get_osm function in osmar (R) gives SSL error

Question

Since a couple of months ago the following code run errorless

   library(osmar)
   src <- osmsource_api(url = "https://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/")
   bb <- corner_bbox(13.3,40.79,13.5,40.81)
   ua <- get_osm(bb, source = src)

now it gives me the following error

"Error in function (type, msg, asError = TRUE) : error:1407742E:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert protocol version"

I failed to understand the issue. I try to run the code using two other computers with different version (older) of R but it still doesn't work.

Anyone has a possible solution?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I had the same issue. In detail the OSMAR package uses the package RCurl to load content which uses somehow an old encryption standard. You can fix the problem by building your "own" OSMAR package with small modifications.

• downloading the original package source from CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/osmar/index.html
• unpack it
• create a R project file in the folder osmar, e.g. by using RStudio and click new project
• go to the NAMESPACE file and add the line

import(curl)

• add the package in the file R\get.R

#' @import RCurl
#' @import XML
#' @import gtools
#' @import methods
#' @import Curl

• and exhange the method getURL from RCurl with the method curl from the package curl

get_osm_data.api <- function(source, what, ...) {
  request <- osm_request(source, what, ...)
  #response <- getURL(request, .encoding = "UTF-8")
  response <- paste(readLines(curl::curl(request)), collapse = "")
}

• finally you can build the package. Restart RStudio / your R environment to use it.

This helped in my case. Best Andreas Weigert