If you would like to interact with the API directly without any helpers, the nhl_get_data() function is made for this purpose. It takes as input one or more urls (a character vector) and returns a list of the same length, each element containing the raw results returned from the API for the corresponding URL.
For example:
library(nhlapi)
urls <- c(
"https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/teams/1",
"https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/people/8477474"
)
nhl_get_data(urls)
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[1]]$teams
#> id name link abbreviation teamName locationName
#> 1 1 New Jersey Devils /api/v1/teams/1 NJD Devils New Jersey
#> firstYearOfPlay shortName officialSiteUrl franchiseId active
#> 1 1982 New Jersey http://www.newjerseydevils.com/ 23 TRUE
#> venue.name venue.link venue.city venue.timeZone.id
#> 1 Prudential Center /api/v1/venues/null Newark America/New_York
#> venue.timeZone.offset venue.timeZone.tz division.id division.name
#> 1 -5 EST 25 MassMutual East
#> division.link conference.id conference.name conference.link
#> 1 /api/v1/divisions/25 6 Eastern /api/v1/conferences/6
#> franchise.franchiseId franchise.teamName franchise.link
#> 1 23 Devils /api/v1/franchises/23
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/teams/1"
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[2]]$people
#> id fullName link firstName lastName primaryNumber
#> 1 8477474 Madison Bowey /api/v1/people/8477474 Madison Bowey 29
#> birthDate currentAge birthCity birthStateProvince birthCountry nationality
#> 1 1995-04-22 25 Winnipeg MB CAN CAN
#> height weight active alternateCaptain captain rookie shootsCatches
#> 1 6' 2" 202 TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE R
#> rosterStatus currentTeam.id currentTeam.name currentTeam.link
#> 1 Y 16 Chicago Blackhawks /api/v1/teams/16
#> primaryPosition.code primaryPosition.name primaryPosition.type
#> 1 D Defenseman Defenseman
#> primaryPosition.abbreviation
#> 1 D
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/people/8477474"
Since it is helpful for work with R to get data in a flat data frame format, the function will by default attempt to flatten nested data frame columns and return flat data frames where possible. If you really want raw data returned, you can set the flatten argument to FALSE:
nhl_get_data(urls, flatten = FALSE)
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[1]]$teams
#> id name link venue.name venue.link
#> 1 1 New Jersey Devils /api/v1/teams/1 Prudential Center /api/v1/venues/null
#> venue.city venue.timeZone.id venue.timeZone.offset venue.timeZone.tz
#> 1 Newark America/New_York -5 EST
#> abbreviation teamName locationName firstYearOfPlay division.id
#> 1 NJD Devils New Jersey 1982 25
#> division.name division.link conference.id conference.name
#> 1 MassMutual East /api/v1/divisions/25 6 Eastern
#> conference.link franchise.franchiseId franchise.teamName
#> 1 /api/v1/conferences/6 23 Devils
#> franchise.link shortName officialSiteUrl franchiseId
#> 1 /api/v1/franchises/23 New Jersey http://www.newjerseydevils.com/ 23
#> active
#> 1 TRUE
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/teams/1"
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[2]]$people
#> id fullName link firstName lastName primaryNumber
#> 1 8477474 Madison Bowey /api/v1/people/8477474 Madison Bowey 29
#> birthDate currentAge birthCity birthStateProvince birthCountry nationality
#> 1 1995-04-22 25 Winnipeg MB CAN CAN
#> height weight active alternateCaptain captain rookie shootsCatches
#> 1 6' 2" 202 TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE R
#> rosterStatus currentTeam.id currentTeam.name currentTeam.link
#> 1 Y 16 Chicago Blackhawks /api/v1/teams/16
#> primaryPosition.code primaryPosition.name primaryPosition.type
#> 1 D Defenseman Defenseman
#> primaryPosition.abbreviation
#> 1 D
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/people/8477474"
In case there are errors encountered when retrieving the data, the process does not fail, but returns a list with class nhl_get_data_error:
nhl_get_data(c("https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/wrongurl", urls))
#> 14:18:46 | W | nhl_from_json https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/wrongurl error for attempt no: 0 HTTP error 404.
#> 14:18:47 | E | The following 1 of 3 url retrievals errored:$ https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/wrongurl
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]
#> [1] "Error in open.connection(con, \"rb\") : HTTP error 404.\n"
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "try-error"
#> attr(,"condition")
#> <simpleError in open.connection(con, "rb"): HTTP error 404.>
#>
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "list" "nhl_get_data_error"
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/wrongurl"
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[2]]$teams
#> id name link abbreviation teamName locationName
#> 1 1 New Jersey Devils /api/v1/teams/1 NJD Devils New Jersey
#> firstYearOfPlay shortName officialSiteUrl franchiseId active
#> 1 1982 New Jersey http://www.newjerseydevils.com/ 23 TRUE
#> venue.name venue.link venue.city venue.timeZone.id
#> 1 Prudential Center /api/v1/venues/null Newark America/New_York
#> venue.timeZone.offset venue.timeZone.tz division.id division.name
#> 1 -5 EST 25 MassMutual East
#> division.link conference.id conference.name conference.link
#> 1 /api/v1/divisions/25 6 Eastern /api/v1/conferences/6
#> franchise.franchiseId franchise.teamName franchise.link
#> 1 23 Devils /api/v1/franchises/23
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/teams/1"
#>
#> [[3]]
#> [[3]]$copyright
#> [1] "NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © NHL 2021. All Rights Reserved."
#>
#> [[3]]$people
#> id fullName link firstName lastName primaryNumber
#> 1 8477474 Madison Bowey /api/v1/people/8477474 Madison Bowey 29
#> birthDate currentAge birthCity birthStateProvince birthCountry nationality
#> 1 1995-04-22 25 Winnipeg MB CAN CAN
#> height weight active alternateCaptain captain rookie shootsCatches
#> 1 6' 2" 202 TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE R
#> rosterStatus currentTeam.id currentTeam.name currentTeam.link
#> 1 Y 16 Chicago Blackhawks /api/v1/teams/16
#> primaryPosition.code primaryPosition.name primaryPosition.type
#> 1 D Defenseman Defenseman
#> primaryPosition.abbreviation
#> 1 D
#>
#> attr(,"url")
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/people/8477474"
The URLs themselves are preserved via the url attribute:
lapply(nhl_get_data(urls), attr, which = "url")
#> [[1]]
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/teams/1"
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [1] "https://statsapi.web.nhl.com/api/v1/people/8477474"