Verifies the token is nonmissing and conforms to the legal pattern of a 32-character hexadecimal value. Each character must be an (a) digit 0-9, (b) uppercase letter A-F, or (c) lowercase letter a-f. Trailing line endings are removed.
A typical user does not call this function directly. However functions like
redcap_read() call it to provide a more informative
error message to the user.
Some institutions create their own tokens --not the standard
32-character hexadecimal value. The pattern that validates their tokens
can be specified with the system environmental variable
REDCAP_TOKEN_PATTERN using
base::Sys.setenv.
For example, the following regex pattern captures a
base64 encoded value
with 40 characters (as opposed to a hexadecimal/base16 value
with 32 characters):
^([A-Za-z\\d+/\\+=]{40})$.
See https://rgxdb.com/r/1NUN74O6 or
https://regex101.com/library/lXFWqM
for alternative approaches to validate base64 values.
If no pattern is specified, the default is a 32-character hex token:
^([0-9A-Fa-f]{32})(?:\\n)?$. The important segment is contained in the
first (and only) capturing group
(i.e., [0-9A-Fa-f]{32}).
Any trailing newline character is removed.
sanitize_token(token)The REDCap token. Required.
The token, without a terminal newline character.
Although the function does not accept a parameter,
it is influenced by the REDCAP_TOKEN_PATTERN
environmental variable.
Contact your institution's REDCap administrator for more information about your project-specific token.
secret_token_1 <- "12345678901234567890123456ABCDEF"
secret_token_2 <- "12345678901234567890123456ABCDEF\n"
secret_token_3 <- "12345678901234567890123456abcdef"
REDCapR::sanitize_token(secret_token_1)
#> [1] "12345678901234567890123456ABCDEF"
REDCapR::sanitize_token(secret_token_2)
#> [1] "12345678901234567890123456ABCDEF"
REDCapR::sanitize_token(secret_token_3)
#> [1] "12345678901234567890123456abcdef"
# Some institutions use a token system that follows a different pattern
Sys.setenv("REDCAP_TOKEN_PATTERN" = "^([A-Za-z\\d+/\\+=]{10})$")
secret_token_4 <- "abcde1234="
REDCapR::sanitize_token(secret_token_4)
#> [1] "abcde1234="
Sys.getenv("REDCAP_TOKEN_PATTERN")
#> [1] "^([A-Za-z\\d+/\\+=]{10})$"
Sys.unsetenv("REDCAP_TOKEN_PATTERN")