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https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher

Query Search Portals from R
https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher

automatic error-handling error-messages r search-engine search-portals

Last synced: 11 days ago
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Query Search Portals from R

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
---

output: github_document

---



```{r, echo = FALSE}

knitr::opts_chunk$set(

  collapse = TRUE,

  comment = "#>",

  fig.path = "README-"

)

```



# searcher



[![R-CMD-check](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml)

[![CRAN RStudio mirror downloads](https://cranlogs.r-pkg.org/badges/searcher)](https://www.r-pkg.org/pkg/searcher)

[![CRAN\_Status\_Badge](https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/version/searcher)](https://cran.r-project.org/package=searcher)



The goal of `searcher` is to provide a search interface directly inside of _R_.

For example, to look up  `rcpp example numeric vector` 

or `ggplot2 fix axis labels` call one of the `search_*()` functions to

automatically have a web browser open, go to a search site, and type the query. 

By default, the search functions will attempt to search the last error on call 

if no query is specified.



![](https://i.imgur.com/Zq2rg6G.gif)



## Installation



The `searcher` package is available on both 

[CRAN](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=searcher) and 

[GitHub](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher). The 

[CRAN](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=searcher)

version is considered stable while the [GitHub](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher) 

version is in a state of development and may break. 



You can install the stable version of the `searcher` package with:



```r

install.packages("searcher")

```



For the development version, you can opt for:



```r

if(!requireNamespace("remotes")) { install.packages("remotes") }

remotes::install_github("coatless-rpkg/searcher")

```



## Usage



```r

library(searcher)

```



## Search Terms



The `search_*()` functions can be used to search a query directly from _R_ on

major search engines, programming help websites, and code repositories. The following search

platforms are supported: [Google](https://www.google.com), [Bing](https://www.bing.com/),

[DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/), [Startpage](https://www.startpage.com/en/),

Ecosia, [rseek](https://rseek.org/), Qwant, X (formerly Twitter), [StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/), 

[RStudio Community](https://community.rstudio.com/search), 

[GitHub](https://github.com/search), [grep.app](https://grep.app/), 

and [BitBucket](https://bitbucket.org/product/).

By default, an appropriate suffix for each platform that ensures relevant 

results to _R_ is appended to all queries. This behavior can be disabled by 

using `rlang = FALSE`.



```r

# Searching R project on major search engines

search_google("R project")

search_bing("R project")

search_ecosia("R project")

search_rseek("R project")

search_qwant("R project")

search_duckduckgo("R project")                           # or search_ddg(...)

search_startpage("R project")                            # or search_sp(...)



# Searching Twitter to find out about machine learning for R and in general

search_twitter("machine learning")

search_twitter("machine learning", rlang = FALSE)



# Searching for linear regression questions for R and in general

search_stackoverflow("linear regression")

search_stackoverflow("linear regression", rlang = FALSE) # or search_so(...)



# Searching RStudio Community for tips

search_rstudio_community("tips")

search_rstudio_community("tips", rlang = FALSE)          # or search_rscom(...)



# Searching GitHub code for graphs in R and other languages

search_grep("graph")

search_grep("graph", rlang = FALSE)



# Searching GitHub Issues for maps in R and other languages

search_github("maps")

search_github("maps", rlang = FALSE)                     # or search_gh(...)



# Searching BitBucket for assertions in R and other languages

search_bitbucket("assertions")

search_bitbucket("assertions", rlang = FALSE)            # or search_bb(...)

```



## Search Errors



`searcher` offers preliminary support for automatically or manually 

searching errors that are generated in _R_. For more robust error search

support and to also search warning messages, please use the

[`errorist`](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/errorist) package.



### Automatically 



Searching the last error automatically is possible by registering a function

as _R_'s error handler via either `searcher(site="")` or one of the `search_*()`

functions.  Thus, when an error occurs, this function will automatically be called. This 

triggers a new browser window to open with the error term listed in verbatim.



```r

# Using the generic search error handler

options(error = searcher("google"))



# Directly specify the search function

options(error = search_github)

options(error = search_google)

```



### Manually



Alternatively, these functions can also be used manually so that the default

error dispatch is preserved. In the manual case, you will have to explicitly

call the search function. After that, a browser window will open with

the last error message as the search query on the desired search portal.



```r

search_google()

search_bing()

search_ecosia()

search_rseek()

search_qwant()

search_twitter()

search_grep()

search_duckduckgo()        # or search_ddg()

search_startpage()         # or search_sp()

search_stackoverflow()     # or search_so()

search_rstudio_community() # or search_rscom()

search_github()            # or search_gh()

search_bitbucket()         # or search_bb()

```



## Package Customizations



The ability to customize different operations in `searcher` is possible by

setting values in [`options()`](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/RHOME/library/base/html/options.html)

within [`~/.Rprofile`](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/base/html/Startup.html).

Presently, the following options are available:



- `searcher.launch_delay`: Amount of time between launching the web browser

  from when the command was issued. Default is `0.5` seconds.

- `searcher.use_rstudio_viewer`: Display search results in the RStudio

   viewer pane instead of a web browser. Default is `FALSE`.

- `searcher.default_keyword`: Suffix keyword to focus search results

  between either `"base"` or `"tidyverse"`. Default is `"base"`.



To set one of these options, please create the `.Rprofile` by typing into _R_:



```r

file.edit("~/.Rprofile")

```



From there, add:



```r

.First = function() {

  options(

    searcher.launch_delay       = 0,

    searcher.use_rstudio_viewer = FALSE,

    searcher.default_keyword    = "tidyverse"

    ## Additional options.

  )

}

```



## Motivation



The idea for `searcher` began as a project to automatically search errors and

warnings that occurred while working with _R_ after a conversation 

among [Dirk Eddelbuettel](http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com), 

[Barry Rowlingson](http://barry.rowlingson.com), and myself. However, there was 

no search interface that allowed querying directly from _R_ outside of the built-in [`utils::RSiteSearch()`](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/utils/html/RSiteSearch.html),

which only queries , and the

[`sos`](https://cran.r-project.org/package=sos) 

package, which queries an off-site user premade database. Both of these options

were focused solely on querying _R_ documentation made available by packages.

Given the nature of errors generally being _undocumented_, neither of these

approaches could be used. Thus, `searcher` was unintentionally born to

provide a means for [`errorist`](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/errorist), which

contains a robust way to automatically searching errors and warnings.



### Special Thanks



- [Dirk Eddelbuettel](http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com) for starting the discussion

  on [XKCD Comic 1185: Ineffective Sorts](https://xkcd.com/1185/).

- [Barry Rowlingson](http://barry.rowlingson.com) for remarks about functionality.



### Publicity



On the `#rstats`-twitter verse (c.f. `https://twitter.com/search?q=%23rstats`), `searcher` has been positively received by

community members.



> R package "searcher" that automatically searches Stackoverflow for error that

> you just saw in the console. Cool package, especially for those who learn R :)

> https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher ... #r #rlang #rstats #rstudio

>

> --- Paweł Przytuła 

> March 23th, 2019. ~292 Retweets and 876 likes (Note, URL updated to new repository location.)



> Did you know, using "searcher" package, you could automatically to

> search stackoverflow, google, GitHub and many more sites for errors,

> packages or topics. #rstats

>

> --- Shakirah Nakalungi (c.f. `https://twitter.com/cynthia_kyra`) June 29th, 2019, when she was Rotating Curator for the "We are R-Ladies" twitter account (c.f. `https://twitter.com/WeAreRLadies/status/1144921174251581440`)

> ~144 Retweets and 544 likes



Please let us know via an [issue ticket](https://github.com/coatless-rpkg/searcher/issues/new)

about how you are using `searcher`.



## License



GPL (>= 2)