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7.2 Lab

Overview#

In the following exercises, you will:

  • Configure RStudio Workbench to point to RSPM for a single user
  • Install a package from a repository in RSPM
  • Configure RStudio Workbench to point to RSPM globally for all users
  • Publish a project to RStudio Connect that fetches packages from RSPM

Refer to the RSPM Documentation throughout the exercises, specifically the Configuring RStudio Server section.

Task: View CRAN repository setting#

  1. Run the following in a Console in RStudio Workbench:
getOption("repos")

You should see output similar to the following:

                      CRAN 
"https://cran.rstudio.com/" 
attr(,"RStudio")
[1] TRUE
  1. In RStudio Workbench, go to Tools > Global Options > Packages and view the Primary CRAN repository that is currently set.

image

Task: Configure packages for one user#

As an end user, you can configure the RStudio IDE or RStudio Workbench to point to one or more repositories in RSPM.

In this exercise, you will configure projects for one user on your instance of RStudio Workbench to point to the CRAN repository in your RSPM instance.

  1. Navigate to the web interface for your RSPM instance.

  2. Choose the CRAN repository called prod-cran, then click on the Setup tab in the top navigation bar, which will provide instructions for Using Packages Inside RStudio.

image

  1. Copy the Repository URL, which will appear similar to http://{IP-ADDRESS}/{REPO-NAME}/latest

  2. In RStudio Workbench, go to Tools > Global Options > Packages.

  3. Click on the Change button in the Primary CRAN repository setting.

  4. In the Choose Primary Repository dialog, paste the repository URL into the Custom field and click the OK button.

image

Note

You can also click on the Add button in the Packages settings to include a repository as a secondary repository instead of the primary repository.

Task: Install a new package from RSPM#

You can install a new package in RStudio and verify that the new package is being downloaded from the repository in RSPM.

  1. In RStudio Workbench, use the console to install a new package:
install.packages("abind")
  1. In the console logs, verify that the package is being downloaded from the desired repository in RSPM.
trying URL 'http://18.188.222.24:4242/prod-cran/latest/src/contrib/abind_1.4-5.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 21904 bytes (21 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 21 KB
  1. In the RSPM web interface, navigate to the prod-cran repository that you installed the package from, click on the Packages link in the top navigation bar, open the details page for the abind package, and verify that the Monthly Downloads count is greater than one.

image

Task: Configure packages for all users#

As an administrator, you can configure all users and projects to point to one or more repositories in RSPM.

In this exercise, you will configure all users and projects on your instance of RStudio Workbench to point to the CRAN repository in your RSPM instance.

  1. Open the RStudio Workbench configuration file /etc/rstudio/rsession.conf in a text editor.

  2. Add a line similar to the following to the RStudio Workbench configuration file, replacing {RSTUDIO-PM-REPO-URL} with the repository URL for the prod-cran repository in RSPM:

r-cran-repos={RSTUDIO-PM-REPO-URL}
  1. Save the RStudio Workbench configuration file, and restart RStudio Workbench using the following command:
sudo rstudio-server restart

Now, all users and projects will fetch packages from the repository in RSPM that you've specified.

The documentation for Configuring RStudio Server provides more details and describes additional scenarios for configuring RStudio Workbench to point to repositories in RSPM.

Task: Publish to RStudio Connect#

Now that you've configured RStudio Workbench to point to a repository in RSPM, projects that are published to RStudio Connect will fetch packages from RSPM.

  1. Open a project (or create a new project) in RStudio Workbench
  2. Publish the project to RStudio Connect

How can you confirm that the packages are being served from RStudio Package Manager?

  1. View the logs in RStudio Connect for the published asset
  2. View the Monthly Downloads count for a package that is used in your project
  3. View the usage statistics in RStudio Package Manager

Bonus Task: Next steps with app_02#

Previously you tried to deploy app_02 from the course material to RStudio Connect. This failed since the rstudiointernal package was not available. Now you have the tools in place to build a proper solution.

  • Follow the documented steps for Distributing Local Packages to add a new repository that is subscribed to a local source package for rstudiointernal:

  • Create a local source

  • Add local package tar file to source
  • Create a repository

  • Subscribe the repository to the source

  • Get the URL for the new repository from the web interface of RStudio Package Manager.

  • Add the new repository as an additional one in RStudio Workbench under Tools > Global Options > Packages.

  • Try to publish app_02 from before.

  • In case of error, you can re-install the rstudioninternal package from the new repository using 

install.packages("rstudiointernal")

Note that the app still does not work on RStudio Connect? Can you identify the issue?

As an alternative, you could also create a repository based on both CRAN and local source packages following the documented steps for Distributing Local Packages along with CRAN Packages. In that case you would have switched the main repository in RStudio Workbench instead of adding an additional one.

Congratulations on completing the RSPM section of this training course!