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https://github.com/binder-examples/r

Using R with Jupyter / RStudio on Binder
https://github.com/binder-examples/r

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Using R with Jupyter / RStudio on Binder

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README 

        
# Specifying an R environment with a runtime.txt file



Jupyter+R: [![Binder](http://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg)](http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?filepath=index.ipynb)



RStudio: [![Binder](http://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg)](http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?urlpath=rstudio)



RShiny: [![Binder](http://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg)](http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?urlpath=shiny/bus-dashboard/)



Binder supports using R and RStudio, with libraries pinned to a specific

snapshot on [packagemanager.rstudio.com](https://packagemanager.rstudio.com/client/#/).



### Requirements and suggestions



You need to have a `runtime.txt` file that is formatted like:



```

r----


```



where `` is a version of R (like 4.1, 4.0, etc) you want to use,

and `--
` is the date for [a snapshot](https://packagemanager.rstudio.com/client/#/repos/1/overview)

from [packagemanager.rstudio.com](https://packagemanager.rstudio.com) that will

be used for installing your R packages.



Try using a date newer than `2022-01-01`, as you'll get faster

package installs thanks to [binary packages](https://www.rstudio.com/blog/package-manager-v1-1-no-interruptions/)

from rstudio.packagemanager.com!



To install R libraries, add `install.package("")` calls to

`install.R`. If you want to pin to a specific version of the library, you

can also do `devtools::install_version("", "")`.



For some R packages, you might need to install system packages via apt - you can

do so by writing out a list of apt package names in `apt.txt`. You can find

the list of such packages in the page for your package at

[packagemanager.rstudio.com](https://packagemanager.rstudio.com/client/#/). Make sure

to select "Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic)" in the dropdown on the top right.



Both [RStudio](https://www.rstudio.com/) and [IRKernel](https://irkernel.github.io/)

are installed by default, so you can use either the Jupyter notebook interface or

the RStudio interface.



This repository also contains an example of a [Shiny app](https://github.com/binder-examples/r/tree/master/bus-dashboard).



## Alternatives



There are many ways to use R in mybinder.org!



**[rocker/binder](https://github.com/rocker-org/binder/)** - this uses a base image from the R community's

excellent [rocker project](https://www.rocker-project.org/) - you get a lot of curated base

packages, faster binary package installs as well as ability to pin to a specific version of R (>4.0).



**[r-conda](https://github.com/binder-examples/r-conda)** - mybinder.org also

supports using the [conda](https://conda.io) package manager to manage R and R packages.

This gives you access to specific R versions as well as fast installs of R

packages available in [conda-forge](https://conda-forge.org/)



Another alternative is to use the [holepunch package for R](https://karthik.github.io/holepunch/articles/getting_started.html).



### URL addresses for RStudio and Shiny environments



The Binder repository can be used to allow anyone to access an RStudio environment containing our code and data right

in their web browser. It also allows hosting a Shiny app. For those purposes, we have to append a bit of text to the

URL of our Binder repository, which we can find out at [mybinder.org](https://mybinder.org/) when we enter

the URL of our original repository from GitHub or Figshare, etc.



- For the RStudio environment, we must add the following at the end of the URL: `?urlpath=rstudio`



  - Example: http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?urlpath=rstudio



- For the Shiny app environment, we must add the following at the end of the URL: `?urlpath=shiny`. In this case, we

also have to note that if the Shiny app files are located in a folder, this folder should be specified in the URL,

after a slash. We would then also have to put in a trailing slash at the end of the URL, and to avoid spaces in the

name of the repository, placing instead a hyphen (the reason is that spaces are converted to `%20`).



  - Example: http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?urlpath=shiny/bus-dashboard/