ci: skip live external-reference tests by default in CI

[mhweber]

This branch and PR were generated by Copilot based on error in #1001. Add a testthat helper (helper-live.R) that skips tests requiring live downloads unless EPATADA_RUN_LIVE_TESTS=true and internet is available. Call the helper from live-reference tests in test-WQPWQXATTAINSCSTRefs.R. This prevents CI flakes when external downloads fail.

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[github-actions]

coverage-report

File	Coverage		Missing
All files	64%	✅

Minimum allowed coverage is 20%

Generated by 🐒 cobertura-action against 788acdf

[jbousquin]

Quick thoughts:

• Seems like copilot dropped a lot of unit tests that weren't replaced?
  We should discuss approach/objectives:
• This seems to skip when internet is down (i.e., user side) whereas what I've observed is server outages. What I've done in other projects is to have a list of base_url for all the systems being pinged and checking for 200. Using that approach to skip tests requires the connection between base_url and function/test, but can be more targeted.
• Higher level objective is to remove outside factors that are causing tests to fail when our code is doing what it should. Long-term I still think mocking test results is the best way to do that. However, what is lost w/ mocking (real time awareness of changes to services) could be informed by this type of approach (i.e., as a warning instead of a skip), so if it is a short-term fix it's not wasted effort.

[cristinamullin]

1. FYI: I added back the tests that were accidentally dropped by copilot.

2. Is skip_if_offline doing the same thing as the draft helper skip_if_no_live_tests?
   AI response: They overlap, but they are not the same helper. Both skip tests when there is no internet connection, but skip_if_no_live_tests() also requires the EPATADA_RUN_LIVE_TESTS=true environment variable. In contrast, skip_if_offline() skips on CRAN and does not have the explicit live-tests opt-in gate.

I recently started to add skip_if_offline to some tests that fail intermittently:
skip_if_offline() skips if an internet connection is not available (using curl::nslookup()) or if the test is run on CRAN. Requires {curl} to be installed and included in the dependencies of your package.

# For WQP
testthat::skip_if_offline("www.waterqualitydata.us")

# For Expert Query:
testthat::skip_if_offline("gispub.epa.gov")

Let's discuss and pick one since they are both for testing live internet connection?

3. We should also discuss internet issues vs server issues more. Creating a list of base_url for all the systems being pinged and checking for 200 seems worth doing as well.

4. I have also been reading about integration tests vs. unit tests:

• Use unit tests for quick, precise checks of logic (mocking test results is a good way). Not directly using the web service → unit test
• Use integration tests to make sure pieces connect and behave correctly together. Directly using the web service → integration test

It may be a good idea to have a mix of both but skip the "integration" tests if the server/service is down?