[R-pkg-devel] Suggests with non-CRAN packages

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/01/2024 10:53 a.m., Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> 
> On 10 January 2024 at 16:25, Uwe Ligges wrote:
> |
> |
> | On 10.01.2024 15:35, Josiah Parry wrote:
> | > Thanks, all. As it goes, the package submission failed. The package that
> | > is suggested is available at https://r.esri.com/bin/
> | > <https://r.esri.com/bin/> and as such provided `https://r.esri.com
> | > <https://r.esri.com>` as the url in `Additional_repositories`.
> |
> | There is no
> |
> | https://r.esri.com/src
> |
> | hence it is obviously not a standard repository.
> 
> And how to set one up is described very patiently over ten pages in
> 
>     Hosting Data Packages via drat: A Case Study with Hurricane Exposure Data
> 
> at
> 
>     https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2017/RJ-2017-026/index.html

And for the impatient, see the drat "Quick Start" instructions at

   https://github.com/eddelbuettel/drat

They work really well!  Thanks Dirk!

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> which does
> 
>     Abstract Data-only packages offer a way to provide extended functionality
>     for other R users. However, such packages can be large enough to exceed
>     the package size limit (5 megabytes) for the Comprehen sive R Archive
>     Network (CRAN). As an alternative, large data packages can be posted to
>     additional repostiories beyond CRAN itself in a way that allows smaller
>     code packages on CRAN to access and use the data. The drat package
>     facilitates creation and use of such alternative repositories and makes it
>     particularly simple to host them via GitHub. CRAN packages can draw on
>     packages posted to drat repositories through the use of the
>     ‘Additonal_repositories’ field in the DESCRIPTION file. This paper
>     describes how R users can create a suite of coordinated packages, in which
>     larger data packages are hosted in an alternative repository created with
>     drat, while a smaller code package that interacts with this data is
>     created that can be submitted to CRAN.
> 
> for the use case of a 'too large for CRAN' suggested data package
> 
> | > The request was to remove the additional repositories and provide
> | > instructions for package installation in the Description field. This
> | > package, arcgisbinding, is used in one line of the entire package
> | > https://github.com/R-ArcGIS/arcgisutils/blob/64093dc1a42fa28010cd45bb6ae8b8c57835cb40/R/arc-auth.R#L123 <https://github.com/R-ArcGIS/arcgisutils/blob/64093dc1a42fa28010cd45bb6ae8b8c57835cb40/R/arc-auth.R#L123> to extract an authorization token. It is provided for compatibility with a semi-closed-source R package. The installation instructions for which are....lengthy (https://r.esri.com/r-bridge-site/arcgisbinding/installing-arcgisbinding.html <https://r.esri.com/r-bridge-site/arcgisbinding/installing-arcgisbinding.html>) and /only /available as a windows binary. Providing an explicit call out for installation in the "Description" field of the DESCRIPTION feels like it is co-opting the Description to describe the installation process for a function that I anticipate /very few /people to use.
> |
> | So you can either remove the need for that package or say something like
> | ".... and if an authorization token is to be extracted on Windows, the
> | 'arcgisbinding' package is needed that can be installed as explained at
> | <https://r.esri.com>."
> 
> Additional_repositories is great, and you have 134 examples at CRAN:
> 
>> D <- data.table(tools::CRAN_package_db())
>> D[is.na(Additional_repositories)==FALSE, .(Package, Additional_repositories)]
>                    Package                                                Additional_repositories
>                     <char>                                                                 <char>
>    1:            archiDART                                      https://archidart.github.io/drat/
>    2:           aroma.core https://henrikbengtsson.r-universe.dev,\nhttps://r-forge.r-project.org
>    3:             asteRisk                                   https://rafael-ayala.github.io/drat/
>    4:            BayesfMRI                             https://inla.r-inla-download.org/R/testing
>    5:                bigDM                              https://inla.r-inla-download.org/R/stable
>   ---
> 130:    TreatmentPatterns                                           https://ohdsi.github.io/drat
> 131:             TreeDist                                      https://ms609.github.io/packages/
> 132:         triplesmatch                                        https://errickson.net/rrelaxiv/
> 133: USA.state.boundaries                                         https://iembry.gitlab.io/drat/
> 134:                  voi                             https://inla.r-inla-download.org/R/stable/
>>
> 
> Dirk
>