Get WQX Result Detection Condition Reference Table — TADA

Retrieve the WQX Result Detection Condition domain table, normalize it, and add a classification column, TADA.Detection_Type. The classifier assigns each detection condition to one of: "Non-Detect", "Over-Detect", "Other", or "Not Reviewed".

Usage

TADA_GetDetCondRef(download_only = FALSE, refresh = FALSE, quiet = FALSE)

Arguments

download_only: Logical. If TRUE, bypasses the cache and package fallback and attempts to download the latest Detection Condition table directly from WQX, returning it without updating the cache. Errors if the download fails. If FALSE (default), uses a cached copy when available and updates the cache; on download failure (or unexpected structure), falls back to the package’s internal file.
refresh: Logical. Only used when download_only = FALSE. If TRUE, ignore any cached copy and attempt to retrieve a fresh table (download, falling back to the package’s internal file on failure), then update the cache. If FALSE (default), return the cached table when available. Ignored when download_only = TRUE.
quiet: Logical. If TRUE, suppresses fallback messages when a live download fails and the function reverts to the installed extdata. Default is FALSE.

Value

A data.frame that includes at least:

Name: the detection condition name (from WQX)
TADA.Detection_Type: the assigned classification
Additional columns such as Description and Last.Change.Date are returned when provided by WQX

Details

When download_only = FALSE (default), the function first attempts to download the latest table from WQX; if the download fails or the structure is unexpected (e.g., missing the required "Name" column), it falls back to the package’s installed extdata (.rda). The resulting table is cached for the current R session.

Examples

# Cached retrieval (download with fallback as needed)
ref <- TADA_GetDetCondRef()

# Force a fresh retrieval (ignores cache)
ref_fresh <- TADA_GetDetCondRef(refresh = TRUE)

# Download only: no cache update and no fallback (errors if offline)
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
ref_live <- TADA_GetDetCondRef(download_only = TRUE)
} # }