knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, fig_caption = FALSE, comment = "#>" )
This tutorial explains how to setup an R package so that it complies with a default style. We apply this default style to all KWB-packages that we host on our GitHub account KWB-R. The aim is to present all packages in a common manner (consistent DESCRIPTION and documentation) and to use the same services (continuous integration, code coverage) for all our packages.
This package provides functions to:
Before you can use the package kwb.pkgdown you need to
Install required packages that are not yet available in your local R user library from CRAN:
# Define the names of required packages: # - remotes: functions to install R packages from Github # - pkgdown: functions to create a package website required <- c("remotes", "pkgdown") # Get the names of packages that are already installed installed <- rownames(installed.packages()) # Determine the packages that are not yet installed packages <- setdiff(required, installed) # Install the packages from CRAN for (package in packages) { install.packages(package, repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org") }
The remotes package should now be installed. It allows to install further R
packages directly from GitHub. Therefore, the functions of the remotes package
need to communicate with the GitHub server. To gain authenticated access to the
GitHub server we set a so called Private Access Token (PAT) in the following.
This token is then automatically used whenever the GitHub server is accessed.
Please see the Installation vignette to learn how to get your
personal GitHub PAT and use that token instead of Put your Private Access Token here
in the following command:
Sys.setenv(GITHUB_PAT = "Put your Private Access Token here")
Now, that the access token is set, you can use install_github()
from the
remotes packages to install the latest version of this package directly from our GitHub account:
remotes::install_github("KWB-R/kwb.pkgbuild")
Secondly, personalise your R package by adapting a default template that we
propose for KWB packages and that is contained in the R package kwb.pkgbuild
.
The source code of your package should be under version control. We encourage
you to create a GitHub repository on our
GitHub account
that represents the package. Having a package as a repository on GitHub has the
advantage that it can be easily installed directly from there with no more than
running remotes::install_github("kwb-r/<package_name>")
. Once you have
created the GitHub repository,
clone it to a folder
on your local machine.
You can let RStudio do the cloning for you. Therefore,
https://github.com/kwb-r/<package_name>
,<package_name>
(this should be the
default),~/github-repos
.For the steps described in the following, you need to provide the name of the
package in a variable package
and the path to the local directory to which
GitHub repositories are cloned in a variable repo_dir
:
# Set the name of your (!) new package package <- "kwb.newpackage" # Set the path to your (!) local folder to which GitHub repositories are cloned repo_dir <- "~/github-repos"
repo_dir <- tempdir()
# Set the path to the package directory pkg_dir <- file.path(repo_dir, package) # Create directory for R package kwb.pkgbuild::create_pkg_dir(pkg_dir) # Create a default package structure withr::with_dir(pkg_dir, {kwb.pkgbuild::use_pkg_skeleton(package)})
In the following, we present the commands required to setup and create your new
package. We suggest that you write the corresponding code into a .R
script
file (e.g. setup_package.R
). Once the package is created, we suggest to put
the script file into the inst/extdata
folder of your package. This makes the
creation of the package reproducible and can be used as a template for the
creation of further packages.
Minimum requirement: the author needs at least to have a (full) name:
author <- list(name = "Max Mustermann")
You can add further information such as a personal website or the ORCID of the author:
author <- list( name = "Michael Rustler", orcid = "0000-0003-0647-7726", url = "http://mrustl.de" )
The ORCID uniquely identifies the author of a web ressource and thus allows to find different works of one and the same author on the web.
If you do not know your ORCID, have a look at our package kwb.orcid. It allows to search ORCIDs by name, once you have created an account at orcid.org.
In addition, this package stores the ORCIDs of KWB researchers of whom we know their ORCID. Once you have kwb.orcid installed, you can access these ORCIDs with:
kwb.orcid::get_kwb_orcids()
The package description needs three entries
name: name of the package
title: title of your R package (which is automatically converted to title
case with the function tools::toTitleCase()
)
desc: package description. Should be at least one sentence long and needs to end with a period!
description <- list( name = package, title = "My new KWB R package", desc = "My super cool new R package in KWB default styling." )
Running the following code not only creates an R package structure but also adds some KWB-R specfic styling, e.g.:
Adding configution files for:
Continous integration on windows (https://appveyor.com) and linux (https://travis-ci.org/KWB-R)
Code coverage in R package using the servive codecov.io
Backup of Github repositories on our mirrored KWB-R group on Gitlab
Indicates the current lifecycle of the R package according to https://www.tidyverse.org/lifecycle/
Uses by default the permissive for all public R packages currently hosted on Github (see: http://kwb-r.github.io/status/) and lists KWB as copyright holder (see e.g. here)
Creates README
files (README.Rmd
and README.md
) for the above mentioned
topics and
Prepares a KWB-R flavored documentation website template named
_packagedown.yml
needed by http://pkgdown.r-lib.org/
Running the following R function will create the R package with the version
=
0.0.0.9000
and development stage experimental
(defined here).
setwd(pkg_dir) kwb.pkgbuild::use_pkg( author, description, version = "0.0.0.9000", stage = "experimental" )
Add your R functions in the folder R
/. By using usethis::use_r
with the
parameter name
= function
an empty R script is already stored in the right
folder R/
.
usethis::use_r("function")
For writing your R code/functions please follow the tidyverse coding style (https://style.tidyverse.org/), which serves as our default KWB-R style.
Now you just need to fill it with content (i.e. your functions) and document it
using roxygen2.
If you have already defined a function you can add a roxygen2
skeleton by using clicking on the Insert Roxygen Skeleton
button in RStudio
as shown below.
knitr::include_graphics("images/add_roxygen.jpg")
More information on documentation in R is provided here: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/man.html
Once you completed all the steps above go to the upper right panel in RStudio
and click on Build
-> More
-> Configure build tools
as shown below.
knitr::include_graphics("images/build_check_01.jpg")
Then click on Configure
and a new window opens. Here you select everything
as shown below:
knitr::include_graphics("images/build_check_02.jpg")
After doing so accept the settings by two times clicking Ok
.
Subsequently click the Check
button so that your package is cross-checked for
possible problems (e.g. wrong documentation, missing package dependencies).
In case of missing package dependencies as shown below these should be added to the DESCRIPTION file.
Namespace dependencies not required: 'fs' 'httr' 'stringr' 'usethis' 'yaml' See section 'The DESCRIPTION file' in the 'Writing R Extensions' manual. * DONE Status: 1 ERROR See 'C:/Users/myname/Documents/RProjects/kwb.pkgbuild.Rcheck/00check.log' for details. checking package dependencies ... ERROR Namespace dependencies not required: 'fs' 'httr' 'stringr' 'usethis' 'yaml'
This can be done using the function usethis::use_package()
as shown below:
pkg_dependencies <- c('fs', 'httr', 'stringr', 'usethis', 'yaml') sapply(pkg_dependencies, usethis::use_package) ✔ Adding 'fs' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION ● Refer to functions with `fs::fun()` ✔ Adding 'httr' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION ● Refer to functions with `httr::fun()` ✔ Adding 'stringr' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION ● Refer to functions with `stringr::fun()` ✔ Adding 'usethis' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION ● Refer to functions with `usethis::fun()` ✔ Adding 'yaml' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION ● Refer to functions with `yaml::fun()`
Subsequently you should re-click on the Check
button again and it should
finish without errors.
R CMD check results 0 errors | 0 warning | 0 note R CMD check succeeded
Now you are ready for building your R package by clicking on the Install and
Restart
button. A successful installation should finish with Done
as shown
below:
** building package indices ** installing vignettes ** testing if installed package can be loaded * DONE (kwb.pkgbuild) In R CMD INSTALL
Finally you should run pkgdown::build_site()
in order to create an
documentation website for your R package. Running this command will store the
website in the subfolder docs
within your R package.
pkgdown::build_site()
Once you upload your R package to Github this can be easily used as documentation page that you define in the settings page for your R package which is available at:
https://github.com/KWB-R/ kwb.mycoolrpackage
/settings
knitr::include_graphics("images/package_documentation.jpg")
In case you have already a Github repo defined for your R package you can
also automate the process of updating the pkgdown::build_site()
by with the
wrapper function kwb.pkgbuild::use_autopkgdown()
, which:
creates a new branch "gh-pages" where the documentation site is deployed
sets "docs" folder to ".gitignore" (as these files are now build on Travis)
prepares Github Actions by:
creating ".github/workflows/" with kwb.pkgbuild::use_ghactions()
creating an empty "gh-pages" branch with
kwb.pkgbuild::create_empty_branch_ghpages()
kwb.pkgbuild::use_autopkgdown()
Finally to need to go to:
https://github.com/KWB-R/ kwb.mycoolrpackage
/settings
and set the "source" for Github Pages to the branch "gh-pages". After each successful Travis build the documentation website is now also updated!
Add the following code to your website.
For more information on customizing the embed code, read Embedding Snippets.