Alternative to credentials file

[statzhero]

It is possible to add a user prompt instead of a credentials file, for those who feel queasy about storing any passwords in plain text.

This method can be achieved with the RStudio API.

For example,

user <- rstudioapi::askForPassword(prompt="Enter your WRDS login")
pw   <- rstudioapi::askForPassword()

[joachim-gassen]

I like this very much as a fallback if config.csv is not available. I will implement at some point (If not somebody beats me to it. Which timewise should be easy... ;-)

[arndtupb]

@joachim-gassen, one could insert a section on WRDS Credentials in pull_wrds_data.R just before the WRDS Connection and get entirely rid of read_config.R by a simple if else scenario:

if(file.exists("config.csv")){
  df <- readr::read_csv("config.csv", col_type = readr::cols(), comment = "#")
  cfg <- as.list(df$value)
  names(cfg) <- df$variable
  rm(df) 
  wrds_user <- cfg$wrds_user
  wrds_pwd <- cfg$wrds_pwd
  rm(cfg)
} else {
  wrds_user <- rstudioapi::askForPassword(prompt="Enter your WRDS login")
  wrds_pwd   <- rstudioapi::askForPassword()
}

(...)

wrds <- dbConnect(
  Postgres(),
  host = 'wrds-pgdata.wharton.upenn.edu',
  port = 9737,
  user = wrds_user,
  password = wrds_pwd,
  sslmode = 'require',
  dbname = 'wrds'
)
rm(wrds_user)
rm(wrds_pwd)

thoughts on this? I could create a pull request

[arndtupb]

see #15