Add a layer for bc dissemination blocks

[BonnieJRobert]

I'm working on project which uses both dissemination area (DA) + dissemination blocks (DB) shapefiles - I would love to grab both from the same source.

This is the PR to switch over to bcmaps for DA, but the DB layer is using bcdata and that method seems fragile: bcgov/bcstats-govt-service-locations#8

Thanks!

[stephhazlitt]

@BonnieJRobert why do you say the method is fragile? Most shortcut functions in bcmaps source the data from the BC Data Catalogue (using bcdata)?

[BonnieJRobert]

@BonnieJRobert why do you say the method is fragile? Most shortcut functions in bcmaps source the data from the BC Data Catalogue (using bcdata)?

I mean, the method I use to programmatically find the DB layer using bcdata is a little fragile. It works, but is dependent on the resource name remaining constant (currently hard-coded) and assumes the resource exists.

[stephhazlitt]

Agreed,bcdata::bcdc_search() should only be used interactively, imo.

Since you know the record/resource you want, I would just use:

bcdata::bcdc_get_data(resource = "76909e49-8ba8-44b1-b69e-dba1fe9ecfba")

The above uses the permanent record ID, more robust to use than the human-readable record name "current-census-dissemination-blocks", if the latter is changed by a data editor the ID does not change. bcdata::bcdc_get_data() pulls all the data, bcdata::query_geodata() is useful if you want to query some of the data on the server side and pull only what you need.

[stephhazlitt]

Closed with #151.