I know there are a number of posts on this topic and I usually am able to accomplish what I want just fine but I'm having trouble with this one particular link. It's likely related to the non-orthodox layout of the excel file. Here's my workflow:
library(rest)
url<-"http://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/3.-economic-participation-and-unemployment-rates-for-populationa-aged-10-and-overa-by-ostan-province-1380-1384-2001-2005.xlsx"
unemp <- url %>%
read.xls()
That produces an error Error in getinfo.shape(fn) : Error opening SHP file
The problem is not related to the scraping of the data. The problem arises in regards to importing the data into a usable format. For example, read.xls("file.path/file.csv") produces the same error.
Adding the option fileEncoding="latin1" solved my problem.
url<-"http://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/3.-economic-participation-and-unemployment-rates-for-populationa-aged-10-and-overa-by-ostan-province-1380-1384-2001-2005.xlsx"
unemp <- url %>%
read.xls(fileEncoding="latin1")