The one after a long time
It has been days since I updated the blog. A lot of things have worked out since then. Here is a swift update on them.

Data Retriever version 2.0.0
In total 8 new functions have been added. The much awaited download and installed functionality has been added. With this update Ecological Datasets have become more accessible to the python user. The datasets can be downloaded using a simple download function. Be it cross-tab data or normal tabular datasets there is support for all. This function also offers a lot of control to the user with the use_cache, path, quite, subdir, debug parameters in the mix.
The remaining 7 new functions functions include the install_csv, install_xml, install_json, install_msaccess, install_sqlite, install_mysql, install_postgres. All of these provide direct installation of scripts to the specific engines. The functions also come in with the feature of intricate controls like controlling if to use the cache that is already present or start a fresh installation, keep the installation verbose and others.
The datasets function has also gone some major changes in its functionality. The function now returns a object of the Scripts class. This class includes all the features of the scripts that are available in retriever. The Scripts class now acts as a base for all the operations that can be performed with retriever. Providing faster access, abstraction, and direction of thought in implementing functionality on top of retriever to suit the programmers needs. With this the list of functions planned in the SRS is complete. The current import includes.
>>> dir(retriever)
['__builtins__',
'__doc__',
'__file__',
'__name__',
'__package__',
'__path__',
'_version',
'check_for_updates',
'create_home_dir',
'dataset_names',
'datasets',
'download',
'engines',
'install_csv',
'install_json',
'install_msaccess',
'install_mysql',
'install_postgres',
'install_sqlite',
'install_xml',
'lib',
'reset_retriever',
'set_proxy']All tests passed.
Finally we will be moving on to the much awaited Julia wrapper for retriever. It has been a long gap since the first few posts. Now with work mainly focused on making the wrapper for the Julia interface tutorials will be easier to come by. Currently, as described in the tutorials I am looking at the PyCall module for wrapping the python functions. Some tweaks will be done in the functionality to ensure a more Julia based approach to things. So working with PyObject in lined up!

