The packageSkeleton repository provides a streamlined template for setting up an R package, complete with an integrated Quarto website hosted on GitHub. This skeleton is designed to simplify the often daunting process of creating, maintaining, and distributing an R package, making GitHub an ideal platform for collaboration, version control, and sharing your work. Plus, it’s a great way to showcase your work in a structured and professional manner!
Whether you're an experienced R developer or someone new to the world of package development, this skeleton offers a robust starting point. One of the primary benefits of using this skeleton is that it takes care of much of the setup for you, allowing you to focus on personalizing the package to meet your needs. This includes customizing the package name, adding your own functions, and creating a website to document and showcase your work.
Many developers hesitate to create an R package, thinking their work may not be widely applicable. But creating a package isn't just about building tools for others—it's about building something useful for you. By consolidating functions, data sets, and workflows that you use regularly into a package, you streamline your own work. You may even find that your solutions are valuable to others who work in similar domains.
This package skeleton is designed to encourage that mindset, helping you create something that is immediately useful in your own workflow, while also providing a structure for sharing your work with the broader R community if you choose.
There are a few foundational skills and concepts that will help you get the most out of the package skeleton:
- GitHub Basics: Familiarity with cloning repositories, making commits, and pushing changes is essential for collaborating and hosting your project.
- R and R Package Basics: You’ll need to know the basics of R and understand what an R package is and how it’s structured.
- Quarto Basics: Knowing how to use Quarto to build and customize content (such as vignettes or a website) will help you create documentation and visualizations that enhance your package.
- Package Content: Consider what content would be most useful to include in your package. Here are a few ideas:
- Data Cleaning Functions: Add functions that automate repetitive tasks in your data cleaning workflow.
- Custom Wrappers: Create wrapper functions that simplify or customize functionality from base R or other packages, providing tailored outputs that fit your typical use cases.
- Data Sets: Include any data sets that you frequently work with, making them readily available for analysis or teaching.
- Leveraging Open Source: Don’t hesitate to reuse (with proper attribution) code or ideas from other packages. Open-source is all about sharing and building on the work of others.
To guide you through the process of using this package skeleton, we’ve provided a detailed vignette. This vignette walks through the essential steps for setting up your own R package and associated Quarto website, from cloning the skeleton repo to publishing your customized package and site on GitHub.
By following the steps in the vignette, you’ll be able to:
- Clone the repository and customize it for your own package.
- Set up the Quarto website for documenting your functions, workflows, and data sets.
- Leverage GitHub for version control, collaboration, and distribution of your package.
Start creating your R package today and make your work more efficient, organized, and shareable!