[R-pkg-devel] [EXTERNAL] Proper CRAN way - How to handle dependency of java jar file?

[Rainer M Krug]

Thanks Hong - I like that.

I found that package in the tools::R_user_dir() package - us that the one?

Rainer


> On 23 Jun 2020, at 15:07, Hong Ooi <hongooi using microsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> Another possibility, if you want the jar to be dynamic and also have a standard location for it, is to write it to the R config/user dir. This is available via R_user_dir() in R 4.0 (and earlier versions via the backports package). An older alternative that still works is to use the rappdirs package.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: R-package-devel <r-package-devel-bounces using r-project.org> On Behalf Of Rainer M Krug
> Sent: Tuesday, 23 June 2020 10:48 PM
> To: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>
> Cc: R Package Devel <r-package-devel using r-project.org>
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [R-pkg-devel] Proper CRAN way - How to handle dependency of java jar file?
> 
> Thanks Duncan.
> 
>> On 23 Jun 2020, at 14:35, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Your assumption that .jar files are not allowed is wrong:  a number of packages contain them:  rscala, J4R, Rbgs, bartMachine, OpenStreetMap, ...  There's a specific mention about how to include them in the CRAN policy document:
> 
> That’s good to know.
> 
>> 
>> "For Java .class and .jar files, the sources should be in a top-level java directory in the source package (or that directory should explain how they can be obtained)."
> 
> So a tet file in the inst/jar directory giving the link to the GitHub repo would be fine in this case?
> 
>> 
>> If you still decide not to include your .jar file (maybe it is too big, for example),
> 
> 
> I guess it would be stretching it a bit, as the jar file is 8.2 MB, and plantuml has regular continuous updates, so I would prefer to keep it dynamic.
> 
> 
>> then I think your option 1 is unusable for those people who can't write to the library location because of permission problems. (Admin privileges are often necessary to install packages in the main library.)  Generally I think everyone can install packages somewhere, but users do really get confused when they have multiple library locations, possibly each containing a different version of a package.
> 
> So the suggested option would be to have a function, which 
> 1) ask the user to create a directory in the home folder 
> 2) download the jar file into that directory or, when no permission is granted, into the tmpdir()
> 
> Thanks, no major changes necessary for that,
> 
> Rainer
> 
> 
>> 
>> Duncan Murdoch
>> 
>> On 23/06/2020 8:18 a.m., Rainer M Krug wrote:
>>> Hi
>>> I have a package called `plantuml` (https://github.com/rkrug/plantuml) which converts plantuml code to UML graphs. It uses for this the java program https://plantuml.com which is Open Source.
>>> As it is not allowed to distribute a binary with an R package, I use the approach of a function which downloads the jar file into the directory `system.file("jar/plantuml.jar", package = "plantuml”)`.
>>> This works nicely, and at the moment, the function is called automatically before the plantuml.jar is used.
>>> Now I would like to submit the package to CRAN. I can’t find the guidelines anymore, so I am asking here:
>>> What is the appropriate way of handling this?
>>> I can think of a at least two ways of making it obvious to the user, that a binary is downloaded:
>>> 1) if the file plantuml.jar is not present, ask the user to run the function `updatePlantumlJar()` which downloads the jar to the original location in the package directory
>>> 2) tell the user to download the file manually and to put it somewhere, where the package will find it
>>> I would prefer the first version, as the plantuml.jar would be in the package directory, where usually nobody but the package is doing stuff.
>>> Any suggestions on how I could make this “CRAN conform”?
>>> Thanks a lot,
>>> Rainer
>>> --
>>> Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
>>> Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-0066
>>> Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
>>> University of Zürich
>>> Office Y34-J-74
>>> Winterthurerstrasse 190
>>> 8075 Zürich
>>> Switzerland
>>> Office:	+41 (0)44 635 47 64
>>> Cell:       	+41 (0)78 630 66 57
>>> email:      Rainer.Krug using uzh.ch
>>> 		Rainer using krugs.de
>>> Skype:     RMkrug
>>> PGP: 0x0F52F982
>>> --
>>> Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
>>> Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-0066
>>> Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
>>> University of Zürich
>>> Office Y34-J-74
>>> Winterthurerstrasse 190
>>> 8075 Zürich
>>> Switzerland
>>> Office:	+41 (0)44 635 47 64
>>> Cell:       	+41 (0)78 630 66 57
>>> email:      Rainer.Krug using uzh.ch
>>> 		Rainer using krugs.de
>>> Skype:     RMkrug
>>> PGP: 0x0F52F982
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>> 
> 
> --
> Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
> 
> Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-0066
> 
> Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
> University of Zürich
> Office Y34-J-74
> Winterthurerstrasse 190
> 8075 Zürich
> Switzerland
> 
> Office:	+41 (0)44 635 47 64
> Cell:       	+41 (0)78 630 66 57
> email:      Rainer.Krug using uzh.ch
> 		Rainer using krugs.de
> Skype:     RMkrug
> 
> PGP: 0x0F52F982
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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--
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-0066

Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
University of Zürich
Office Y34-J-74
Winterthurerstrasse 190
8075 Zürich
Switzerland

Office:	+41 (0)44 635 47 64
Cell:       	+41 (0)78 630 66 57
email:      Rainer.Krug using uzh.ch
		Rainer using krugs.de
Skype:     RMkrug

PGP: 0x0F52F982




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