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Additional installed R packages

cpanfil
7 - Meteor

Do additional installed R packages, installed in our private gallery, persist through an upgrade?

4 REPLIES 4
MarqueeCrew
20 - Arcturus
20 - Arcturus

Additional R packages are loaded to your private library (by default):

 

# Obtain the string of the package(s) to download
pkgs <- '%Question.packages%'
pkg2 <- trim.blanks(unlist(strsplit(pkgs, "\\,")))
if (length(pkg2) > 1) {
  pkgs <- eval(parse(text = paste0("c('", paste(pkg2, collapse = "','"), "')")))
}

# Obtain the user specified directory (which may not be used)
custom_path <- scan(what = character(), sep = "\n", nmax = 1)
%Question.custom.path%

# The set of possible repositories to use
repos <- c("http://cran.revolutionanalytics.com", "http://cran.rstudio.com")
# Select a particular repository
repo <- sample(repos, 1)

# Get the path to the library folder, starting with the default case, then the
# custom case
if ('%Question.default.dir%' == "True") {
  minor_ver <- strsplit(R.Version()$minor, "\\.")[[1]][1]
  R_ver <- paste(R.Version()$major, minor_ver, sep = ".")
  the_path <- paste0(normalizePath("~"), "\\R\\win-library\\", R_ver)
  # Create the user's personal folder if it doesn't already exist
  dir.create(the_path, recursive = TRUE, showWarnings = FALSE)
} else {
  the_path <- gsub("\\\\", "/", custom_path, fixed = TRUE)
}
print(the_path)

# Install the package to the user's private library
transcript <- capture.output(install.packages(pkgs, lib = the_path, repos = repo))

# Write out the results of trying to install the package(s)
write.Alteryx(data.frame(Transcript = transcript))

What I've experienced is that if the library already exists, that you'll need to either DELETE  or RENAME the Alteryx provided package (e.g. when you want a newer version).  When you upgrade, you might have a need to modify the contents of the upgrade libraries.

 

Cheers,


Mark

Alteryx ACE & Top Community Contributor

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cpanfil
7 - Meteor

I'm not sure I fully understand.  This is the part I'm worried about, "When you upgrade, you might have a need to modify the contents of the upgrade libraries."

 

So when I install a completely new package, salesforcer for example.  When I upgrade Alteryx server, is the salesforcer package maintained in the default directory (c:\program files\alteryx\R-3.4.4\library), or will it need to be installed again after the upgrade?

cpanfil
7 - Meteor

Any other insight?  Again, I'm just looking to see if newly installed R packages on to our private gallery, do not get overwritten during an upgrade.  Thanks!

cpanfil
7 - Meteor

Recently upgraded our DEV environment to 2019.1 and the R packages that we installed prior to upgrade were all still present in the /library folder.