

• fix query = ... in normGeometry() to allow full customization. <-> has been reverted as it makes sense to select layers automatically. -> improving documentation.
• change .matchOntology() so that it's possible to match "gappy" hierarchies.

arealDB 0.9.4 (2025-01-20)

• fix example data so that github actions run properly.
• fix documentation to markdown standard.
• refine function adb_querry().

arealDB 0.9.3

• smaller fixes

arealDB 0.9.2

• various fixes to the internal processing of matching tabular to geometric data.
• various fixes to finding matches between harmonized and external geometries.

arealDB 0.9.0

• new functions adb_archive(), adb_backup(), adb_inventory(), adb_metadata(), adb_ontology(), adb_reset(), adb_restore(), adb_schemas() and adb_translations() to access the respective part of an areal database.
• renamed functions makeExmapleDB() to adb_example() and start_arealDB() to adb_init()
• some fixes to the backend as well, where now *.csv tables are not used any more, but information are stored in *.rds files, as they are not meant to be interacted with. This is now done via the adb_*() functions, which ensure that nothing is modified to a degree that it breaks
• incl. a new feature, where a table that has a missing target column is fixed by matching the child items and then selecting the parent from that as the missing target column
• move the function edit_matches(), that was so far located in the ontologics package to here, as it is primarily used in arealDB and not really a usecase for ontologics

arealDB 0.8.1

• re-enable matching with the ontology when normalising a table, by default

arealDB 0.8.0

• introduction of the function updateOntology(). This updates the gazetteer after a full spatial match has been carried out, drastically taking complexity out of the functions and guaranteeing proper match between the spatial files and the gazetteer

arealDB 0.7.1

• entirely remove matching via gazetteer for any level below the first level that serves for identifying unique territories (which resulted in a vast simplification of the normGeometry() function).
• include a version = for data series.
• include query = argument also for tables.

arealDB 0.7.0

• this include various smaller fixes that should enable a more user-friendly and functional way of specifying geometries and running the normalisation process.

arealDB 0.6.4

• adapt storing of stage1 files so that they are now aggregated into folders with their data series as name.

arealDB 0.6.3 (2023-07-03)

• fixing an example in start_arealBD() so that a gazetteer is not saved in the home-directory of linux users.

arealDB 0.6.2 (2023-06-15)

• revise nromTable() so that also observation in the tables are kept, if they are not successfully matched with a territory.

arealDB 0.6.1

• fix intersection sub-algorithm to make it way faster (depending on the amount of non-intersecting features). This was problematic because st_intersection is currently still very inefficient
• fix a bug where all geometries are treated as if they overlap across the boundaries of several parents, even though only a small set does overlap. This lead to a false reconstruction of IDs.

arealDB 0.6.0

• various fixes to enable full support for automatically matching territories with a gazetteer and concepts with an ontology
• complete overhaul of matchOntology() making it vastly more efficient and easier to use/debug
• adapt normGeometry() and normTable() to the changes in matchOntology()
• start making use of the spatial/topological information derived from normalizing new geometries (that were not part of the initial geometry data set) by updating the gazetteer accordingly. Only if a concept does not overlap with more than (100 - thresh), is it added as a new harmonized concept. In that case, the new geometry is one that is distinct from the harmonized geometry.

arealDB 0.5.0

• spatial matches are now found automatically and inserted into the ontology.
• matching can be sped up by simplifying geometries.
• spatial hierarchy information of the different administrative levels are now streamlined and provided differently/more explicitly.
• various bug-fixes to handling terms (they are now more explicitly cleaned from white-space and dots in names are removed, e.g. 'St. Gallen' turns to 'St Gallen', which is important for the output column 'gazName', where the administrative levels are concatenated via a '.').
• updates on tests, to be more explicit about the explicit outcome of geometries and the ontology.

arealDB 0.4.6

• revise the whole geometry normalization process to incorporate the new ontology system.

arealDB 0.4.5

• fix how to derive the top-most class.

arealDB 0.4.4

• fix internals to make the code run faster.

arealDB 0.4.3

• rename match_ontology() to matchOntology() and revise it so that it can handle several columns sequentially
• make use of getters of the ontologics package so that (large) gazetteers are not loaded but only the required info are pulled from them
• remove functions get_variable() and select_path(), the former is integrated into matchOntology() and the latter is not relevant anymore.

arealDB 0.4.2

• when using regTable with update = FALSE, the schema now has a more explicit diagnostic message.

arealDB 0.4.1

• rename match_gazetteer to match_ontology because it can also handle ontologies of other variables
• various fixes to make matching as convenient as possible.

arealDB 0.4.0

• instead of using id and translation tables, concepts are from now on handled via the ontologics package.
• functions setVariables and translateTables are discontinued, instead the function match_gazetteer handles matching of concepts.
• the package has been streamlined so that functions regGeometry and regTable don't require a nation = argument anymore, but this can be any other type of "main" polygon.
• new function get_variable to extract concepts from stage2 tables.

arealDB 0.3.9 (2021-07-01)

• bugfix of access-rights management
• adapt to changes in tabshiftr

arealDB 0.3.8

• all countries now stored with capital letters and all geoms are stored as MULTIPOLYGON
• store tables and geometries by default in rds format with csv/gpkg as option
• several minor bug-fixes

arealDB 0.3.7

• streamline translations further by creating the file "target_terms.csv" that contains the translations that are allowed (taken from the respective translation tables or geometries).
• more strict translations by allowing only provided terms that may come from outside of a translation table (such as geometry names that were not known at the time of creating the translation table)

arealDB 0.3.6

• streamline translations to reduce the amount of items that have to be translated (specifically, only translate nations in normTable() that have been subsetted, not the whole list of nations)
• repeat translation of terms as long as some are still (accidentally) missing.
• improve updating of tables (concerning the functions reg*(), setVariables(), translateTerms()).

arealDB 0.3.5

• streamline overwriting of already registered items in the inventory tables.

arealDB 0.3.4 (2020-07-01)

• include 'makeExampleDB', which allows to build an example database at any stage. This is useful for testing, debugging and examplifying an areal database.
• improved documentation due to this change.

arealDB 0.3.3

• refine package documentation
• refine workflow to adapt some minor tweaks.

arealDB 0.3.2

• Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.
• initial submission to CRAN