[R] Writing Rcmdr Plugins

[Pfaff, Bernhard Dr.]

Dear Irina,

though you asked explicitly for writing a RCommander-plugin package; I
just wanted to add that the former approach of tailor-making menues in
the Commander still works. That is, just copy your R file with the
tcl/tk functions into the /etc directory of the RCommander and include
your menu structure into the file "Rcmdr-menus.txt"

Best,
Bernhard

>
>Dear Irina,
>
>
>On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Irina Ursachi
><irina.ursachi at itwm.fraunhofer.de> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I am trying to write a plugin for the RCommander and having troubles
>> understanding how to actually do that. I have read Mr. Fox's tutorial
>> about writing Rcmdr plugins and though.... it seems to me that some
>> steps are missing.  I would like to know, whether there are some
>> Commands which generate a plugin package out of a given 
>library. Or do
>> we just have to attach the .First.lib function and the 
>menus.txt data to
>> the library? Out of the RcmdrPlugin.TeachingDemos example I 
>could see,
>> that one of the differences between the plugin and the 
>library, is the
>> fact that the plugin package also contains the "etc" 
>subdirectory... so
>> I suppose my plugin package should contain one too, right?
>> The way I was trying to build my plugin package (and it didn't work )
>> was: I installed Rcmdr, the latest version locally, in a folder named
>> "Rlib". There is where I also installed my library and 
>trying to use the
>> "require" command to load it into R Commander. What I don't 
>understand,
>> is how to build the RcmdrPlugin.*?
>> I would really appreciate, if somebody could help me with 
>that, or maybe
>> just recommend me a tutorial.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Irina Ursachi.
>>
>
>In general, you can read the R-manuals (in particular, the "Writing R
>Extensions" one) to make sure that you have all of absolutely
>necessary components (a DESCRIPTION, an /R directory, all of the
>required documentation, etc.)
>
>That being said, the basic format of an RcmdrPlugin is:
>
>The /R directory:  this is where you put all of the Tcl/Tk functions
>for your menus that you want to add.  In addition, any extra functions
>that you wrote that are new should go in here.  You will need in here
>the .First.lib function that John mentioned in his article, in the
>format that he suggested.
>
>The /man directory:  this has all of the .Rd help files.   One of
>these files will likely be titled something like
>"RcmdrPlugin.foo-internal.Rd".  This is where you will put aliases to
>many of the functions that are 'internal' in the sense that they are
>not to be called by the user.
>
>The /inst directory:  in here you will need to put a file "menus.txt".
> John Fox's article gives you lots of details about how to set it up
>correctly.  You only need to include lines for the menus that you are
>specifically adding.  And now with Rcmdr_1.4-0, you can include lines
>for menus that you prefer _not_ to appear (this really helps with
>making the menus less cluttered when multiple plugins are loaded).
>
>The /data directory: optional.  Do you want to include data 
>with your plugin?
>
>Your DESCRIPTION file should be set up as the article recommends, with
>the DEPENDS argument showing at least Rcmdr 1.3.0 (and you would be
>advised to go with Rcmdr 1.4.0).  See the article about the details of
>DESCRIPTION.
>
>There are a lot more things that you can do;  please see the manuals
>for details.  But the above has the bare essentials for a RcmdrPlugin
>(I don't believe that I am forgetting anything.)
>
>Once you have those essential parts, then the RcmdrPlugin is built and
>installed in exactly the same way as any other R package (again, see
>the manuals....  I see an "R CMD build" in your future...  :-).  There
>are many, many messages on the R-help archive to help you for your
>operating system, and many people have written online tutorials.
>
>Perhaps the best advice is to download the source code
>RcmdrPlugin.xxxxx.tar.gz from CRAN (e.g. RcmdrPlugin.IPSUR), extract
>the archive, and take a look at how other people have done it.
>
>I hope that this helps, and good luck!  :-)
>
>Jay
>
>
>
>
>***************************************************
>G. Jay Kerns, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor
>Department of Mathematics & Statistics
>Youngstown State University
>Youngstown, OH 44555-0002 USA
>Office: 1035 Cushwa Hall
>Phone: (330) 941-3310 Office (voice mail)
>-3302 Department
>-3170 FAX
>E-mail: gkerns at ysu.edu
>http://www.cc.ysu.edu/~gjkerns/
>
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>
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