18 RStudio project management

18.1 Project types

Empty project, package or shiny web applications

18.2 Project options

18.3 Version control

  • copy the link from a remote repository, when creating a new package
  • git add .
  • git add -m “some commit message”
  • push to remote

18.4 Packrat and package dependencies

Resources:

Most important commands:

  • packrat::init(), initializes an isolated package library for the current project.
  • packrat::snapshot() saves all changes within the packrat project library since the last snapshot.
  • packrat::restore() deletes all changes within the packrat project library since the last snapshot.
  • packrat::bundle() creates a tarball of the project, the packages and its dependencies.
  • packrat::unbundle(bundle = "path//to//the//bundle", where = ".") unbundles (restores) a project within a subdirectory of another (conveniently empty) project.
  • packrat::off() lets you temporarily step out of “packrat mode”, which means, that you will now use your global user library instead of the packrat project library.
  • packrat::on() lets you go back into “packrat mode”.

Collaboration:

  • Initialise a packrat project on github, let everyone clone it and let them then call packrat::restore().

Updated R Version:

  • When you unbundle a project, which was created under an older (or newer) R version, then installed, packrat will warn you and install the older (or newer) R version when calling packrat::snapshot(). This is one among other reasons, why it is easier to work with packrat, while having access to the internet.

18.5 Addins

  1. Task: Structure/separate code into blocks by different lines of lentgh 80 (by default).

    General: Use devtools::install_github("lorenzwalthert/strcode") within your project (to install the strcode package from here). That will enable the following:

    strcode::insert_l1_break() # or strg + c + 1 (shortcut)
#   ____________________________________________________________________________
strcode::insert_l2_break() # or strg + c + 1
##  ............................................................................
strcode::insert_l3_break() # or strg + c + 1
### .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18.6 Miscellaneous

  1. Task: Build a website with rmarkdown.

    General:

    1. Create a github repository with the name <yourusername>.github.io

    2. Create an empty RStudio project synchronized with the github repository

    3. Create a textfile _site.yml and two rmarkdown files index.Rmd and about.Rmd (also include an empty textfile called .nojekyll [this tells GitHub Pages to not process your site with the Jekyll engine])

    _site.yml

    name: "my-website"
navbar:
title: "My Website"
  left:
    - text: "Home"
      href: index.html
    - text: "About"
      href: about.html
output:
  html_document:
    theme: cosmo
    highlight: textmate
output_dir: "."

    output_dir “.” is set to achive that the output htmls are created on the top level of the repository and not within the site folder.

    index.Rmd

    ---
title: "My Website"
---

Hello, Website!

    about.Rmd

    ---
title: "About This Website"
---

More about this website.

    1. Save the files above and call rmarkdown::render_site() or close and reopen RStudio and lock for a build pane within RStudio, which lets you build the side. You should see the output now in the viewer pane

    2. Open the shell and call git add .

    3. Then call commit -m “first build”

    4. Then call git push

    5. You should see the output within the browser under <yourusername>.github.io