diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
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+++ b/DESCRIPTION
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+Package: opensensemap
+Type: Package
+Title: Work with Sensor Data from opensensemap.org in R
+Version: 0.1.0
+Imports: lubridate, httr, sf
+Author: Norwin Roosen
+Maintainer: Norwin Roosen <noerw@gmx.de>
+Description: This packages ingests data (measurements, sensorstations) from the
+    API of opensensemap.org and transforms them into easy to use data.tables.
+    It uses the sf package for spatial handling of datapoints and aims to be
+    compatible with the tidyverse.
+License: GPL-2
+Encoding: UTF-8
+LazyData: true
diff --git a/R/api.R b/R/api.R
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+++ b/R/api.R
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+# does not actually get called by the user. ... contains all the query parameters.
+# the proxy is just for parameter autocompletion, filtering out the endpoint
+get_boxes_ = function (..., endpoint) {
+  response = httr::GET(endpoint, path = c('boxes'), query = list(...)) %>%
+    httr::content() %>%
+    osem_remote_error()
+
+  if (length(response) == 0) {
+    warning('no boxes found for this query')
+    return(response)
+  }
+
+  # parse each list element as sensebox & combine them to a single data.frame
+  #
+  # bind_rows() kills the attributes and classes of sf_sfc column, and warns
+  # about that. see https://github.com/r-spatial/sf/issues/49
+  # we readd the attributes manually afterwards, so we can ignore the warnings.
+  # rbind() wouldn't have this problem, but would be far slower and con't
+  # handle missing columns, so this seems like a good tradeoff..
+  boxesList = lapply(response, parse_senseboxdata)
+  suppressWarnings({ data = dplyr::bind_rows(boxesList) })
+  data$geometry = sf::st_sfc(data$geometry, crs = 4326)
+  #sf::st_geometry(data) = sf::st_sfc(data$geometry, crs = 4326)
+  #sf::st_sf(data)
+
+  data
+}
+
+get_box_ = function (..., endpoint) {
+  httr::GET(endpoint, path = c('boxes', ...)) %>%
+    httr::content() %>%
+    osem_remote_error() %>%
+    parse_senseboxdata()
+}
+
+get_measurements_ = function (..., endpoint) {
+  httr::GET(endpoint, path = c('boxes', 'data'), query = list(...)) %>%
+    httr::content() %>%
+    osem_remote_error()
+}
+
+get_stats_ = function (endpoint) {
+  result = httr::GET(endpoint, path = c('stats')) %>%
+    httr::content() %>%
+    osem_remote_error()
+
+  names(result) = c('boxes', 'measurements', 'measurements_per_minute')
+  result
+}
diff --git a/R/api_utils.R b/R/api_utils.R
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+++ b/R/api_utils.R
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+osem_remote_error = function (response) {
+  if (!is.null(response$code)) stop(response$message)
+
+  invisible(response)
+}
+
+date_as_isostring = function (date) {
+  # as_datetime is required so UTC times are always returned
+  # TODO: check if we can get along without lubridate dependency?
+  lubridate::as_datetime(date) %>% format.Date(format = '%FT%TZ')
+}
diff --git a/R/box_api.R b/R/box_api.R
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+++ b/R/box_api.R
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+`%>%` = magrittr::`%>%`
+
+osem_boxes = function (exposure = NA, model = NA, grouptag = NA,
+                      date = NA, from = NA, to = NA, phenomenon = NA,
+                      endpoint = 'https://api.opensensemap.org') {
+
+  # error, if phenomenon, but no time given
+  if (!is.na(phenomenon) && is.na(date) && is.na(to) && is.na(from))
+    stop('Parameter "phenomenon" can only be used together with "date" or "from"/"to"')
+
+  # error, if date and from/to given
+  if (!is.na(date) && (!is.na(to) || !is.na(from)))
+    stop('Parameter "date" cannot be used together with "from"/"to"')
+
+  # error, if only one of from/to given
+  if (
+    (!is.na(to) && is.na(from)) ||
+    (is.na(to) && !is.na(from))
+  ) {
+   stop('Parameter "from"/"to" must be used together')
+  }
+
+  query = list(endpoint = endpoint)
+  if (!is.na(exposure)) query$exposure = exposure
+  if (!is.na(model)) query$model = model
+  if (!is.na(grouptag)) query$grouptag = grouptag
+  if (!is.na(phenomenon)) query$phenomenon = phenomenon
+
+  if (!is.na(to) && !is.na(from)) {
+    # error, if from is after to
+    if (lubridate::as_datetime(from) - lubridate::as_datetime(to) > 0)
+      stop('Parameter "from" must be earlier than "to"')
+    # convert dates to commaseparated UTC ISOdates
+    query$date = c(date_as_isostring(from), date_as_isostring(to)) %>%
+      paste(collapse = ',')
+
+    print(query$date)
+  } else if (!is.na(date)) {
+    query$date = format.Date(lubridate::as_datetime(date), '%FT%TZ')
+  }
+
+  do.call(get_boxes_, query)
+}
+
+osem_box = function (boxId, endpoint = 'https://api.opensensemap.org') {
+  get_box_(boxId, endpoint)
+}
diff --git a/R/box_parse.R b/R/box_parse.R
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+++ b/R/box_parse.R
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+parse_senseboxdata = function (boxdata) {
+  # extract nested lists for later use & clean them from the list
+  # to allow a simple data.frame structure
+  sensors = boxdata$sensors
+  location = boxdata$loc
+  boxdata[c('loc', 'sensors', 'image', 'boxType')] <- NULL
+  thebox = as.data.frame(boxdata)
+
+  # parse timestamps (updatedAt might be not defined)
+  thebox$createdAt = as.POSIXct(strptime(thebox$createdAt, format='%FT%T', tz = 'GMT'))
+  if (!is.null(thebox$updatedAt))
+    thebox$updatedAt = as.POSIXct(strptime(thebox$updatedAt, format='%FT%T', tz = 'GMT'))
+
+  # extract metadata from sensors
+  thebox$phenomena = list(unlist(lapply(sensors, function(s) { s$title })))
+  # FIXME: if one sensor has NA, max() returns bullshit
+  thebox$lastMeasurement = max(lapply(sensors, function(s) {
+    if (!is.null(s$lastMeasurement))
+      as.POSIXct(strptime(s$lastMeasurement$createdAt, format = '%FT%T', tz = 'GMT'))
+    else
+      NA
+  })[[1]])
+
+  # extract coordinates & transform to simple feature object
+  thebox$lng = location[[1]]$geometry$coordinates[[1]]
+  thebox$lat = location[[1]]$geometry$coordinates[[2]]
+  if (length(location[[1]]$geometry$coordinates) == 3)
+    thebox$height = location[[1]]$geometry$coordinates[[3]]
+
+  # sf does not like to combine 2D and 3D coords, so we just use 2D
+  # IDEA: convert to sf only after rbind?
+  thebox = sf::st_as_sf(thebox, coords = c('lng', 'lat'), crs = 4326)
+
+  # attach a custom class for methods
+  class(thebox) = c('sensebox', class(thebox))
+  thebox
+}
+
+get_phenomena = function (x, ...) UseMethod('get_phenomena')
+get_phenomena.default = function (x, ...) stop('not implemented')
+get_phenomena.sensebox = function (x, ...) {
+  # FIXME: only returns first box for get_boxes!
+  x$phenomena[[1]]
+}
diff --git a/R/box_utils.R b/R/box_utils.R
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+++ b/R/box_utils.R
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+`%>%` = magrittr::`%>%`
+
+plot.sensebox = function (x) {
+  # TODO: background map?
+  geom = sf::st_geometry(x)
+  plot(geom, graticule = st_crs(geom), axes = TRUE)
+  invisible(x)
+}
+
+print.sensebox = function(x) {
+  important_columns = c('name', 'exposure', 'lastMeasurement', 'phenomena')
+  data = as.data.frame(x) # to get rid of the sf::`<-[` override..
+  message(class(data))
+  print(data[important_columns])
+  invisible(x)
+}
+
+summary.sensebox = function(x) {
+  df = as.data.frame(x) # the sf methods are messing with us again..
+
+  cat('boxes total:', nrow(df), fill = T)
+  cat('\nboxes by exposure:')
+  table(df$exposure) %>% print()
+  cat('\nboxes by model:')
+  table(df$model) %>% print()
+  cat('\n')
+
+  diffNow = (lubridate::now() - df$lastMeasurement) %>% as.numeric(unit='hours')
+  neverActive = df[is.na(df$lastMeasurement), ] %>% nrow()
+  list(
+    'last_measurement_within' = c(
+      '1h' = nrow(df[diffNow <= 1, ]) - neverActive,
+      '1d' = nrow(df[diffNow <= 24, ]) - neverActive,
+      '30d' = nrow(df[diffNow <= 720, ]) - neverActive,
+      '365d' = nrow(df[diffNow <= 8760, ]) - neverActive,
+      'never' = neverActive
+    )
+  ) %>%
+    print()
+
+  oldest = df[df$createdAt == min(df$createdAt), ]
+  newest = df[df$createdAt == max(df$createdAt), ]
+  cat('oldest box:', format(oldest$createdAt, '%F %T'), paste0('(', oldest$name, ')'), fill = T)
+  cat('newest box:', format(newest$createdAt, '%F %T'), paste0('(', newest$name, ')'), fill = T)
+
+  cat('\nsensors per box:', fill = T)
+  lapply(df$phenomena, length) %>%
+    as.numeric() %>%
+    summary() %>%
+    print()
+
+  invisible(x)
+}
+
+osem_phenomena = function (x) UseMethod('osem_phenomena')
+osem_phenomena.default = function (x) stop('not implemented')
+osem_phenomena.sensebox = function (x) {
+  Reduce(`c`, x$phenomena) %>% # get all the row contents in a single vector
+    table() %>%                # get the counts
+    t() %>%                    # transform the table to an easier to work with df
+    as.data.frame.matrix()
+}
diff --git a/R/counts_api.R b/R/counts_api.R
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+++ b/R/counts_api.R
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+osem_counts = function (endpoint = 'https://api.opensensemap.org') {
+  get_stats_(endpoint)
+}
diff --git a/R/measurement_api.R b/R/measurement_api.R
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+++ b/R/measurement_api.R
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+osem_measurements = function (x, ...) UseMethod('osem_measurements')
+
+osem_measurements.default = function (phenomenon, ...) {
+  bbox = structure(c(-180, -90, 180, 90), class = 'bbox')
+  osem_measurements(bbox, phenomenon, ...)
+}
+
+# /boxes/data?bbox=
+osem_measurements.bbox = function (bbox, phenomenon, exposure = NA,
+                                   from = NA, to = NA,
+                                   columns = NA,
+                                   endpoint = 'https://api.opensensemap.org') {
+  query = parse_get_measurements_params(as.list(environment()))
+  do.call(get_measurements_, query)
+}
+
+# /boxes/data?boxId=1,2,3,4
+osem_measurements.sensebox = function (boxes, phenomenon, exposure = NA,
+                                       from = NA, to = NA,
+                                       columns = NA,
+                                       endpoint = 'https://api.opensensemap.org') {
+  query = parse_get_measurements_params(as.list(environment()))
+  do.call(get_measurements_, query)
+}
+
+parse_get_measurements_params = function (params) {
+  if (is.null(params$phenomenon) | is.na(params$phenomenon))
+    stop('Parameter "phenomenon" is required')
+  if (!is.na(params$from) && is.na(params$to)) stop('specify "from" only together with "to"')
+  if (
+    (!is.null(params$bbox) && !is.null(params$boxes)) ||
+    (is.null(params$bbox) && is.null(params$boxes))
+  ) stop('Specify either "bbox" or "boxes"')
+
+  query = list(endpoint = params$endpoint, phenomenon = params$phenomenon)
+
+  if (!is.null(params$boxes))  query$boxIds = paste(params$boxes$X_id, collapse = ',')
+  if (!is.null(params$bbox))   query$bbox = paste(params$bbox, collapse = ',')
+
+  if (!is.na(params$from))     query$`from-date` = date_as_isostring(params$from)
+  if (!is.na(params$to))       query$`to-date` = date_as_isostring(params$to)
+  if (!is.na(params$exposure)) query$exposure = params$exposure
+  if (!is.na(params$columns))  query$columns = paste(params$columns, collapse = ',')
+
+  query
+}