Better Framework For Data Byte/Recipe Package Installation

[njlyon0]

Problem

• Currently each data byte/recipe uses library to invoke the R packages necessary for each
• However, this means that you cannot render the website if you are missing any of those R packages
• Particularly a problem for non-CRAN packages because it is not immediately obvious how to install them
• Discovered when making the edits included in this pull request

Solution(s)

• Use librarian::shelf to install/load packages
  • Pros: handles CRAN / GitHub / Bioconductor packages without special tweaks; installs packages only when necessary, otherwise just attaches them (functionally is library + install.packages + remotes::install_github wrapped into one)
  • Cons: does still require everyone to install librarian
• Build install.packages and remotes::install_github calls into every .qmd that references a package
  • Pros: explicit about package source and uses familiar tools
  • Cons: installation of every package on every use of quarto render will make rendering the website take a long time as we add more data bytes/recipes
• Some other solution?...

[cullen-molitor]

I have been going with the following lately which I rather like:

if (!require(librarian, quietly = T)){
  install.packages('librarian')
}

librarian::shelf(
  tidyverse,
  here,
  quiet = T
) 

[camilavargasp]

Run into this issue when rendering the website, and I did not have ggsvg installed. I updated the ggsvg.qmd with Cullen's suggestion. The only thing to remember is that if the package is being installed from GitHub you need to add the user name and package name.

The code looks like this

# load libraries
if (!require(librarian, quietly = T)){
  install.packages('librarian')
}

librarian::shelf(
  tidyverse,
  here,
  palmerpenguins,
  coolbutuseless/ggsvg,
  quiet = T
)