The datapackager.yml file.

The structure of a correctly formatted datapackager.yml file is shown below:

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects: cars_over_20
  render_root:
    tmp: '790341'

YAML config file properties.

The main section of the file is the configuration: section.

It has three properties:

• files:

The files (R or Rmd) to be processed by DataPackageR. They are processed in the order shown. Users running multi-script workflows with dependencies between the scripts need to ensure the files are processed in the correct order. Here subsetCars.Rmd is the only file to process. The name is transformed to an absolute path within the package.

Each file itself has just one property:

• enabled:

A logical yes, no flag indicating whether the file should be rendered during the build, or whether it should be skipped.

This is useful for ‘turning off’ long running processing tasks if they have not changed. Disabling processing of a file will not overwrite existing documentation or data objects created during previous builds.

• objects:

The names of the data objects created by the processing files, to be stored in the package. These names are compared against the objects created in the render environment by each file. The names must match.

• render_root:

The directory where the Rmd or R files will be rendered which will default to a randomly named subdirectory given by tempdir(). This render location will allow workflows that use multiple scripts, and will create file system artifacts to function correctly by simply writing to and reading from the working directory.

Editing the YAML config file.

The structure of the YAML is simple enough to understand but complex enough that it can be challenging to edit manually.

DataPackageR provides a number of API calls to construct, read, modify, and write the yaml config file.

# Note this is done by the datapackage_skeleton.
# The user does not usually need to call
# construct_yml_config()
yml <- DataPackageR::construct_yml_config(
  code = "subsetCars.Rmd",
  data = "cars_over_20"
  )

# returns an r object representation of
# the config file.
mtcars20_config <- yml_find(
  file.path(tempdir(),"mtcars20")
)

  yml_list_objects(yml)

cars_over_20

  yml_list_files(yml)

subsetCars.Rmd

yml_disabled <- yml_disable_compile(
    yml,
    filenames = "subsetCars.Rmd"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: no
  objects: cars_over_20
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_enabled <- yml_enable_compile(
    yml,
    filenames = "subsetCars.Rmd"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects: cars_over_20
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_twofiles <- yml_add_files(
    yml,
    filenames = "anotherFile.Rmd"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
    anotherFile.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects: cars_over_20
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_twoobj <- yml_add_objects(
    yml_twofiles,
    objects = "another_object"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
    anotherFile.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects:
  - cars_over_20
  - another_object
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_twoobj <- yml_remove_files(
    yml_twoobj,
    filenames = "anotherFile.Rmd"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects:
  - cars_over_20
  - another_object
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_oneobj <- yml_remove_objects(
    yml_twoobj,
    objects = "another_object"
)

configuration:
  files:
    subsetCars.Rmd:
      enabled: yes
  objects: cars_over_20
  render_root:
    tmp: '87953'

yml_write(yml_oneobj, path = "path_to_package")