R not connecting to API’s through proxy?

If you’re accessing the internet through some sort of company proxy server, then you might have had issues connecting to API’s in R.
I got the problem while trying to use the RSiteCatalyst library https://randyzwitch.com/rsitecatalyst/, and I didn’t really get any error messages, that made it clear to me what was causing the issue.

But then I stumbled upon the solution, while I was searching Google for a solution, after a lot of unsuccessful attempts.
It helps a lot, if you, more specifically, know what to search for 😉

Apparently, R isn’t automatically using the same proxy setting as Windows.
I don’t know about other OS’, but that’s at least the case for Windows, while using R Studio and a new version of R.
And if you have to access the internet through a proxy, then it won’t work if you’re not going through the proxy as supposed to.

This is where I found the solution:
https://github.com/randyzwitch/RSiteCatalyst/issues/227 Yep, also a Randy Zwitch link 🙂

And this is the code you need to add to your R scripts, to make R use the same proxy settings as set in Windows.

library(curl)
companyproxy <- curl::ie_proxy_info()$Proxy
Sys.setenv(http_proxy=companyproxy)
Sys.setenv(https_proxy=companyproxy)

This trick also works, if you’re using R code as a connector in PowerBI!