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https://github.com/BroVic/RQDAassist

Helpers for RQDA
https://github.com/BroVic/RQDAassist

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Helpers for RQDA

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
---

output: github_document

---



```{r, include = FALSE}

knitr::opts_chunk$set(

  collapse = TRUE,

  comment = "#>",

  fig.path = "man/figures/README-",

  out.width = "100%",

  eval = FALSE

)

```



# RQDAassist



[![R-CMD-check](https://github.com/BroVic/RQDAassist/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check-v2.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/BroVic/RQDAassist/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check-2.yaml)



{[RQDA](http://rqda.r-forge.r-project.org/)}, a powerful computer-aided qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) package, can be slightly challenging to install. This is particularly so for researchers who are not well-versed in managing R's tool sets and software extensions.



Upon the release of R 4.0, {RQDA} was archived due to various changes in the dependency ecosystem. The package remains useful to many but installing it through the regular pathway i.e. `install.packages` will not be available until the issues that led to its archiving are resolved.



This package was inspired by an [initial script](https://gist.github.com/BroVic/7771e1e86df35f6410a3f586ea1ef6c6) that was written to provide installation help to RQDA users who still depend on it for their work.



## Installation

For obvious reasons, this package cannot be published on CRAN. It can be installed from [GitHub](https://github.com/BroVic/RQDAassist) with:



```{r install-main}

# install.packages("remotes")

remotes::install_github("BroVic/RQDAassist")

```



## Usage

### Installing RQDA

To install {RQDA}, simply run this line of code:



```{r install-rqda}

RQDAassist::install()

```



#### Binary install



For the default installation, two of the {RQDA} dependencies, {igraph} and {RGtk2}, will be installed as binaries; the former is obtained from CRAN while the latter comes from [Togaware](https://rattle.togaware.com/), creators of the {Rattle} package. The rest will be built from their respective source packages.



#### Source install

A source installation could be the choice if the user cannot (or does not want to) install the binary from Togaware. Note that for {RGtk2}, this will take quite a while; when the installation gets to this point,



    * byte-compile and prepare package for lazy loading



it may appear as if the process is frozen. Kindly wait and **do not interrupt the program at this point**.



#### R and Rtools requirement

Since the introduction of [UCRT](https://blog.r-project.org/2021/12/07/upcoming-changes-in-r-4.2-on-windows/)-based R builds (starting from R 4.2) the RQDA dependencies cannot be built with the current R and Rtools42 (on Windows). Only R versions 4.0 to 4.1 are compatible; when these are not found on the system, `RQDAassist::install` will attempt to download R 4.1.3 from CRAN as well as Rtools40. This, however, will only work properly in interactive R sessions because of the need for the user to confirm installation permissions via the Windows SmartScreen technology.



### Additional functionality

Although this package is useful for installing {RQDA}, there are other functions that exist to make life easier when working with {RQDA} projects. For more details, kindly consult the documentation via `help(package = "RQDAassist")` for an overview of the available functions.



## Troubleshooting

For the RQDA installation, several steps are involved and it's not unusual for it to fail for a number of reasons e.g. when there is poor internet access. To better identify failure points, the user can apply additional verbosity to the installation



```{r verbose}

RQDAassist::install(verbose = TRUE)

```



A lot of effort has been put into providing informative output when things do go wrong.



## Contributions/Feedback

If you run into problems, kindly post an issue and expect a quick response. Feature requests and contributions are also welcome.